Where to do you gut your deer?
Wisconsin
On the land we hunt on, the land owner does not want us to gut any deer where we recover them. Rather, he would prefer we do it in one area that is away from all the deer stands that are being used. He claims the gut piles attract coyotes (and other critters) and will hamper anyone else hunting in the area. We do not mind doing this, although it does make it a bit harder to drag a deer out. What are your thoughts?
Been doing that for a long time as well. Retrieve at nite when possible, gut well away from any hunting area.
Yup, we do it away from our stand areas as well whenever possible.
Not sure it makes a lot of difference but as we see it, get in silent get out silent and leave the least amount of scent and disturbance.
I gut the deer where they drop. Sure it attracts scavengers but it has not hampered my hunting. I often leave a trailcam at the spot to see what is coming around and how long before it is cleaned up.
The scavengers are always around anyway. It doesn't take long to clean up things and the area is clean. Often times I have deer right back in the area.
Mostly this is public land.
I always gut my deer at a particular spot, but only to keep the critters away from where I hunt. Nothing worse than a coyote, hawk, or fox coming around and getting the chipmunks and squirrels riled up.
With that said, I'm with smokey on this one, that I've seen no ill affect on deer with a gut pile in the area.
Right were they drop. Never had an issue with it and had had deer back in the area later that day.
Wolves are making some land owners rethink gutting the deer in the hunting area . I gut them where they fall .
Last year we gutted one during late season . Came back 1 day later to remove the tree stand and the gut pile was completely gone . In fact the red snow was gone too .
Depends where I'm hunting. If I have access to a quad or a tractor to get the deer out of the woods, I will load the deer up and gut it in a non hunting area.
I have seen it where someone in our hunting party will gut a deer 50 yards from one of our stands, and the next day, there will be 100 crows making a ton of racket. I dont know that the gut piles bother the deer all that much, but I cant imagine a couple day old gut pile is very inviting to deer. If I'm on public, they get gutted wherever they get shot. I'm not willing to drag that extra weight through the woods.
very annoying having 30 crows all day yakking it up on a gutpile.
There you have it!
Private land = no where near the sanctuary
Public land = where it drops. Do crows habitat Public land?
Funny stuff
Almost always within 10 yards of where they drop, public or private. Two years ago shot a doe one night on a hayfield, and a buck the next within 30 yards of her mostly-eaten gut pile.
In one spot away from stands and in open field. Last deer was cleaned up in less than 24 hours by crows and vultures. We now hardly ever cut a coyote try on our farm since we stopped gutting in the woods. Have been doing this for 5 years.
I do it away from the hunting area but, believe it really does not make a difference during the rut.
In one area near the house where I can get a clear shot at any coyotes that find it. It does not bother other deer to do it where they drop.
I gut them where they drop. If I find it on my neighbor's land, I will drag it back to mine and gut it there.
Where I am from, all deer and bear are gut back at my place. If on public and I know I wont make it back for a few hours it is gut a few miles away from where I hunt.
I gut them where they die. I don’t think the animals of the woods only go to a certain spot in the woods to die there is death all through the woods it is part of nature and all the animals of the forest live with it every day, I think it is the human sent they don’t like and it will be there no matter if you gut on site or not you were there and you left sent until that sent is gone the deer know it.
Right where they drop, often within sight of the stand I shot it from. I like the entertainment provided by blue jays etc. Better entertainment than most hunting shows on TV. It has never made any difference in deer patterns based on my experience. Besides getting the carcass to cool down goes faster with that chest wide open. Wish I had a gut pile right now, I would set a trap at the legal distance from it.
arpy00 does the land owner let you urinate or defecate in the woods or is there a special spot for that too.
basbh1, I am LMAO. Bet they have to dig a hole and bury it. Or carry an ice cream pail to carry it out in. Oops, I tripped and spilled it, call the hazmat team.
Where the deer drops.
Never a problem...
I normally gut them where they drop. I've put trail cameras over the gut piles, and I get deer visiting the gut pile every time. So they certainly are not spooked by it.
I hunt private land.
For those of you that gut your kill near your tree stands, hunting areas etc in Wolf country, if you or your hunting party plan to hunt that area again in the next few days or coming weeks, you possibly will kill that area for a couple days if not weeks not only for other members of your group but also others in the area. I realize animals deal with one another on a daily basis but why attract wolves and coyotes where you and others do not want them.
Last year a Bear hound group shot a bear, left the gut pile on an old logging road, rubber gloves included, real close (about 150 yards) to where one of my yearly archery deer stands was located. My friend happened received his wolf tag for that year, we decided to place a trail camera over the gut pile, it only took one night for the entrails to disappear but those wolves and coyotes visited that spot on a daily basis for weeks, deer sightings were very few compared to the year before in that area. I have to attribute that to the wolves continuously visiting that area. I have to believe deer moved to a safer area.
