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Who's left their bow hang overnight in their stand.

I’ve done it dozens of times. I rarely hunt a spot twice, much less back to back hunts. But if I know I’m doing it, I leave everything I can.

I don’t worry about theft or damage. I worry about impact on deer movement. And the times I leave stuff is when leaving stuff won’t have a material impact on success. Which is rare. But in those cases, I leave it.


Someone wants to locate my set in the dark, climb a tree, and take my stuff, and take on all the effort and risk that comes with it, so be it.
 
I have left my bow up in the tree several times and didn't have any problems. If a person is going to hunt back-to-back hunts in the same tree, then leaving the bow and gear in the tree is a good option.
 
I've never done it and here is why. Years ago, a friend of mine and I were in a hunting club. The club had 9000 acres and 25 members, most of whom did not archery hunt. There might have been 2 other bowhunters in the club. Pre-season my friend and I found a bachelor group of bucks frequenting a spot way off the beaten path. Two were really nice deer. We set up a 20 foot ladder stick and a Millennium stand in there shortly before season, on a rainy-day during midday. We were very careful to access the spot so that nobody else would see we were going into this little hidey hole, and it was pretty remote. When season arrived, we flipped a coin to see who would get to hunt the spot first. My friend won, so well before daylight I dropped him off near the entrance to the spot so that we would not be leaving a truck parked anywhere nearby.

He hunted that morning in the good spot, and I went to another spot, and he texted me a little after 11 and I went and picked him up. I made sure nobody was around before I stopped and he ran out of the woods, hopped in and we left ASAP. Since it was a secret spot, in an area we though nobody went too he decided to leave all his stuff in the stand since he planned to be back in there by 2 pm. We went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. While we were having lunch, one of the club members comes over to us and asks if that is our bow and pack up in the tree down on such and such creek. We are dumbfounded. We never would have guessed anyone was even on the club hunting during the week during bow season. Since then I take it for granted that if you leave something thinking nobody will see it you may be in for a surprise.
 
Flat out refusal, only exception might be a medical emergency. I have left my bow in the tree unattended for a short duration while I am in the area, but I have been bit too many times by opportunity to do that even remotely regularly! I will leave other stuff and/or preset without too much mental noise, but my weapon or life support items, that's a hard pass.
 
I did one time out of a stand. I had brought my muzzleloader and bow during gun season and forgot I had the bow too. I was terrified to shoot it because of all the "what ifs" for about a week.
 
I have to admit though I did consider it once many years ago (I was 18 or 19) before I even owned a treestand. In those days we just climbed up a tree and stood on the branches wedged in any way we could. That particular evening I was about 30 ft up a really big white pine hunting a trail that ran along the top of a ridge adjacent to the tree at approximately my eye level. After 40 minutes or so of being perched there the limb I was standing on suddenly decided it had enough and, with a sudden crack, down I went.

I crashed my way through wrist sized branches all the way to the ground where I landed with a considerable thud. In retrospect I suppose I was lucky that I cleared all the branches off the one side of the tree on the way down because it helped slow me down before landing, probably saving my life. Nevertheless I can honestly say I was completely stunned, breathless and very sore. After I composed myself, caught my breath and made sure nothing was broken, I decided my hunt was done for the night. I looked around for my bow only to finally locate it still hanging in the tree off the branch I had hung it off of at height.

My options were to leave it or climb back up and get it. I really did consider just leaving it there for a minute or so before finally climbing back up and retrieving it. That's the only time I've ever considered leaving my weapon in the woods overnight. :tearsofjoy:
 
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