Coyotes???

[student]

When you see a coyote during rifle season, do you shoot it?

We've made a point this year to remind the hunters in our group that if you see a coyote while hunting do you best to remove it from the population.

[BuckKiller]

Nope I don't mind having them around, I like watching them...all animals for that matter

[PurpleFloyd]

Every chance I get.

[bottom-bouncer]

kill them all!

[motley man]

I don't mind the yotes as much as the the timbers. Wish I could shoot them.

[BeezeHound]

If I see one, it's getting shot at, shot one with the bow last weekend.

[student]

We figure we're seeing half as many deer as we did three years ago in zone 240. Last winter there was more than 16 yotes killed in a square mile area where we hunt. If the population is that dense throughout the entire zone we could be a lottery zone before too long.

[mrklean]

yep if i see it its shot

[Musky Buck]

Easily way more coyotes in my section than deer by a landslide, last night they were going nuts, maybe 6 different groups of them until...............a lone Timber Wolf let out his 2 cents off and on for about a minute, then silence in the section. I would think mange will get at them in my area at some point, way too many around and hopefully a few bullets will find them also.

[Double D]

+1 to the posts for blasting them.

DD

[Agent Andy]

We see more wolves than coyotes, however we do shoot the coyotes. I believe that you need a small game license to shoot them.

[chack22]

No license needed for unprotected animals... pgs. 19-20 of reg book.

"Residents and nonresidents are not required to have a license to hunt unprotected species including coyote. Nonresidents do not need a furbearer

hunting license in addition to their small game license to hunt fox."

"Unprotected Mammals Weasels, coyotes, gophers, porcupines, striped skunks, and all other mammals for which there are no closed seasons or other protection

are unprotected animals. They may be taken in any manner, except with

the aid of artificial lights or by using a motor vehicle to drive, chase, run

over, or kill the animal. Poisons may not be used except in accordance with all label regulations of the state Dept. of Agriculture and federal Environmental Protection Agency."

[Hench]

Take a good look and squeeze the trigger.

[B. Amish]

i think it's kinda funny how bent out of shape people get about coyotes.

[student]

Elaborate please???

[B. Amish]

Quote:

Are Coyotes Killing Your Deer?October 16, 2008

by Daniel E. Schmidt

SummaryResearch shows — with some exceptions — that coyotes are maligned predators when they live among healthy deer herds.

I’ll never forget the first time I looked into the eyes of a death dog.

It was a tooth-cracking cold morning in Arkansas when I crawled into a small tower blind overlooking a vast wheat field. The landowner gave me specific orders to shoot as many does as possible to help with his management program.

“By the way,” he said as he walked me to my stand. “If you see a coyote, kill it, too. They’re wreaking havoc on our deer herd.” “Ten-four,” I nodded.

The morning was barely an hour old when I caught movement in a distant fence row. Coyote!

The alpha male was a prime specimen, and he seemed oblivious to my presence. He was out of shooting range, so I dug into my fanny pack and retrieved my adjustable deer call. I moved the call’s O-ring to “fawn” and let out a soft bleat. The coyote stopped in its tracks, did an about-face, and approached my stand. Within moments, I had the canine in my scope. His eyes said it all: He was mean and on a mission.

The crack of my .30-06 ended that operation and put a prime pelt in the landowner’s fur shed.

The Truth of the Matter

Bagging a coyote during a deer hunt is certainly a bonus for opportunistic hunters. After all, coyotes are plentiful and their winter pelts are valuable. However, unless you live in the arid Southwest or the frigid North or Northeast, don’t think for a minute that you’re saving the deer herd by killing a few coyotes.

Over the years, I’ve talked with many well-intentioned hunters who have complained about high coyote populations on their deer hunting properties.

Invariably, coyotes get blamed for everything from sparse deer sightings to poor fawn recruitment.

One hunter even told me that he believes coyote predation caused an increase in bucks with inferior antlers on his property. He claimed coyotes were killing mature bucks in winter and leaving younger bucks to do all of the breeding.

Of course, there isn’t a shred of scientific evidence to back up such claims. In fact, many of these anecdotes border on sheer nonsense. Researchers have proven that coyotes can capitalize on bumper crops of newborn fawns. Coyotes certainly chase healthy adult deer and manage to kill some on bare ground, but those instances are extremely rare.

