What have you lost?
Contributors to this thread:Wisconsin
From: retro
21-Nov-14
Lots of gear getting stolen nowadays. In your hunting career, what have you all lost to theft? And did you recover any of your gear?
From: therealdeal
21-Nov-14
cameras, 6 climbing sticks and a hang-on, climbing treestand years ago. pretty good idea who took it. went to their house in town to ask, noone was home, went in the garage and looked around. :) couldn't find it.
had another stand stolen once, had an idea who it might be, drove to their house and it was leaning up against the house. went to the door and a young kid was there, asked if his dad was home and he said no. I asked where the stand came from and he played dumb. I said well its mine and I'm taking it. There have been other too but I'm not saying...basically if you steal my stuff and I find out ...you're not going to like the outcome. I learned a long time ago that its rarely worth the time to go to the cops. Its best to just get even.
From: Jeff in MN
21-Nov-14
Two strap on stands, landowner warned me. Think his son took them to trade for drugs.
Bow, arrows, rangefinder, binos, licenses, everything in my pack including the pack. Taken from my truck parked 10' from the door to the house. Steering column was messed with. Sheriff figured they thought it was a ford and wanted the truck, gear, and 4 wheeler in the back. Aparently fords are easier to mess with than Dodge trucks. He did leave his knife behind that he used to jimmy the sliding back window.
From: Crusader dad
22-Nov-14
I got up north late one night, went out in the morning to my atv trail stand and it was missing. It was an old platform stand that I built and bolted a nice comfy seat on, about 25 yds from an atv trail. So far that is it. I have found other peoples cameras on my land and a ground blind. I left a sealed note on cameras and I think the people got the hint. The dnr said i could legally take them but I usually try and take the high road.
From: Novice
22-Nov-14
Double Bull ground blind ( one of the original good quality ones) and a sweet Kershaw knife.
From: Cheesehead Mike
24-Nov-14
two trail cameras off of my own land, ARRRRRGH!
From: jjs
25-Nov-14
1975-stringer of graylings and a 6 pack of beer in Alaska; 2011- 1 hind quarter deer from cooler in north Mn.; 1992- 1 Nif-T-Seat, limb-nippers, camo-hat, hunting bow glove and face mask in the UP of Mi.; 1982- 2 shotguns, 1 handgun, shells, knives and fishing rod/reel in Iowa. the back sliding window was broken out. White,black,brown trash they are all trash, just be careful out there.
From: jjs
25-Nov-14
Forgot 1 big item that was stolen was my golden retriever in Jenks, Oklahoma, the best bird dog that I ever had. Found out it was taken for dog fight training, 3 other retrievers were stolen in the same neighborhood that time; that was the hardest lost to take for being stolen. Lost $25K by escrow forgery in Tomah ( the gent only got 45 days hubs and 5 yrs parole for a total of $200K stolen, but that doesn't count for hunting.
From: retro
25-Nov-14
I lost one treestand years ago. Dont leave anything out anymore on public land. Good gear is to expensive to replace.
From: Kettle Coyote
25-Nov-14
Learned my lesson on public land earlier this year when I had one of my trail cameras stolen, name and number on it to make it legit. I've seen other camera's out there on public land and just give the ol' friendly wave. There's a lot of good folks that don't have much for options other than hunting public, but it makes me think twice when I come across others on deep in the public.
From: ahunter55
26-Nov-14
a baker climber years ago in the wilderness of Colorado Mtns. That really got me. 2 hang ons from private property Illinois. A ladder stand from private property Iowa. senseless & now seems to be even worse for hunters.
From: NWO
26-Nov-14
ahunter55, "a baker climber" the thief probably saved your life.
From: Per48R
26-Nov-14
Never lost anything to theft. I hunt public so everything goes in our out with me. I have misplaced a few things in the woods. Usually from 25' up. Misplaced myself once for about an hour in the Nicolet NF.
From: Matrix
26-Nov-14
I lost my virginity to the farmer's daughter next door. Never got it back either.
From: wibuckwatch
26-Nov-14
1 Trail Camera on private land.
From: Duke
27-Nov-14
From: Jeff in MN
27-Nov-14
Per48, misplaced yourself, good one. But anyone that hasn't misplaced themselves in the woods a lot more times than that hasn't been hunting the big woods enough. Or has poor memory regarding that subject.
From: ahunter55
27-Nov-14
NWO-it was my "thrill" climber in the early 70s. I could only hope the "thief" got his reward.
From: NWO
27-Nov-14
The Baker was my first climber, thank God I was very strong and flexible back then, cant tell you how many times that stand slipped down the tree while climbing, poplar trees or smooth bark trees were the worst. They didn't stay in business very long, but it was the start of many climbers.
From: Pine Tar
27-Nov-14
I've lost my respect in the DNR's ability to manage the deer herd in the northern half of the state......
From: razorhead
27-Nov-14
I agree with Pine Tar....
From: RutNut@work
27-Nov-14
Come on now Pine Tar, who are we to question the almighty DNR?
From: FIP
27-Nov-14
"I lost my virginity to the farmer's daughter next door. Never got it back either"
Ron most don't consider the farmers milk cow a viable path to losing virginity.
From: Crusader dad
28-Nov-14
FIP + 1
From: Jeff in MN
29-Nov-14
Pine Tar, the DNR never had the ability to (properly) manage the deer. So those that have lost their faith in it had actually lost their common sense in the first place. ;-)
From: Jeff in MN
29-Nov-14
Actually, what we lost up around Hayward is most of our gun deer season. Opening weekend was decent conditions but crunchy snow on the ground and snow frozen to every twig blocking visibility. Plus access roads, trails, paths with bent over brush and trees as big as 5 inches in diameter have just about made it impossible to hunt the deer that are left, and there actually are some left in private land areas.
