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Down 1 camera and a tree stand

3K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  seokfisherman 
#1 ·
So about a month ago I went to where I left a tree stand last fall and set up my trail cam. Went back today to pull the card to look at the pics and about 1/2 way up the mountain I noticed that the forest service and conducted a controlled burn. I has hoping and praying they only burned close to the road, but when I made it up to where my stand a cam is it was burned over...My cam was just a puddle of melted plastic on the ground and my stand is ok except I'll have to replace the seat and straps. Somehow the fire only got near it but not close enough to burn it..They used to put an announcement in the paper and radio when they were going to do a controlled burn....Man, that's a good way to mess up an otherwise good day!!!
 
#4 ·
Man, Howard, I hate to hear that. I feel for ya, those trail cams are not cheap and neither are the deer stands. Hunters like yourself and my hubby put alotta hard work, sweat and miles of walking into picking out a good place to put those things and hours of studying the habits of the animals to make for a successful hunt. To have something like that happen is tragic. Would be nice if some how the county/state or what ever would compensate for your loss because of their neglence to post notice. I think I would look into that. Whats the worst they can to.... say no? Nothin ventured, nothin gained. Hope you are able to salvage the stand for future use.
 
#5 ·
I'm going to ask if there is anything the forest service can do but, I REALLY doubt it because it's a national forest and legally you are not allowed to leave ANYTHING in the forest when you leave. I assume this mainly applies to litter, junk, etc...but since it's written that way, I say they have a loop-hole.

And lesson learned: Don't put my cams up until the fall burn restrictions kick in.


I've had a couple cams stolen to. Year before last my cam wasn't stolen but they did use it as their own. They thought they were being sneaky by swapping out the memory cards hoping I wouldn't notice but, the ones they used were the same color as mine but a different brand.
 
#6 ·
I leave stands out in my area year round and so far have been lucky and not had anything stolen. The only damage i've had to any cameras have been bears trying to tear them off the trees LOL! All of my stands are in places that if someone re-locates them they will earn it LOL!
 
#8 ·
I have had only one stand stolen and it wasn't really stolen. It was a ladder stand and someone decided that it was not in the best location i guess because they moved it about 50yds from where I had it. It was on a fence line and they put it back on the same fence line so I didnt know it was moved until after the sun came up. I couldnt figure why everything looked out of place. But by 8am I had a deer on the ground so i didnt put it back. Its still where they put it.

I hate to hear that you trail cam got BBQd makes me wonder if the one I put out last week is still there. I have been looking at the lock boxes that they sell for them I think I will go ahead and by one. My trail cams are on private land but sometimes the card gets taken. I think its someone making sure that there is no pic of them trasspassing.
 
#9 ·
The local arsonist set fire to our deer lease during the last part of bow season this January. Several fire departments responded to put the fire out. Luckily it didn't burn any stands or cameras. Sure messed up the hunting for the last few days of season. Had I been hunting that day, my truck would have burned up.
 
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