It very well could be a rat. Just what kind of rat are we talking about though??? :p Still didn't explain the cameras!
I had an act of vandalism happen last year a trail cam was ripped up and the card was missing, I was pissed as hell. I set up another camera and was prepared to kick some *** and prosecute. I caught the trespasser on camera and recovered my chip. It was a filthy lowlife raccoon.
Last year my dad had a blind get slashed and I had trail cam stolen. They were close to the line and had been set up in the same spots for years. New landowner on that line and within a couple months that happened so we are pretty sure who did it. Know I check the stand on that side of the creek very closely and just leave cameras off that side.
I have seen bucks hit a cam on a pic n stik before looked like he was trying to rub it then it tuned into an all out attack....
Back in the early 90's when I first started hunting, my father and I had a group of anti hunters going through the woods banging pots and pans, (public land)they also put broken bottles/glass under our truck tires, and the straps and cables on our treestands were mysteriously cut. A call to the police ended it all, eventually. Are there any anti hunters near by? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Glad you caught it before you got hurt. About 25 years ago I hunted a friends farm. We walked in one morning and actually tripped a wire (fishing line) and a board with nails in it swung down out of a tree and luckily at walking speed it swung out in front of us and nobody got hit. It was pretty slow and poorly done so I am not sure how much damage it could have done anyway. Turns out it was the neighbor trying to get back at people from riding dirt bikes and driving their 4x4's from this farm to his. He never thought two teenagers would trip it walking through. Local police got involved but I never heard what happened so I assumed just a slap on the wrist (things in the country were different back then).
- Stole the strap off my stand and left it hanging by the cable lock to the tree. - Removed all of my screw-in steps and left the stand up in the tree without a way to climb to it. - SD cards stolen out of my trail cameras. - I've had both trail cameras and tree stands stolen. The one that hurt the worst was a double Lone Wolf set with 4 climbing sticks. They took it all - bow rope, bow hangers, gear hooks, etc. It was like it never existed. All kidding aside that cutting of your tree strap is seriously concerning. That's more than just messing with your gear; that's trying to cause you bodily injury and possibly even kill you. If I was in that position and this was happening on a regular basis I would most likely get some sort of law enforcement involved. Stay safe out there.
It takes a twisted individual to deliberately do something like this. No moral decency whatsoever. Stealing is one thing but trying to do something that could seriously injure or kill someone is reprehensible.
If I found a stand that was intentionally sabotaged like that I would be talking with the local sheriff's department to make a police report. That's someone setting you up to die IMO. Yes your land owner should be made aware of it but there is no way this would just be left as an incident beyond your control.
I would definitely try to track this a-hole or a-holes down and confront them. I'd also push the issue with the landowner to keep a better eye on his property. That strap being cut, like others said, is attempted murder or at the very least, assault. I really wish laws would reflect this sort of thing and make it abundantly clear that cutting a strap like that is attempted, premeditated murder. It's no different than sabotaging someones car, etc. Doing something to a camera is one thing, trying to get someone to fall from a stand is a completely different story. I'd be livid. I really hope you can catch them and do something about it.
I've had occurrences where things were stolen on my own private land, but never had someone tamper with my equipment quite like that. I've had several game cams stolen from me and my climber stand. The person who stole my climber stand had some nerve let me tell you. I was literally hunting out of it that same morning, had a great morning, I was seeing deer everywhere, but it got around lunch time so I decided to make my way home to get a bite to eat so I could finish out the afternoon hunting. In most cases I would have taken my stand down, but considering I was having good luck that morning I figured I'd leave my stand there and go right back there after lunch, well after my hour lunch break someone had trespassed onto my private property (which is posted all the way round it) and stole my new Switchblade climber. The feeling of confusion I got when I approached the tree I was set up on and no treestand to be found turned into fury quite quickly. It's unbelievable what some people will do and it's sad that there are people out there shady enough to do crap like that. Needless to say I've been skeptical about even setting up game cams and leaving my tree stands in trees when I'm not out hunting. Hope you find out who's been doing this stuff to your property, makes it hard to trust people.
Find a huge bear trap and disable so it won't work and set it up where they will see it and s*** their pants haha make them think twice before they go messing with your stuff again. Make them thing u wanted it to go off on them
About the time you setup a bear trap, even if you had it tripped, the trespasser will say it hurt them and it will somehow be your fault. Do not do that, it is just how it would work.
Definitely sucks that someone is messing with your gear. The strap looks like it was chewed, maybe by a squirrel. Maybe not, but possibly. I'd get some more cams and put them up high, and camouflage them really well. Best of luck.
