Stolen blinds and trail cameras

Good morning everyone, i am curious, Has anyone on this forum ever had any feeders, blinds or trail cams stolen off of public land before?
The reason i am asking is i will be hunting deer for the first time this year on crown land. I plan on going to the area i am hunting and set up a feeder, trail cameras and blinds on crown land but am worried that they could possobly be stolen and would lose out on alot of hard earned money.
Can anyone who has experienced any problems, or no problems at all with this let me know how it all worked out?

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There must be at least a dozen threads dealing with the issue in the archives of this site. Every year someone has had their gear stolen,mostly from Crown land,but,there's lots stolen from private land,too. The bottom line is never leave your stuff laying around or it will grow feet.

Sadly our country is losing its moral fabric. Many people treat these items as abandoned, or consider you stupid for leaving stuff on Crown land thus deserving of taking it.

The risk of theft extends to private land as well. It all comes down to your knowledge of the area, how many people frequent the area, where you set up and the risk of discovery. Full disclosure, I have 3 cameras and feeders currently on Crown land. In my case, the risk of discovery is very low.

Around here, if you yawn too long, some arsehole is prying on your fillings !!!!!!
Leave nothing unattended !!

Damm that really sucks. People suck. Going to be hard to try and attract some deer without corn or cameras. Thank you guys for the replies!

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Even if it's not stolen someone could set up in the spot you are planning on hunting.
And they have every right to if on public land.
Equipment left there doesn't give you any exclusive rights to the spot.

Make a couple non expensive gravity feeders out of pvc, If they walk they walk. As for trail cameras if you must leave one out put it high in the tree and angle to the trail. You still get a idea of whats using the trail and its out of sight . To steal it, some one has to be walking around with a ladder. Public land is public land so I wouldn't leave anything out that I wouldn't care to lose.

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Originally Posted by tom gobble

Make a couple non expensive gravity feeders out of pvc, If they walk they walk. As for trail cameras if you must leave one out put it high in the tree and angle to the trail. You still get a idea of whats using the trail and its out of sight . To steal it, some one has to be walking around with a ladder. Public land is public land so I wouldn't leave anything out that I wouldn't care to lose.

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I found some cheap yet effective gravity feeders from Amazon (picture shown) that cost 25$ each. And wad going to use some 70$ trail cameras until i heard what the people on this post had to say... but putting them up high in a tree is a great idea! Dont know why i didnt think of that. Thanks for the advice bud!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...edc4b68aa9.jpg

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If it were me, on public land I’d find some well used runs that intersect and build a ground blind out of natural bush, branches etc., and hope other guys moving around will push deer to you..

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Originally Posted by rick_iles

If it were me, on public land I’d find some well used runs that intersect and build a ground blind out of natural bush, branches etc., and hope other guys moving around will push deer to you..

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In afew years i will have an atv and plan on bringing pallet skids from work and buidling afew tree blinds and plan on concealing them with brush like you mentioned. Of course i will only do this and invest the time.and effort when i am successful in finding a good area that i know has a healthy deer population. Hopefully this area i am going to this year is a good one and i can learn it in the next few years. Its hard starting out on your own with so much crown land and such little info. Thanks for the reply!

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Chose the location nobody will go..... Want to go ,and will not find it ....

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Originally Posted by JPires84

Good morning everyone, i am curious, Has anyone on this forum ever had any feeders, blinds or trail cams stolen off of public land before?
The reason i am asking is i will be hunting deer for the first time this year on crown land. I plan on going to the area i am hunting and set up a feeder, trail cameras and blinds on crown land but am worried that they could possobly be stolen and would lose out on alot of hard earned money.
Can anyone who has experienced any problems, or no problems at all with this let me know how it all worked out?

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Originally Posted by JPires84

In afew years i will have an atv and plan on bringing pallet skids from work and buidling afew tree blinds and plan on concealing them with brush like you mentioned. Of course i will only do this and invest the time.and effort when i am successful in finding a good area that i know has a healthy deer population. Hopefully this area i am going to this year is a good one and i can learn it in the next few years. Its hard starting out on your own with so much crown land and such little info. Thanks for the reply!

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J-why do You not try and hunt the deer without baiting?
Public land baiting is a good offer to anyone to sit on your bait-or close to your bait.And you could do nothing about it!First come-first served.Just because it is your gear-does not matter. Anyone can claim the same thing-It is mine.............just to chase the next guy away-You got what i mean?
If You build blinds,or put up tree stand,AND leave no traces,it is very unlikely someone will actually find Your stand,or care to steal it.
Or try to use a climber stand.
I am not bashing anyone's hard work on baiting-to each their own,but the moral rewards of getting a deer without baiting are much higher then -put out the corn,and see the deer coming in...........
Going in deep may help,but it takes a LOT of effort,and quite some time.Eventually the chances are not much better on scoring on the deer.Your gear will likely stay intact.
Yet-if You use ATV while doing all this deep in-secretive stuff-You are relying on ignorance and lack of curiosity of the next guy -who would perhaps investigate where the ATV tracks go???