The year is wrong on the picture above, but this is the first snow fall of 2013 in that area, it was amazing seeing all the wolf/coyote tracks in that area near the now old bear gut pile, no one ever did hunt that deer stand.
Not disagreeing that it can't happen (spooking an area), but when tens of thousands of deer are shot across north-central Wisconsin opening weekend of the gun hunt, I find it hard to believe that there are enough wolves and coyotes to even eat all the piles for some time.
I have trailcam pics of wolves at sites and often less than 30 minutes later I have deer at the sites. I don't get a lot of repeat wolf pics but the deer keep coming around.
Bottom line is it more of a negative or positive to have a gutpile in your stand area?
I usually drag them to the nearest bait pile and gut them... as long as it's legal.. why not?
Antler Whore, that falls under the Hunter Harassment law. I had one of you guys with that attitude do that with a gut pile a few years back to a baited stand I set up for a good friend. What the low life didn't know is my friend was a chief of police. The guy was as dumb as a anti hunter, he did it when there was snow on the ground. With the information passed on, he was tracked down the next day. When interviewed he felt we were hunting to close to him (300 yards).Big woods County land. He was also given a fine for cutting trees down to block ATV access to a trail.
Behind the barn at camp the last few years. Just don't like to be messing around in the woods unless we're actually hunting. Have gutted them right where they were found for many years. Can't really say how much it affected things.
Right where they fall typically. I hunt the top of a ridge and almost 100% of the time, after the arrow hits, they run down hill to the bottom. Dress them there then have to drag them up due to geography. Piles don't last long, and the deer still show up.
What most of you guys aren't mentioning in your posts is if geographically you are in wolf country (known packs). I believe deer treat wolves vs coyotes differently. I always used to gut where the deer died, but from past experiences its best not to anymore.
Some hunters just don't care and that's OK but I am always thinking about other hunters out of pure respect, especially on public land when retrieving a downed animal, even during bear season, if a bear is down we go in as quiet as possible, silently talking as if we were still hunting. Late afternoon noises can travel and be heard at great distances.
One year during the deer rifle season I was hunting this big non-typical. I new another hunter was hunting the same buck, it was on public land, my stand was 1.3 miles mostly down hill off of this old logging road which was ATV accessible. Opening day arrives, I pull up at the same time as the other hunter, he watches me start to unload my ATV, walks over in a rant, scolding me that I was going to scare all the deer away if I take my ATV down in there. We ended up walking down together. Two hours into the hunt the other hunter shoots, 45 minutes later I hear his ATV coming down the trail to retrieve his deer. I sat there in disbelief shaking my head. Now this guy just got done scolding me, how it would scare the deer away, but I guess his hunt was over with so he could care less about others and what he preached earlier. This is another reason I will not gut deer where they die, it could attract danger and set those other deer on high alert and possible screw up another hunters hunt.
NWO that is very true. I would also like ATV use limited in general but that will never happen. It is easier with them and that's what we are all about.
So NWO, are you saying you would have dragged a buck 1.3 miles uphill with its guts in??? That's a heart attack waiting to happen unless you have a big crew.
On the neighbors property works the best.
Heck no Naz, why do you think I wanted to drive down there in the first place. I think your missing the point here.
My bad. Read that one too fast!
I gut them where I find them, the last I checked, deer don't know what their insides look like and for sure don't associate the bloody, smelly pile with death. A gut pile won't pull coyotes or wolves in from a long ways, so those trying to keep them out of their area must not realize that they are already there, they will eat them when they come across them. Noisy crows will bother the hunter more than the deer in the area, I could see how they would get really annoying but that gives another hunting opportunity to be utilized if the crow population is that high.
A few years back, I shot 3 does opening morning, they all dropped within 60 yards of each other. All three piles stayed there, I had blood trails all over in that area...it looked like a mess of red from the trail and dragging them out. The next day I had deer come right through and they didn't act any different, I shot another doe and a buck that morning.
A different year I shot a doe that must have been in estrous, about an hour later I had a buck go up to her and stomp and wheeze at her trying to get her to get up. After standing by her for a few minutes he walked off.
Deer don't understand death, they understand fear, but not death.
Thanks for the input. Basbh1..I get your point...we can pee anywhere we want, we do have a "comfort station" for all other duties.
I figure I would gut th by their gut pile so they could have their corn back...just a neighbor lyrics thing to do..
In a privet three acre woods I hunt I have two stands, one on the west side of a trail and one on the east side of said trail, they are 30 yards apart. Last year I gut a large doe five yards from the west stand and the next day had a young buck walk up to the guts, what was left of them, and smelled them. Next day the pile was gone already. I also had crows driving me nuts over a different pile a few years back when a ten pointer came through with no bother about the crow noise. Where they fall is where they get opened up. We gutted out my Canada bear a few yards from the bait pile two years ago and the next day the other bear(s) had it gone.
