# Tree stand on private property??? Question.



## cgs500 (Jan 11, 2008)

Hello all. I came across this site while seeing what I could do about people putting stands up on my property so this is my first post. I hunt my property but I stay on one side of a ravine most of the time. Today while cutting firewood I found a ladder stand on the far side of the ravine for a second time. 

My question is this. Should I continue to remove them and either sell or use them myself or should I try to find out who is putting them up? I could see if it was almost on the line or at a corner but the rear line is flagged with survey ribbon every 50 feet and both corners newly surveyed with survey ribbon and capped pins. The stands have been 50-75 feet in on my land. 

I haven't had a problem until this year, I think some folks from Cleveland are hunting the property behind me and they are coming across from there. The rear line DOES NOT have posted signs yet but will by next season.

Thanks for any input, I am in Ashtabula County.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Take the stand home, and leave a note saying how they can contact you to get it back. If it was an honest mistake, they'll call and they'll understand where the line is from now on. If it wasn't, you've got yourself a new stand.


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## Wannabitawerm (Apr 13, 2004)

M.Magis said:


> Take the stand home, and leave a note saying how they can contact you to get it back. If it was an honest mistake, they'll call and they'll understand where the line is from now on. If it wasn't, you've got yourself a new stand.


I agree. Makes perfect sense to me.


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## wannabe (Dec 24, 2007)

I would say most people don't have the jewels to put a stand up on another persons property. Hopefully they just messed up.


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## JLeo (Jan 9, 2007)

M.Magis said:


> Take the stand home, and leave a note saying how they can contact you to get it back. If it was an honest mistake, they'll call and they'll understand where the line is from now on. If it wasn't, you've got yourself a new stand.


Write the note on a piece of wood or something that wont blow away or be damaged from weather to make sure they get the note.


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## Fishstix (Aug 16, 2005)

I agree with M.Magis. That is a very good idea. If they do contact you, it will give you an opportunity to explain where the property line is.


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## bigjohn513 (Apr 6, 2004)

magis does the same thing we do...found 3 last year and left 3 notes...2 came to get them...and we have one new stand, the 2 that came were close to the line...the one that didn't was way inside the property
None were found this year...lol


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## cgs500 (Jan 11, 2008)

I am going to leave a note, the contact is going to be the Sheriff's Dept. I called the Sheriff and told them if someone contacts them about the stand I have it. I think this will go along way in helping the folks who put the stand up notice a marked property line. Plus I will have a offical record should it happen again.

Is this going a little far?


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Yep, I agree the note left for them would be your best option. If it was an honest mistake the guy can recover his stand and you can rest knowing that you notified him. If he does not contact you then you can assume he knew he was in the wrong and he would know that you, the owner, took the stand. Either way that would seem to be the best way of preventing it from continuing. If it was just an honest mistake the guy may be fuming and telling his buddies he had a stand stolen on property which he had permission to hunt on never knowing what really happened. If he was knowingly trespassing he may be ignorant enough to think that another trespasser stole it.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

cgs500 said:


> I am going to leave a note, the contact is going to be the Sheriff's Dept. I called the Sheriff and told them if someone contacts them about the stand I have it. I think this will go along way in helping the folks who put the stand up notice a marked property line. Plus I will have a offical record should it happen again.
> 
> Is this going a little far?


That depends on how sure you are that they knew they were trespassing. If I KNEW that they were doing it on purpose, I would do the same thing. Particularly if I'd caught them before. If there was a chance it was an honest mistake, I'd leave the law out of it. Really no need.


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## cgs500 (Jan 11, 2008)

I should add that while I haven't had stands on my property in the past years, I have told a few people hunting on the ground at the edge of my field and woods they are not permitted. This is 600 feet from the rear line, close to were I typically hunt. I, while not physically showing them the rear line, clearly explained the rear line and from the stand positions you can't miss the survey ribbons. I can't be sure that they are the same folks though.


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## GO FISH (Aug 13, 2004)

Why not post it,I assumed in your first post that this was some new property, and this just started. Now you say you have caught people ther before and explained to them where the line is. If it was posted and you found the stands, we could assume it was not by accident, that the people are there.


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## chase845 (Nov 2, 2005)

Leave a BIG note. But also leave it standing so you can hunt out of it.


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## JLeo (Jan 9, 2007)

M.Magis said:


> That depends on how sure you are that they knew they were trespassing. If I KNEW that they were doing it on purpose, I would do the same thing. Particularly if I'd caught them before. If there was a chance it was an honest mistake, I'd leave the law out of it. Really no need.


I agree 100%


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## jmenchhofer (Jan 12, 2007)

This reminds me of something that happened to me on some relatives' property 10 or 12 years ago. I had shot a deer and was blood trailing it with my cousin when some kid on a four wheeler came up and asked if we needed any help. He proceeded to help by stepping all over the trail, but that's beside the point. Turns out he had seen the same deer while sitting in a ladder stand overlooking a salt block at the other end of the same property, right along the river. When I asked him if he had stopped up at the house and asked for permission to hunt, he said that he "was going to do that". We ended up recovering the deer, and my season was over.

Early the next season, I planned to hang a stand in a bottleneck area in the river bottoms. I arrived in the area where I wanted to put my stand and found a portable stand already hanging there. After checking with my cousins to make none of them had put the stand there, I took it down dropped it off at the farm in case anyone came looking. No one did, but several weeks later, there was a paragraph in the local paper indicating that the kid on the four wheeler had reported the theft of the tree stand that I took down (on property that I feel he was fully aware that he did not belong on). I called the Sheriff's Dept. and told them where the stand was, and I ended up turning it over to the Game Warden, who was going to return it to the owner and give him a lecture about hunting without permission. That was the last I heard of that situation. That guy's nerve really amazed me at the time. It's one thing to hunt on a property without permission, but losing a stand on the property and reporting it to the law is ridiculous!


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## bulafisherman (Apr 11, 2004)

Iam also here in ashtabula co east of jefferson by the airport,I ran across a treestand just across the property line from where I hunt at and saw someone had posted a huge sign under it simply stating that it was on private property and to please remove it, dont know if it was ever removed as I dont normally hunt to close to that property line,I have known people to just claim stands that where placed on their property to, guess it depends on the individual.


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## Net (Apr 10, 2004)

I own an irregular 12 acre woodlot and I would never expect the average joe to look for or understand all the survey pins on my property. If trespassing becomes a problem -- post it.


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