Do Animals Fear Dead Animals or Gut Pile
General Topic
My answer is NO. I picked up a trail cam yesterday that was near part if a dead deer. Even after it was gone the animals kept coming to smell where it was. Here's what came in for a sniff. Grey Foxes Bobcats Skunk Coyote Jack rabbits Deer, a lot of deer Surprisingly no bears came in.
I agree, I've never had an animal spook.
Killed a deer last year from my stand that didn't walk 5 feet and died. Deer kept coming in through the morning within 10-15 feet of the dead one.
Nope......the either ignore it or walk up to smell it and then move on. That's been my experience on 6-8 dead does laying around my stand that I have shot and hunted for a few more hours hoping for a double!
Does not bother them at all.
Guy piles do not bother coyotes or bears. :)
I took my little sister out last week and she shot her first deer with her bow. Two small bucks came up through the woods about 50 yards past us so I proceeded to grunt and bleat at them. The 4-point decided to investigate while the 6-point hung out and waited on him. She made a perfect shot on the 4-point at 10 yards and he ran out to the other buck, stood there for a few seconds and tipped over. The other buck seemed rather confused as he circled and sniffed the dead one but he didn't actually spook. He ended up walking over past us at about 20 yards.
NOT AT ALL.
2 things just this fall.
1. My wife had a draw permit for Antelope this year. We watched a gal shoot a goat off a waterhole. Her hubby gutted the goat right next to the water. The next day we watched 18 goats come to water right next to that gut pile. That night was coyote serenade city. Next morning my wife shot her goat on the same waterhole not 30 yds. from the 2 day old gut pile.
2. I shot a bull Elk and there were several elk hanging in the area. I took my wife back 3 days later and the gut pile area was covered in fresh elk tracks. My brother jumped a bull the next day that was standing right on the pile. It's like they kept coming back to say goodbye....LOL
How about pronghorn? My friends who are great kimosabe antelope hunters wont gut near their blinds, and consider a waterhole ruined if they find a gut pile on one when they come to hunt it. I don't have enough experience to know, myself.
woops- I should have just waited a minute and read your post, Scott.
Shot a doe is Kansas, she fell within 30 yards of my stand. Watched five bucks including one booner that I had no idea lived around there attempt to get her up. November 11th, made the buck I shot the day before seem not so big after all!
Only if they are family members I think
In 2010 in IA I made the mistake of shooting an estrus doe. She fell about 40 yards from my stand. 3 bucks walked up to her. One spent 15 minutes pawing and nudging her. Had he not had a busted up rack, I'd have aerated him too. He actually followed her trail to the exact spot I shot her. And then tracked her to where she lay dead.
about 6-7 years ago I had bucked out. In comes a doe with a decent 9 behind her. He was definitly tending her and she was shaking het tail up and sideways like a lady of the night!
It looked like he was about to mount her and he went up on her and she took one step forward. Thats when I got the idea to cock block him!!!!!
I drew down straight threw her heart she fellinstantly and rolled so fast it was a blut she didnt go 8 yards and died!
The buck had no idea what happened but you could tell by his body langauge he was thing WTF????
He just stood there for 5-8 minutes then walked up and sniffed her. He even lifted her rump up a few times with his horns.
Then after 20 minutes or so his tail went straight up and he stiff walked off knowing something was jacked up!
I am not sure if he got a wiff of me or he was just like OK something is wrong in the force today Obi one!!!
One of the funniest things I have ever seen in the woods
The very first deer I killed with a bow was a young doe. It was opening weekend of archery season in WI so everything was in full leaves and it was thick. I shot the doe at first light and could see my arrow after it had gone through her. I was not sure that I even hit her. A good size buck then came by and went down the same trail as the wounded doe. He stopped, his eyes got big as saucers and he vacated the area. He was spooked. I later found the doe right where he had been standing when he spooked.
I've seen deer totally ignore it and I've seen whitetails totally come out of their skin freaking out when they walk/sniff across a blood trail. I think it all depends on the disposition of the critter.
Guy shot a cow moose this year, and the calf bedded beside the gut pile and what was left of the hide for two days until somebody else shot it.
Nope. My buddy shot a bull two years ago on Saturday night, I hunted the same area on Monday and shot a bull standing 20 yards from his gut pile.
I tend to agree, however, here's a story where the carcass may have been problematic:
I killed a bull elk near a waterhole several years ago. My partner & I butchered (gutless method) and packed the meat back to spike camp.
The carcass was about 100-yards from the waterhole.
My buddy planned to sit water while I ferried the meat back to trucks/ice/coolers.
For the next 2-days straight trees in a 200-yard radius were PACKED with ravens & vultures squawking and carrying on so loud my buddy nearly went insane.
No elk or deer came to the water for next 2 days. May have been coincidence, may have been due to the ravens. Certainly wasn't because of the carcass.
We were also surprised that during that time not a single bear or coyote turned up at the carcass. You'd think they could have heard the ruckus for miles and come running.
Carl
Not at all in north America, In Africa they wont go near any dead animal and spook at even a little blood in a trail. Also no animal will cross a trail that a wounded animal has gone on, that day.
A few years back I shot the buck in this photo and it died just about 20 yards from my blind. (Frontal shot, so I was lucky as I hear they are unethical). Notice the does that were running with them. They ended up going right up to him.
But before this happened these same antelope, including the buck in this photo went over to the gut pile of my son's buck that he had shot just about an hour or two before I shot this buck. Then after visiting his gut pile and the area where we cleaned it, they came in for a drink and I shot the above buck.
