Of Treestands and Red Tape -- Did my stands survive Ike?

After the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit the Ohio Valley over last weekend, I was worried about how badly the farm had gotten hit. I was stuck all week on the north side of Cincinnati with the lights out and roads blocked from fallen trees and power lines.

This weekend came, and I had to go down to deer camp and see what was up. My neighbor had called me earlier in the week and told me that Bracken County, KY had been only grazed. They had not lost power at all. I was optimistic. The big question remained: What had happened to my tree stands in all this?

I have 5 Hunter's View 15' buddy stands and other assorted ladders up. I had taken down two this year, given them fresh paint jobs and put them back up. I was dying to see what happened with the storm.

While I was at it, I took my GPS, a compass and marking tape. Since Moose turned 16 this year , he's able to hunt by himself as an adult. That added an extra level of complexity to the situation. One or two tenths of a mile is nothing for a 30-06. In most cases, because they are elevated stands, a simple rule would suffice: "Don't fire above your belt line." However, I figured having a visual reminder would be a good idea.

As I visited each stand site, I made a waypoint on the GPS. Then, after I'd been to all of the stands, I went back and shot an azimuth with the compass to each stand. I now have red marker tape on a tree representing the bearing from each stand to each other stand.

Oh yeah, damage! I'd almost forgotten. The bottom line was that one stand, the one one I'd put up just for Moose , had a bent shooting rail where it contacts the tree. However, all the buddy stands get that bend after they've been up a while. It's only cosmetic.