Ethics of Finding a Trail Camera

[SilentButDeadly]

All the talk about GRONG's trail cam has me thinking....

 

You find a trail camera in the woods, what do you do?

 

An anonymous multi-choice poll.

[elpepe25]

i spend random hours in the woods and if i caught some 1 in my blind/stand/ messin w/ my cams they'd prob get beaten to a pulp.

 

i respect others rights to do the same to me if i mess with their stuff

[missedagain]

Super light dome backpack tent - 22 oz

Super light 15 deg. bag - 12 oz

Water purifying tabs - 1 oz

Magnum bolt cutters - 92 oz

 

I never hike without them

[GameHauler]

[More D]

I would not touch it or even get too close to it. I would not want pics of my fat butt filling up someones card when he could be getting some killer animal pics.

I think it is weird that some one would look at the pics already on the camera, even if they left it as is. My thought is it aint mine so I won't touch it. If I wanted to know what animals are frequenting the area I should have put up my own camera.......right? Be sides if I had a camera up and I found some bozo 'just looking' at the pics on my camera I sure as heck would NOT believe him, I would think "this is my lucky day, I caught a thief in the act".......the butt beating would commence.

 

 

 

 

[crazy4COUES]

If I find a camera I don't mess with them. Treestands...left up out of season....on public land, I don't agree with. If they are going to leave them up ALL year then it is considered fair game, ABANDONDED property!

[longshooter]

I have to be honest here so I voted, "I'm gonna jump in front of the camera with my pants down!"

After that I would just leave the camera and keep hunting

[GRONG]

If I find a camera I don't mess with them. Treestands...left up out of season....on public land, I don't agree with. If they are going to leave them up ALL year then it is considered fair game, ABANDONDED property!

 

I'm curious, why is a treestand left after season fair game and the trail camera not? What if you weren't able to make it back up to your stand site for a couple weeks after whatever season you're hunting and some dip-shiznit came and took it with that kind of mentality. It'd torque you pretty hard wouldn't it? I mean, it's your hard earned dollars and sweat equity to find a decent spot for your stand and maybe you just didn't have a wknd where you could get away due to work or babysitting or whatever. Regardless of what the excuse of not being able to get out it's STILL SOMEBODY ELSE'S PROPERTY AND NOT YOURS!!!!

[jeepers creepers]

SOMEONS ELSE'S PROPERTY!!

 

I couldn't have said it better!!!

[TLH]

Leave the stuff alone--leave it alone--did i mention to LEAVE IT ALONE?? It makes no difference if it is there for a week, a month or two years it still is not yours to mess with and certainly not yours to take--LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!!

[firstcoueswas80]

Leave the stuff alone--leave it alone--did i mention to LEAVE IT ALONE?? It makes no difference if it is there for a week, a month or two years it still is not yours to mess with and certainly not yours to take--LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!!

 

 

Terry, im gonna add onto your comment...

 

LEAVE IT ALONE!! No matter what!

[TAM]

I've come across 3 or 4 while out in the woods and I'll have to admit that each time I was really tempted to leave them a big shiny moon on their picture card, butt... (pun intended) each time I just looked around and left them alone! In fact one time I left the camera alone and a few weeks later went into Don's Sport Shop in Scottsdale and had one of the employees show me some of his trail camera pictures and sure enough they were from the same spot and he had my picture walking by. I'd have been pretty embarassed if he had my shiney moon smiling for the camera!

 

I agree with Josh, if it's not yours and you take it you're just rationalizing stealing.

[mikep35]

If I find a camera I don't mess with them. Treestands...left up out of season....on public land, I don't agree with. If they are going to leave them up ALL year then it is considered fair game, ABANDONDED property!

 

Come on now really? Its thinking like that that really pisses me off. If its not yours then its stealing. Plain and simple. I don't care if its been there all year. Do you think someone just left it there because they didn't want it anymore? Whether you agree with it or not you're still a thief for taking something that isn't yours. I'd love to catch someone with that mentality trying to steal something of mine.

[russd]

is it legal to leave a treestand in the national forest if un-attended?

[mikep35]

is it legal to leave a treestand in the national forest if un-attended?

 

I just looked at the game and fish regs and its worded like this: " It MAY be unlawful to leave treestands hanging or blinds set for an extended period of time. They MAY be considered abandon property and subject to seizure."

Now the "may" part seems a little vague to me. But either way unless you're a game and fish officer or work for the forest service etc. then its not your job to determine whether or not it's "abandoned" and its not up to your discretion on whether or not to "seize" it. Now I have a climbing stand so I don't leave mine up for more than a day at a time anyway, but a friend of mine had his climbing treestand stolen while we were on a hunt. Ridiculous.