One evening in Colorado I shot a bull elk from a tree stand and he ran about 60 yards and expired. We gutted him and hung the quarters that night and came back and packed him out the next morning. That after noon I placed a tree stand up by the gut pile to see if I could see a bear. Around six that evening a decent bull and his harem came down the trail that leads to the water hole and hit where he crossed that trail just before he expired. The whole herd went on point like a bird dog and soon they were like a bear dog following his blood trail right to the gut pile. They did that for 10 or fifteen minutes and then head down and watered at the water hole where I killed that bull the evening before.
I have a thread on Bowsite right now about playing a game and learning about anatomy of the critters we hunt. Tune in on that thread as I reveal what happened on my son's recent antelope. It ties right into this thread in a few ways.
Have a great bow hunt. BB
I shot a doe lope once she laid down asap in comes a buck sporting wood he tried to get it on while she was taking her last breaths . He came in with a shaft and left with a Carbon shaft
I hit this bull one morning too far back, so I backed out for about 5 hours, and went and got two buddies to help me look for him.
It was afternoon by then, and we found no blood, so we started making big circles. I had heard the bull cough about 100 yards up the mountain, so I went up to try to get his track.
I finally found blood, and started to trail the bull, when my buddy yelled "I found him" back down toward where I'd shot him.
As I approached, I smelled something dead and rotten...the bull had made a big circle, and came back and died next to a dead deer carcass (about 70 yards from where I arrowed him). My buddy found him by following the smell into the wind.
Best of Luck, Jeff
I guess I will be the odd man out. I have also seen deer come by gut piles when they are driven or fleeing. So I am not saying it doesn't happen. I also do not believe that the presence of dead deer bother them. But it is my belief that the smell of a gut pile will make them avoid the area at least at times. I've seen deer that were using specific trails solidly for 3 weeks, suddenly move to trails 200 yards away after we left a gut pile near the trail. We had killed several deer during the prior 3 weeks but just had not gutted them there. Its just my opinion and I will continue to drag deer off at least 100 yards away from any of my stands before I gut them.
Years ago, I killed a buck (gun). Got down from my tree stand, gutted him and dragged him about 50 yards toward my stand then climbed back up. About a half hour later along comes another buck and was sniffing the gut pile. Killed him...legal to do so.
I think the human scent left from gutting/dragging is the problem.
I shot an antelope doe in WY in 2011 and this was the blood trail leaving the point of impact. EVERY antelope for the next two days that walked to the bloodtrail hit the skids and absolutely refused to cross it. Several small bucks actually "barked" and bolted when they got near the bloodtrail. My friend Mike rubbed the trail out with his boots and the antelope returned to watering in the same spot where I shot the doe.
I hunt a small property in northeast IN (26acres) whenever we gut a deer it will be several days before deer that we have reliably patterned from cameras will frequent the stand location again.
All of that said, I have had bucks mount dead does, and deer walk right past ones that I've shot earlier in the morning. The antelope scenario did really surprise me though!
Nope. I've had moose , caribou and blacktailed deer come and check out the gut piles of their recently departed relatives.
Not 100% sure on this but I have seen one area I hunt jacked around for a week over and over if we leave a gut pile near the hunting locations. It was such a regular occurrence that myself and the other 2 friends I let that hunt that area agreed to gut in a particular location. Fortunately it is easy access in relation to the hunting spots where we do the gutting but it is about 800 yards away.
Now in that area when you hear yotes you only hear a few of them but when yotes eventually find a gut pile its different and you hear what sounds like 50 yotes (there really isn't that many) yelping. I think that plays a role in why. I also think it does because you will see resident deer on cam all the time here and then suddenly they get all skittish and bolt and then a single small yote will show up mins later tripping the cam and the deer will not return until the next day. On the very rare occasion they return within a few hours but that's rare. Hell even I can push them out of an area and they will return within hours but a little yote jacks it up for a day.
I think the disturbance of human scent every where as you gut and drag your deer out and the scent of death drawing in predators that deer naturally avoid are the primary reasons when it is seen for resident deer around here anyway.
IMHO critters don't fear the guile at all. What they fear is the predators that the gut pile attracts....thus, we gut all our deer up by the farm house (and put a trail cam on them)....
Good luck this deer season!
Mark
It might or might not spook other animals. For me, the bottom line is this. It has never spooked game out of the area by not leaving a gut pile.
Where I hunt in Illinois the gut pile issue is a moot point because the 'yotes will have it cleaned up shy of a few bloody leaves by the next morning.
Our 'yotes are faster than a Jimmy John's delivery!!!
I think the predators that come feed on it are what spook the deer??? Having the scent bears around tend to spook the deer. Yotes and dogs somewhat too.
Each animal is different. Some might spook, some might not. I don't particulary like gutting deer around my spot just because I don't want to attract coyotes to the area, but I just gut them where ever they go down.
One opening day, I shot a buck and watched it go down in sight. It was early, so we decided to stay on stand for a few more hours. About an hour after I got my deer, another buck came out and walked right over to him. He circled my deer and rubbed his antlers all over every branch around the deer and then started fighting with him. This went on for about a half hour. The buck lost interested and walked away (or so I thought).
I went to walk over to my deer about an hour later and spooked the other buck. He ran right up the hill to my brother and he ended up getting that buck. One of my favorite days ever.
Like 2 years ago, I got a doe and gutted her where she went down. The next week I went back to hunt the same spot and there was a scrape about 10 feet from the gutpile.
Two years ago I was doing a morning hunt in Iowa. When it got light out, I noticed a rump shot dead buck lying in the main deer trail intersection. At 8 am I had a shooter buck come down the trail and lock up staring down the corpse. After about a minute he God an about face and left the way he came. It was obvious he did not like what he saw.
I hunt on a ranch in NM. The landowner told me he had a group in several years back that only did gutless method of cleaning elk. He swears the elk would disappear after the group had hunted.
Oh Lou that is a cheery story...;)
