In CT you can leave stands up all year. The DEP "recommends" you take them down but some don't and the DEP isn't staffed to police it. I typically use a climber on state land but have used portable hang-on type stands in remote locations and I take them down after the season. Sometimes the next year there's a stand in the same tree or nearby. If that's the case I'll hunt elsewhere. One of those stands has been up for about 5 years now. I've also had someone shoot the strap or buckle on my stand. When I stepped on the platform and started pulling myself onto it the strap slipped and I was able to get back on the peg quickly and figure out what had happened. I was able to secure the stand with my drag rope but pulled it out of the tree when I was done that day. It takes a real a-hole to do that to another hunter IMO!
Leaving Stands up on Public Land - Conflict? New Maryland regs.
- Thread starter BlackPowderGuy (AJHS)
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I used to hunt Northwest Connecticut. Litchfield County.
Like you, I always used a climbing stand. In and out with me the same day. Never bothered much with hang on stands.
I exclusively use ladder stands on property I or maybe a couple others hunt but I love my climbers! The noisy part is just hooking them around the tree, But once I start up or come down You'd have to be within 20 yd of me to hear it. A couple times I was hunting with my son and we were about 40 yd apart looking in different directions and it got dark and I came down Packed it up and was at my son's stand And scared him half the death cause he did not hear me at all.
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Things I've always loved about the Summit Viper self climbers - they are fast & easy to mount & dismount & quick & quiet to ascend & descend. And they leave little to no trace of ever having been there.
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I use a SUMMIT 180 climber. It's a comfortable as sitting in my living room but at 73 yoa I hate hauling it in and out every day. That said, there's nothing as convenient as a stand (ladder or hang on) that's already there and you just have to climb in. My sons and I have had to switch mostly to climbers because dirtbags in the CT state forest we had been hunting would steal tree stands. Between the three of us we lost 4 stands. We recently switched to a different area of the state and things seem to be better there. Time will tell.
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Years ago when I was younger, I use to have stands on state land here in Nebraska. I would pack hang-on stands in about a mile or so from the road each fall. I would then take them down in the spring. Never had a one stolen or seen someone else in them. Times were different then also. These days, all my bow hunting stands are ladder stands. But they are also on private land and get left out year round.
Ironically, I have had two stands stolen off of private land over the years.
Ironically, I have had two stands stolen off of private land over the years.
I don't like leaving ladder stands in the woods on public hunting ground. Years ago I built rolling ladder stands. Folded in the middle at 6 ft. bicycle wheels on each side. Used the stand to get my deer out of the woods. One morning I had rolled the stand in about 200 yrds from the road, started setting it up. I had the stand leaning against the tree, tying it down, looked up and approx 30 yrds away were three does feeding on honeysuckle, they didn't have a clue I was there. I also build my own climbers, have left them in the woods overnight on public ground. I usually lowered them to the ground and covered with limbs and pine needles or leaves. Never had a problem. At 73, I usually hunt from the ground in a pop-up, have had hunters walk past and not know I was there.