What’s more, coyote predation on deer is marginal at best in middle-tier states.

D&DH Research Editor John Ozoga spent much of his professional career studying such things as predation on white-tailed deer herds. He can recite scores of research projects that have proven predation on deer is a fraction of what many hunters believe it is.

“Studies have shown that newborn fawn mortality can be 20 percent to 25percent once fawns reach four or five weeks old and become more active,” Ozoga said. “But a healthy deer herd can easily handle that.”

Ozoga added that such results are on par with what he found with black bear predation on newborn fawns. In those studies, Ozoga noted that bears can kill up to 22 percent of newborn fawns during optimum predation conditions — poor habitat and high deer densities.

When asked to estimate a worst-case scenario for the lower Midwest, Ozoga said coyote predation on adult deer would barely register a couple of percentage points annually. “Yes, it happens, but they (coyotes) are not very successful, especially on bare ground,” he said.

One study in Illinois’ farm country, for example, showed that total mortality of newborn fawns was just 10 percent, and that included deaths from accidents, abandonment and birth defects.

Other Studies

Coyotes aren’t the only furbearers that get a bad rap with whitetail hunters. The evil-predator argument has also been extended to include bobcats, mountain lions, timber wolves and even fishers. However, in all of these cases, predator control has been scientifically proven to be a nonfactor in helping save deer herds.

For example, in 1981, Quebec biologist D. Banville showed that intense predator control efforts failed to substantially reduce wolf and coyote predation on whitetailed deer in the province.

The same has been proven in the Northern forests, where researchers conducted studies in 1962, 1966, 1969, 1971 and 1972.

A general conclusion of all five studies was that coyotes and bobcats killed some weakened adult deer living in deer yards during winters with deep,crusted snow. However, the losses were relatively low and deer herds quickly rebounded. It’s important to note that deer densities then were a fraction of what they are now.

Research has also shown that deer predation by domestic dogs can be much worse than that caused by wolves or coyotes.

In Michigan, for example, domestic dogs kill an estimated 5,000 deer annually. Another study was conducted by researchers in Saskatchewan in 1975. That study showed 81 percent of deer killed by dogs and coyotes were already predisposed to various disease conditions, like malnutrition and starvation.

“That’s the wild card in a lot of these situations,” Ozoga said. “Many times, especially in the Southwest, coyotes kill deer that are already predisposed to malnutrition and disease.” In other words, people blame coyotes for killing deer that would probably have died even if there were no predators on the landscape. To be fair, not all deer experts agree with the research.

For example, Leonard Lee Rue III believes coyotes kill more deer than what researchers have shown. He bases his opinions on experiences he’s had with raising deer and managing hunting club properties in New Jersey.

Southwest Considerations

Coyotes are North America’s most adaptable predator. Translation: They eat what they can, when they can. In the Southwest, where drought plays a major factor in animal populations, the odds are sometimes heavily tipped in the coyote’s favor.

Several studies in South Texas showed that coyotes are most opportunistic on deer in summer. One study at the Welder Wildlife Refuge near Sinton, Texas, showed that newborn fawns accounted for 75 percent of the local coyote population’s June diet. Additional studies by Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists from 1967 through 1969 found deer hair in 57 percent of coyote scats examined during summer.

Such losses, however, are more often the result of improperly managed deer herds. In fact, Texas biologist Bob Zaiglin believes coyotes can actually help control Southwest deer populations.

He used several scientific studies to prove his point while writing on the topic in the March 1997 issue of D&DH. “The fact is, coyotes can and do kill deer,” Zaiglin said.

But that’s not always bad, depending on the region in question. One of the most difficult problems deer herds face is mushrooming populations — not just in Texas, but across much of the United States.

“Make no mistake: Legal hunting can control most deer populations,” Zaiglin added. “But only when hunters shoot a prescribed number of does.”

In the final analysis, Southwest coyotes are a much greater threat to livestock, and that’s why they’re often considered public enemy No. 1. When they prey heavily on newborn fawns, it’s usually a sign that Mother Nature is working to balance population inequities.

Northeast Considerations

Unlike the small, 20- to 25-pound coyotes of the Southwest, the Northeast is home to a much larger subspecies. Weighing up to 55 pounds, the Eastern coyote of the Adirondacks is believed to be a distant coyote-timber wolf crossbreed.

