Powder on kill to deter wild animals?
Elk
OK so after reading the title of the thread, I bet most are thinking "what??"
I've been reading a book here on my tablet about Pioneer life in Pennsylvania during the very early 1800s. I found it interesting that there were elk in that area. Never knew that.
The author not only hunted them but caught several live ones using dogs. Has anyone ever heard of that? They used the dogs to run them down for miles and then sit in a tree and drop a rope over the elk. Claims to have done it three times, the last time to win a bet with someone who didn't believe him.
But just read that he shot an elk that rolled down a cliff. Unable to retrieve it without horses, he dressed it and sprinkled powder on the body to deter wild animals from eating it. Any guesses as to what he used?
Love reading about life back then and how tough some of those old dudes were!
Hunting Adak one March we lost control of the toboggan with 3 boned out bou on it. It slid down the mountain and came to rest in a flat area. We put half on our backs and buried the rest in about 2 feet of snow. Sprinkled pepper over the area.
When we returned the next morning you could see where a fox came to the mound, walked around it a bit, then walked off.
I would guess pepper would be far too expensive at the time this fellow put some powder on the animal.
Remember the movie Cool Hand Luke? Paul Newman used Cayenne pepper to give the blood hounds fits.
I'd research moth balls???
I don't know about powder but I read where someone used their shorts and socks for the same reason.
I shot an elk at last light in coyote and black bear populated area. I placed my cap and T-shirt on the elk. Returned the next am to find the elk not bothered by anything.
Leaving a coat or other human scent polluted piece of clothing works too.
A sweaty tshirt hung near the meat typically does the trick to keep animals away overnight where I hunt.
I would think human scent would deter but a buddy told me to take a glow stick and hang it above the animal or near it. Idea being the animals associate light with human.
I have combo radio/flashlight that I've used the last few years. Not sure if it works, but no meat's gone missing so far.
(Works best if you set the radio to a station playing Hillary C!)
I normally take a leak around the animal and leave a piece of my hunting clothes laying over it, hat, gloves, coat. Shawn
I'm not sure anything works for bears. Brother killed a cow elk one evening. We cut it up, bagged the hams and put them a couple feet off the ground, took the trip and fronts and packed out.
We had left the head, spine, and ribs in one piece with the guts inside. Next morning the head,etc were gone and our hams were in the tree.
We had left our t-shirts around the area.
I have a scent that keeps my wife away.
JMO....
Hang the good stuff some distance away from where you do the field dressing; surround with some human-stinking clothing.
My thinking is that given the choice of an "unattended" gut pile and/or carcass and quarters surrounded by man-stink, most critters would be happy to start with liver as an appetizer. And before anybody skewers me for not packing off the liver... Just FYI the CDOW has recommended that it not be consumed over concerns of CWD transmission.
And if that has been debunked, please let me know because my brother makes an Elk liver pate that will make a fan out of ANYBODY with a lick of sense....
Just hang a piece of clothing around the kill. And, get back in there early to finish it off.
Well human scent definitely does not work in NW Wyoming. I think the bears like it!
Great ideas. For the record, the boom I read it in was "Pioneer Life; Thirty gears a hunter". Authors last name was Tome. Some of it seems like tall tales but it has kept my interest and I don't typically read much!
A shirt or jacket uaually does the trick on coyote, and mt. lion, but some bear associate human scent with food.
I hung the hindquarters in a tree and peed in the snow. Worked great, till the grizzly came by.
Yeah we used to have some massive elk here in the east. Sometimes when I'm hunting in the central PA mountains I think about how awesome it would be to have huge wild native elk living in the timber.
Here's a picture of an extinct eastern elk skull found in Michigan just recently.
Good
Lord.
I don't usually go in for horn porn, but that was a SPECIMEN right there, boy! Makes you wonder what it'd take to clone some up!!
He more than likely use talcum powder on the animal to give it a unatural sent to keep animals away. Kind of like spraying cologne on it. I would think it work, oders associated with humans. DANNY
I got a kick out of your story Gerald....
We had the same thing happen on a caribou hunt....sprikle what you want but its not going to bother a grizzly that will bite into a steel gas can if its left out.
We shot a couple deer in grand mesa NF many years ago, hung them and laid a t shirt over the hanging meat. Scared the heck out of us hiking into that tight canyon when 2 huge eagles come flapping out of there so full of meat they could hardly clear us.
if the story stated "powder" it was almost certainly (black) gunpowder, which contains both sulfur and potassium nitrate, and will probably deter insects and possibly scavengers who are not very hungry. It'd also have some limited spoilage inhibiting value, though not enough to matter, I'd suspect.