Yea I would never leave a ground blind on public land. Or my $200 trail cam. Like was mentioned I would make some natural blinds on the ground in different locations to take advantage of different wind conditions. Do it early enough so that the deer get used to them.
As for location, alfoldivander nailed it, go where others aren't likely to bother, either because it's too messy or too much of a pain for the average Joe to bother. But that also means if you get a deer it's that much harder to drag out. Ice fishing sleds can make the job a lot easier, even with no snow on the ground. You could stash one there on one of your scouting trips.
As for bait and cameras, well for many years our gang and many others hunted a vast expanse of crown land on the north shore of a lake about an hour from here. We traveled by boat from our camp to where the north shore road ended, hopped in a truck we left there for the week, drove up the road a piece and then walked in a good distance in the dark and didn't come back till dark. My ground stand was more than a mile in, it was a rare event if we saw another hunter for the most part after the first 200 acres. There were swamps everywhere and the other camps never ventured in there much. That was fine by us and we respectfully stayed away from the other camp's "territories" as well.
So what I'm getting at JP is that you may be way over complicating things there lad, specially when essentially it seems you have no idea what the situation in that bush will be come hunting season unless you know someone who already hunts it. We never ever used bait or cameras and we still saw and shot deer, but we worked for them. Besides it would have been totally impractical. We would take one tour in before the hunt, check everything out and not go back till opening morning. Keep the bush virgin. As for blinds they really aren't needed to shoot deer. All of our deer up there over 15+years were shot off the ground. Hunt camps always name their spots and stands. Our better stands were called Big Rock, Lunch Rock ,Smitty's rock and Otter water. Not one of these stands had a blind, you just plunked your arse down on the ground or in my case I always carried a little folding stool. My spot was literally sitting in front of this huge boulder and I had lots of deer come within 30 yds or even closer over the years. But what all these stands had in common was location, 2 were near spots where deer traveled to cross wet areas, one was along a big pond and one was high on a rock point that looked down over a big swamp and had a great 360° view. Personally I much prefer the versatility of ground hunting, I find folks tend to get stuck with their blind or stand and not move around to take advantage of wind conditions or even go for a quick still hunt toward a bud in another stand.
JP I think your best bet is learn the area you want to hunt real well. Boots on the ground and studying maps and google earth before hand will provide you with the best knowledge you can get. You'd be surprised what little gems you might come across that will give you more confidence knowing you're in a good spot. and if the bush does get busy you'll have some hidden little spots that you can sneak into and let other hunters move the deer for you.
Good luck, hopefully the bush won't be too busy for you.

and as mentioned, if you leave the ground blind or tree stand, when you come out for a hunt and someone already there, they have the right to use it, just like a duck blind in a lake. You might have paid good money for the materials but it on public land which means it is public. I don't hunt public land, but that doesn't matter to thieves, can just imagine leaving things out on public land, it'd be like putting a sign up saying take me away. I do have a couple natural ground blinds, but I also have one spot that has a fallen tree that isn't far from a game trail and field. I got a nice 8pnt last year shooting over the fallen tree.

I simply do not leave anything out overnight unless I am in location. With the amount of trespasser posts I see on this forum and Gun Nuts even on Private Property it is a real each time you do. My suggestion is unless you are willing to understand the risk, save yourself the grief and expense, be present to track and pattern (as I have learned here) to improve your chances.

It is sad, that I have to even write this post!

I've had to dealt with theft issues at a couple of private properties I hunted in the past. Cameras gone, ladder stands gone. One year I had 1 climber stand and a ladder stand stolen within 2 months. I had to point a trail cam at one of my "New" ladder stands to find out a local property owner/hunter stole the new stand I set up just days before. I managed to recover that one. Couldn't prove that this fella was likely responsible for the disappearance of my other missing stuff but the fact that nothing else was ever taken from that property again pretty much says it all. Frustrating.

I only hunt public land (not by choice) I had a camera walk away last year and when I inspected my (other) camera cable locks this year I see that they have marks on them from where someone tried to get through them with a leatherman. I bought a climber just for that reason and never leave anything unlocked or extremely well hidden anymore. I've walked by cameras, waved, seen unlocked stands (once) and never once thought about taking them.

I only deer hunt on private land. I keep cams out year-round and the number of trespassers I catch is astounding. I would bet that your odds of gear going missing on private is similar to Crown.

