What personal issues prevent you from taking five extra minutes to remove your gear?
Or from knowing this regulation is in place, and using cheap throw away gear if the possibility of personal issues arising that would force you to leave it?
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Spikes, Bolts, and Screw in Steps
- Thread starter gcr0003
- Start date
What personal issues prevent you from taking five extra minutes to remove your gear?
Or from knowing this regulation is in place, and using cheap throw away gear if the possibility of personal issues arising that would force you to leave it?
Wife and kids get in a car wreck? Parent had a heart attack? House on fire? Grandma fell down and can't get up? House broken in to? I can keep going but I'll just stop.
If you're the lawmaker or whatever in charge of these regs itv seems like it'd be a much easier task, to me, to start at nothing is allowed at all. Then try to justify different things to be allowed. Why do you need bolts/screw ins? There are plenty of viable, safe methods available. It seems like screws/bolts are just something you want because you want it. -same for pods, what's the point?
I think one benefit of not allowing any permanent sets in the woods (screw in or otherwise) is that it cuts down on guys staking a claim to a spot and then getting defensive about it.
Yeah, I'd say if you got a ticket and took that in front of the judge you would probably get some consideration and the ticket would get tossed out. Now if grandma dies 3 times a year, every year, they will probably catch on.
I guess I just wouldn’t care about my 500.00 in gear in the woods if I had to leave for one of those scenarios in such a rush I couldn’t bring with me. I’d assume it’s gone because I value those things way more.
If I did in fact want my stuff, I could just call my warden after the emergency has calmed, and explain what happened. Or maybe even right after this emergency so he’s aware it’s out there to retrieve or not pursue me over it.
Whether or not it’s the law that it can be removed won’t stop thieves.
This leaves a very narrow spectrum of possibilities that end with you losing your gear.
I agree generally.
If you start at “bolts kill trees, and that’s bad.” Then your line of reasoning makes sense.
I start at “bolts possibly kill trees, and other climbing methods also possibly kill trees, and that all could possibly be good or bad for management goals.”
If I then apply your line of reasoning, it would include steps, sticks, climbers, bolts, etc. in the “is it necessary” bucket.
Or just make it where you have to have a receipt from the game warden to take gear that has been left past the 24 hour mark.
Yup. Simple. Text or call warden with picture of gear. Get green light. Remove it.
I would never ever do this. But it fixes the “but thieves !” Argument
I almost never (did leave sticks and a ring of steps once last season, pulling the bottom stick) leave any gear in the woods. I take it as a given that I am taking a chance it will not be there when I return. If it is gone, I made the decision to leave it unattended, knowing something could happen to it. So, I am in essence temporarily abandoning custody of it. If I left my expensive bicycle locked to a tree in a city park because I like to ride in the park but hate to load the bike up and take it back and forth, I would not be surprised to go get it and find it gone.
Did we just reached an agreement Mr. Internet Stranger??
I am a simpleton. Deep scratches don't seem as bad as a dozen 3/8 holes. Just one guys opinion
Why specifically is a screw/bolt better than a squirrel step or Cranford or the XOP folder or either of hawks' steps? This is where it seems to me its really hard to justify the hole vs the plentiful options that probably leave much less, if any, damage to the tree
I think spurs should maybe be legal because you have no choice but to remove them on each use. I also feel like, compared to a drilled-type hole such as bolts or steps that would get removed leaving “gaping” hollows, you’re doing much less long-term damage to the tree with lower-profile, less intrusive piercings into the bark and cambium. Sticks, straps, platforms, climbers, ladders, and even ropes can damage the tree by girdling or removing too much bark and scarring, cutting into the cambium, and I’m sure ways I hadn’t considered as well, but these aren’t (to my limited knowledge) as immediately damaging or accessible to infestation or disease or rot as the holes left by a 3/8-1/2” bit, 2-3” deep into the trunk. If you think about it this way, to reach the vitals of a human with a stabbing implement, you need 2.5-3” or better penetration. Sure, a tree has bark, but once you pass that bark logic would suggest that 2-3” is plenty to cause damage to the tree’s “vitals” and allow other issues to get in. I think on private land you should be allowed to use whatever you want to get up that tree, and I even think the tree’s better off if you leave screw-ins/bolts in the trunk and maybe back them out a revolution every two seasons. That said, on public I think spurs would be a good non-intrusive compromise for dudes who just wanna get hunting with as little BS as possible in the kit.
I’m not saying yay or nay for anything but I could see people preferring bolts for compactness/bulk and not having to manage a dozen straps. Bolts are a lot more rigid/sturdy as well. They don’t slide around and they make easy handles to help pull yourself up.
I voted as indifferent, because I believe the people that want to use them on public and/or leave them behind already do.
Im guessing this may be due to my own ignorance but it seems like these are a nice option if you can preset a tree, but not as much for being mobile, unless I am vastly overestimating the time difference for screwing in 3 steps vs hanging a stick with a single step aider. Weight yes for sure, but then there's the 2TC option.
The cambium can get torn/punctured by many of the sticks we use, so I don't understand that logic either fully. Yes there's differing amounts of damage. Laws gotta draw a line in the sand somewhere.
Some day I'll have some private land, and then I'll use bolts. Probably.
Im guessing this may be due to my own ignorance but it seems like these are a nice option if you can preset a tree, but not as much for being mobile, unless I am vastly overestimating the time difference for screwing in 3 steps vs hanging a stick with a single step aider. Weight yes for sure, but then there's the 2TC option.
The cambium can get torn/punctured by many of the sticks we use, so I don't understand that logic either fully. Yes there's differing amounts of damage. Laws gotta draw a line in the sand somewhere.
Some day I'll have some private land, and then I'll use bolts. Probably.
I say make all wood peckers illegal. They put a whole heck of lot more holes in trees than I ever WOOD!
A woodpecker is a bird. A wood pecker...