Populations of these coyotes have been shown to prey heavily on deer in certain situations. In a landmark study that spanned 12 years, Maine biologists collected teeth and bones from 760 winter coyote-killed deer.

The researchers then documented the sex and age of each deer, as well as individual health (based on bone marrow fat content). On startling conclusion was Eastern coyotes do not target just young and sick deer when favorable conditions exist. In fact, researchers learned these coyotes prey nonselectively upon mature bucks and does that are otherwise healthy.

Weather conditions, however, were the key factor in this study. To prey nonselectively, the coyotes needed extreme snow depths and extended periods of cold weather. Under such conditions, coyotes could theoretically remove enough adult does from a herd to markedly affect local populations.

Bob Noonan is a Northeast coyote trapping expert and a field editor for The Trapper & Predator Caller magazine. Despite being a predator control advocate, Noonan admits that single-species management is not the end-all answer to maintaining deer numbers.

"There's little doubt that coyote control, aimed at removing the coyotes that are killing deer in their winter yards, greatly helps the Northeast deer herd," Noonan reported. "And due to the rough terrain, remote location of some of the yards, and harsh weather conditions, the only really dependable coyote control tool is the snare."

He goes on to explain that even snaring is only effective when done on a large scale and continued on an annual basis.

Noonan said a good example of how coyote control can benefit deer is what happened on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, just north of the Maine border. In 1986, had a healthy herd of about 15,000 whitetails, and a low coyote population.

However, after several consecutive harsh winters — and extensive clear-cutting that eliminated traditional yarding areas — coyotes got the upper hand and wreaked havoc on the deer population.

By 1991, researchers estimated that only 500 deer remained on the peninsula. To save the herd, the province banned deer hunting, implemented strict logging regulations and implemented an aggressive coyote snaring program.

According to Noonan, 80 trappers were trained to snare coyotes, and they were instructed to focus their efforts on 80 percent of the remaining deer yards.

The plan worked. In just three years, the trappers caught 1,500 coyotes. Deer numbers rebounded, and by 1999, the peninsula had a population of more than 2,000 whitetails.

However, the coyote problem didn’t end there. When the snaring program was stopped for two years, the coyote population rebounded, and the deer population again decreased.

As a result, the peninsula instituted a subsidized trapping program that is still used today.

“That’s an extreme example,” Noonan wrote. “In Maine, for example, the Eastern coyote is often labeled as the single greatest threat to local deer herds. In reality, the coyote’s presence is just one of many factors that limits deer productivity. For example, biologists have proven that changes in deer yard quality and overall logging practices have as much, if not more, impact on deer survival.”

What’s the Solution?

The answer to improving deer numbers on any property is to provide them with quality habitat. A fact lost in this whole discussion is coyotes prefer to eat small mammals and birds, and huge surpluses of those menu items can be created by improving your deer habitat.

Plant trees, shrubs and other native plant species, create water sources and, whenever possible, create jungle-like bedding areas through wise logging practices. Learn what types of species you can plant in your area, and determine how, when and where to conduct the project.

Some species of preferred deer browse are invasive, meaning they can quickly take over a landscape and choke out other desirable plants, trees and shrubs. On the other hand, planting too few of a species can be a colossal waste of time, because deer will immediately browse them to the point of killing the plants and their root systems.

Conclusion

If coyote predation on deer is a natural fact, should hunters never kill coyotes? No. As previously mentioned, taking a coyote with a bow or gun can provide for an exciting hunt. However, if your main purpose of shooting a coyote is simply just to “take it off the landscape,” and you have no intention of utilizing the animal, let it walk. Wanton waste of game is not only illegal, it’s immoral.

— Daniel Schmidt is the editor of D&DH.

[B. Amish]

Quote:

Are Predators Hurting Your Whitetail Herd?

Many hunters and landowners think coyotes, wolves and other predators are a major hindrance to effective whitetail management. Others believe they are a deer manager's best friend. Who's right?

By Ben Koerth

Predators kill deer. Thus, if you want to protect your investment in the deer herd where you hunt, you should reduce the number of predators, right?

In a simplistic world, that is exactly what you would do. However, the issue of predator control is not as black and white as it might seem. As in management of most other biological situations, there are many varying shades of gray.