Hang your cams high and point them down, and lock your stands. Even if you can reach the cam from the ground, when the cam is above eye level most people on cam don't see it. Pointing your cam at a stand, feeder or mineral site will draw attention to it. So far I've had decent luck but I'm sure that won't continue for long.

A great technique (which I haven't personally used) is to use a climbing stick as your first few tree steps and take it out with you when you go. You can also use it to reach your cams. This keeps your gear above eye level so it likely won't get noticed, and if it does get noticed, it deters all but the most ambitious of thieves.

Thanks for the tips guys! I think i will skip using the ground blind. Instead i will scout and any promising areas i will try and build a natural undetectable blind. But i still want to set up cams and feeders. I will put the feeders up higher above eye level.
What about those trail cam lock boxes? Have any of you used them? Are they eqsy to break into?

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Originally Posted by JPires84

What about those trail cam lock boxes? Have any of you used them? Are they eqsy to break into?

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I saw a picture recently of one of those lock boxes with a neat little hole where someone put a slug through it. Another piece of advice is lock the cam, not the SD Card door. I've heard of lots of SD cards going missing because a trespasser didn't want to get caught, better they take the card than destroy the cam.

I guess it is likely different on public land but lots of folks still don't want their pic taken.

I plan on using the cellular link cams so that the videos are sent straight to my phone. That way i can see any deer activity going on well before deer season and have the chance to go up and put cams on new spots if there are no deer in the area

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Originally Posted by benjhind

I guess it is likely different on public land but lots of folks still don't want their pic taken.

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Right on the money. People can become infuriated when they see cameras in the woods for many different reasons,some illegal (poachers),some "iffy" (with someone they likely shouldn't be),but,the vast majority resent not being able to take a walk in nature's peace and quiet,they feel (and I don't necessarily disagree) without having their privacy invaded. I picked up a camera in the bush on my in to my favorite Coyote set-up,last year,that was smashed to h**l with a note attached that said "F*** YOU". It wasn't my camera,so,I left it where I found it thinking the owner will find it. As hunters,we need to be cognizant that we are in fact,invading the privacy of others. Discretion is the watch word.

I was lucky enough to only get the card taken from a cam on private land. In hindsight I should have moved it as I already got pics of the trespasser going in to transplant his pot plants. I guess he didn't know I had him and his pooch walking in but he could have done much worse than take the card before I found out the landowner pulled his plants out.

I had my cam stolen while it was on public land. I knew it was a possibility so i never bothered to lock it up or secure it - all I did was try to camouflage it using the local tree bark that had fallen off (stuck it to the cam with hot glue after it dried).

The camo worked like this for a while, about a month or so from late August until mid Sep. Then squirrel season started. >>> Gone! <<<

I did come out there every week or so and swapped out SD cards. I got what I wanted: deer is present but they are small. Not sure if I want to get out there to hunt deer there again.

At any rate, that information cost me $100 as I bought the cam, SD card, and batteries used.

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Originally Posted by SaginMerusan

I had my cam stolen while it was on public land. I knew it was a possibility so i never bothered to lock it up or secure it - all I did was try to camouflage it using the local tree bark that had fallen off (stuck it to the cam with hot glue after it dried).

The camo worked like this for a while, about a month or so from late August until mid Sep. Then squirrel season started. >>> Gone! <<<

I did come out there every week or so and swapped out SD cards. I got what I wanted: deer is present but they are small. Not sure if I want to get out there to hunt deer there again.

At any rate, that information cost me $100 as I bought the cam, SD card, and batteries used.

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Was this in wmu56?

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Originally Posted by gbk

J-
I am not bashing anyone's hard work on baiting-to each their own,but the moral rewards of getting a deer without baiting are much higher then -put out the corn,and see the deer coming in...........

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I agree with your point, and apologize for highjacking the thread. When I started hunting, shooting a deer was really important and it didn't really matter which legal method I used to get one. I just wanted to fill my tag. As I grew older and became a more accomplished hunter, I sought greater challenges. I more or less quit hunting field edges and started hunting deer in the forests, targeting them in natural funnels and in natural openings. I've even shot a few while still hunting, which was quite thrilling. I do like to set up trail cameras to get a sense of the numbers and types of deer in a given area, and I use bait to draw deer in to the camera. However, I don't find hunting over bait (or fields) as rewarding as shooting a deer in a random and unpredictable situation.

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Originally Posted by cantgetright

I was lucky enough to only get the card taken from a cam on private land. In hindsight I should have moved it as I already got pics of the trespasser going in to transplant his pot plants. I guess he didn't know I had him and his pooch walking in but he could have done much worse than take the card before I found out the landowner pulled his plants out.

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Now they can legally grow their dope, should slow this type of activity down. Unless it’s a trafficker’s plot...