We biologists have long been ingrained with the concept that predators are responsible for only minor deer losses and that any mention of lethal control is virtually sacrilegious. Others contend that some predator control is nearly always necessary to maintain a balance between predators and prey. Depending on the situation, both sides can be right . . . or wrong.

My position is not to specifically advocate one side or the other, but to present some of the pros and cons of predator control. Perhaps this will help you decide if controlling predators on your deer land actually would have positive benefits or simply make you feel good about having done something to help the herd. In the end, the decision about the particular role it should play in your management program is up to you.

THE PREDATOR IN HISTORY

Most people just like to hate predators. This notion probably stems from somewhere in our ancestral heritage. Prehistoric people presumably killed predators, at least in part, because they competed with them for food. There was little question that predators were a threat, either directly to the person's safety or to the availability of food.

With the efficient food-production capabilities in today's world, wildlife often is valued more for recreation and enjoyment than as a survival concern. Yet, there might be times when controlling the number of predators can enhance the production of what we consider to be a more desirable species of animal. The trick is determining when predator control will have a beneficial outcome.

TRUE DEER PREDATORS

In regard to the white-tailed deer, I think there would be little argument that the coyote is the main predator of concern. Mountain lions certainly can have a localized influence, but because of their limited numbers and distribution, they probably are not an important overall threat to whitetail populations. Bobcats and lynx kill some fawns and an occasional adult deer, but likewise do not appear to be a major threat overall.

A host of other predators, including foxes, alligators, feral hogs, eagles and bears, have occasionally been known to prey on whitetails, particularly fawns. However, their effect on the size of a deer population is minimal at best.

Where wolves exist, they can be a different story. They are considered a major historical predator of deer and can have a tremendous impact on local populations. However, the limited range in which wolves and deer now exist together makes these predators minor players over most of the whitetail's range.

THE COYOTE PROBLEM

In most cases, then, if predation of whitetails is occurring, it primarily will be limited to coyotes. And it will have one of three possible effects on the deer population.

The first possibility is that the predation is having no effect at all. Now, I think we probably can dispense with this one right away. We don't have to dig through the literature to know that coyotes kill and eat deer.

Predation, by definition, is individuals of one species killing and eating those of another species. Thus, any removal of animals will affect the prey population in some way - "good," "bad" or otherwise.

The other possibilities are that coyotes are either regulating or limiting deer populations. This might seem a game of semantics, but there are real differences in the two, and those differences indicate whether predator control actually would benefit your deer-management program.

If the role of a predator is regulation of a prey species, the predator is helping to stabilize that population over time. In this case, coyotes and other predators are unwittingly giving us a helping hand. As hard as this might be to accept, it's true. Their role is helping to keep deer from exceeding the herd's food supply.

Coyotes normally can't control deer numbers on their own. At best, they provide a dampening or suppressing effect on the population. In areas where the deer herd is near or exceeding the habitat's carrying capacity, where deer are depredating crops or where you have to plead with hunters to harvest more does to control the population, it would be foolhardy to attempt to reduce predator numbers. To do so only would heighten the negative habitat effects the deer already are having. And as much as we might hate to admit it, this is the case in most of the whitetail's range today.

This is not to say you can't affect the deer population if you remove enough predators. However, if you do, you'd better be ready to step in and make up the difference in deer production with increased doe harvest. Otherwise, your management program might suffer some consequences you weren't expecting.

Take, for example, a study conducted on the Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. In this study, a 966-acre pasture was surrounded with a predator- and deer-proof fence and all predators inside it were removed. The deer herd inside the fence was monitored and compared to the herd outside the fence, which was still exposed to predation.

Initially, deer numbers inside the fence greatly expanded, primarily as a result of increased fawn survival. However, after a couple of years of this elevated population, forage availability and deer health began to decline. Parasite loads increased, does began conceiving later, and overall reproductive performance decreased. Eventually, the population declined to levels comparable to those outside the enclosure, but with the individual deer in less healthy condition: not at all a situation we would like to see in our hunting grounds.

In this example, coyote predation was not limiting but regulating the deer population. In essence, it was serving to help maintain a healthy deer population within bounds of the habitat. In the long run, deer mortality rates remained about the same as before, but the specific cause of the mortalities changed.

This is what we biologists mean when we talk about compensatory mortality. If a coyote kills a deer that was doomed to die by other means anyway, is that necessarily a bad thing? In other words, if by killing one individual the survival or productivity of another individual is enhanced, there are no long-term harmful effects to the prey population.

Also, most managers seldom look past the initial impacts of predator control. In deer management, predator control normally is initiated in an attempt to increase fawn survival and, to a lesser extent, reduce predation on adult animals. However, other detrimental effects might cascade through the web of creatures farther down the food chain. Coyotes prey not only on deer, but also on a host of other species. As such, they can influence the abundance and distribution of other animals in the ecosystem.

For example, experimental removal of coyotes in a West Texas study resulted in drastic changes in small mammal diversity. Whereas 12 species of rodents previously could be found in the study area, after coyote removal only one species remained. Jackrabbit numbers increased threefold. Such midlevel predators as skunks, foxes, badgers, bobcats and raccoons also gained in numbers.

Whether or not these changes in return for higher fawn survival are considered "good" is a value judgment. However, there is little doubt the dynamics of the ecosystem have been changed in such an instance.

The last scenario is one in which a predator population actually limits deer numbers. In this case, predation would be the primary reason deer numbers cannot increase. In fact, this predation might even be causing a decline in deer numbers. This situation has led to coining the term "predator pit," wherein a prey population simply cannot increase because of predation, no matter how much food is available in the habitat. It's as if the deer are in a predator-lined hole and cannot get out and expand.

This scenario is a possibility where deer are at very low densities relative to the habitat's carrying capacity. It can occur when otherwise normal deer populations suffer a debilitating setback of some sort (such as disease) or are colonizing new habitat.

In such scenarios, predator removal can greatly enhance deer production in the short term. However, while a predator-removal program can provide a quick fix to get a herd on the road to recovery, eventually the deer will saturate their range and become limited more by nutrition, as in the predator-regulated example above.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of other situations in which predator control might prove to be warranted. The first is one in which predators are new to the prey population.

Historically, coyotes were denizens of the Western and Southern United States. Deer and coyotes evolved together there, so normal predator-prey relationships were developed long ago. However, within the past 50 years, coyotes have greatly expanded their range to include the Southeast and East Coast regions. They have been found as far to the northeast as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick within the past 30 years.

At least theoretically, it is likely that predators could have a far greater influence on a population where predator-avoidance strategies have not had much time to develop. In this case, the "rules of the game" and the "playing field" have been changed.

Still, coyotes might not be the demon many whitetail managers think. In light of the burgeoning deer populations throughout much of this range, coyotes apparently are not a limiting factor overall. However, predator control in localized areas where deer populations remain low could prove to be fruitful. It still remains to be seen if the deer in this area can sustain the current rate of hunter harvest in addition to predation by an unchecked and apparently growing predator population.

Also, with continued human manipulation of the landscape, we could be developing another situation in which predator control plays a significant role. Highly fragmented habitats essentially create islands of deer habitat surrounded by country that provides little for deer. Even when these islands are connected by fencerows or brush strips, the narrow, linear shape of the strips makes predators much more efficient hunters.

The same goes for some areas that have been high-fenced for deer management. As with island habitats, small tracts surrounded by high fences essentially present coyotes with a captive audience and lessen the search time necessary to find prey.

EFFECTIVE CONTROL

Predator control will continue to be a divisive issue, and not all of the answers can be provided by anyone. But if you decide you need to reduce predator numbers in your management program, how much is enough?

There have been many cases in which someone has tried predator control and found it made no difference. The implication then is that predators weren't affecting deer numbers. On the other hand, the manager simply might not have killed enough predators to have a noticeable effect. Remember: It's not the number of coyotes you take out, it's the number you leave that is important.

To really be effective, predator control needs to be intensive. Unfortunately, too many people approach predator control in a somewhat lack-adaisical manner. For instance, many deer hunters seemingly have a "shoot on sight philosophy" about coyotes as long as they feel the disturbance of shooting a coyote would not have a negative effect on the outcome of their deer hunt. While this practice might give the hunter a temporary feeling of accomplishment, in reality opportunistic shooting usually falls well short of removing the number of animals necessary to effectively curtail coyote populations.

Even recreational calling and shooting of coyotes after deer season will have little lasting effect. Effective control takes more than a superficial effort that simply skims off the easy ones. Computer simulations conducted by experts on coyote-population dynamics suggest you could remove up to 70 percent of the coyote population each year and have no effect on their long-term number. You have to remove more than three-quarters of the coyote population annually to begin to see any substantial reduction in their number.

The key word here is annually. Coyote control is not a one-time deal. Short-term efforts to control predators usually do little more than aggravate the situation.

Timing of predator control is equally important. The best time to control coyotes is when their population is at its lowest point for the year. This equates to a couple of months between late winter and early spring before they give birth to their young.

This time period also has direct ties to the deer. Late winter, after the rut, is when most predation on adult bucks takes place. During this time, bucks are recovering from rutting activities and commonly are in their poorest shape of the year. Predator control during late spring also allows fawns to be born with less danger of becoming immediate victims.

IS THERE A PAYOFF?

This brings up a final item of consideration: How many of the deer you save from coyotes actually make it into harvestable age-classes? Do you as a hunter really get to take advantage of a surplus?

Unfortunately, most studies indicate that in herds already near the carrying capacity of the habitat, any surplus deer saved from predation have a much higher chance of succumbing to other factors long before they reach the hunter's bag. Deer can become more vulnerable because of their own success. Too many animals in a finite habitat can lead to more disease, increased parasite loads and/or other stress-related conditions that ultimately diminish their health and reproductive success.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

Predator control certainly has a place in deer management. However, it's not a cure for poor management. In deciding if predator control can be effective on your land, you need to consider several questions:

(1) What are your deer numbers, relative to the habitat's carrying capacity? Is there really room for more healthy deer?

(2) If there is more room for deer, why are deer numbers currently so low? All possibilities need to be explored before placing the blame on predators. Yes, coyotes kill deer, so that seems the obvious answer. But coyotes have been killing deer for thousands of years, and we still have plenty of both. The easy answer is not always the right one.

(3) Is effective predator control even feasible? With your skills and resources, can you remove enough predators to actually help the deer herd? This is where the record-keeping discipline we have written about so many times comes into play. If you have been monitoring deer numbers and reproductive success, you can use your numbers before and after predator control to determine how effective your efforts might have been.

(4) Lastly, are the extra deer you produce worth more than the cost of producing them, and will they be utilized?

CONCLUSION

Predator control might be justified if your deer numbers can be increased at a reasonable cost and the extra deer will be used. But such control likely will have little lasting effect on deer herds that are well established, have adequate nutrition, are actively reproducing and have ample cover so that fawns and adults are not exposed to excessive predation. You, as the deer manager, must make that decision.

[BigJakeL]

I shoot 'em!

[DanOmite19]

Didn't feel like starting a new topic just for this, but thought I'd share. Didn't see any bucks tonight, but was able to thin the population a little...

[wannafish2]

how about domestic dogs that are allowed to run by their owners and then run and kill deer? would you shoot a dog that you see in your deer woods? My feeling is that if the area residents have mentioned a particular dog running free after deer and i see it during a hunt in pursuit of a deer, I would shoot it just like I would shoot a coyote. Just my .02

Once I saw a group of 3 dogs take a deer down - a Beagle, Shepard and a mutt. Not a pretty sight.

[#fishhunt#]

You can shoot a dog during hunting season if it is chasing a deer I believe. Not sure if I personally would or could do it since I have dogs but I don't let my dogs run wild.

[MN_Pilot]

A guy in my hunting party had a group of coyotes following him through a field all the way to his deer stand. It was pretty early saturday morning. He said it must have been a dozen of them. Didn't see a deer all weekend.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

got 1 yote saturday morning when he spooked out of the crp after i shot my buck. missed another one 4 times when we were doing a drive on a farm grove later in the day. dumb yote made me look like the world's worst shot when he trotted out broadside at 15 yards and i never even got close to him.

those were the only 2 i saw in western mn this weekend. saw a few nice fox though that will get theirs when the snow falls...

[MNRookie78]

Yep! Shot one last year opener morning. He was on a trot toward 3 does and 3 small bucks I had been watching feed. They all bunched up together and stared as it got closer. One blast and he droped in his tracks. The deer didn't know what to think...they stood there for another few minutes with their tails straight up looking at it piled up.

[Sheephead Slayer]

I shot one this year and am all for it, however I regretted it because man do they stink!, now I have coyote smell all over my prime stand and had too drag its stinky corpse thru the woods, Didn't see as many deer after that.