Smelling gut piles?

[SCUMFROG]

Do deer stay away from gut piles? Like if you take 2 deer on one day and gut them can you go back and hunt that same area, cause you know there is more deer there, or will the deer move out cause they can smell that?

[xedge2002]

My dad shot a deer on stand Sat. morning and sat in the same place on sat. night. He said a fawn came in and was really smelling the gut pile. Don't know if it would affect larger deer or not but it didn't seem to bother the fawn too much. He said the fawn walked around him for at least 30 minutes.

[BobT]

Last year my brother shot a 6-point buck on opening morning. The next afternoon he shot an 8-pointer. Both deer dropped in their tracks and the gut piles ended up about 5' apart. I don't think they really understand.

Bob

[SCUMFROG]

Some one was telling me that they can smell them and they wont come back in the area for a long time.... That's why I ask. I'm new to deer hunting so I thought the best place to ask was here.

[Big-Al]

I have shot several deer within a few feet of fresh and old gut piles.

[Bubbadust]

I've also shot deer within 10 yards of a fresh gutpile.

[setterguy]

I'm not sure the deer know what the inside of another deer smells like. One thing I would wonder about is whether they know that other predators will be attracted to a kill. I don't have any first hand experience but the guys I was with last weekend brought all the deer back to just behind the cabin to gut them....I had never seen that before.

[Tripleplay]

I used to gut-em where they fell but coming back for the second weekend a couple of years ago was a real eye opener! I had at least a dozen eagles working the gut piles in the field and although the deer still came into the field they were so jumpy/skittish from all of the wings flapping an fighting at the gut piles that I vowed to never do another one in the field unless it is the evening of the last day. All go back to where we hang them now.

I've also had coyotes cruise them and that can't help either.

On the original subject, I've also shot deer within 10 yards of other gut piles so I don't think they are a problem directly.

[harvey lee]

I have never had a problem with gut piles.The coyotes usually eat them around us by the next morning.

[BobT]

Sometimes I think we over-exaggerate the relationship between wolves and deer movement. For example: When I was in the logging industry it wasn't uncommon to see an occasional wolf in the area. At the same time, deer were also very much around. The wolves' presence didn't seem to have any effect on deer sightings. This past Saturday while hunting with my daughter I gave a grunt on my call and had a timber wolf appear within a few minutes. Within 5 minutes of the wolf's passing, we nailed a 7-point buck.

I believe it is similar to the African plain when we see video of animal herds being followed by lion prides. They don't concern themselves with the lions until they realize they are hunting.

If wolves were such a problem for the deer, don't you think we would have a much more difficult time seeing them as well. After all, we are predators on the top of the food chain, aren't we?

Bob

[FarByondDrivn]

I have never seen it happen but some of the guys I hunt with say they have seen deer express interest in gut piles.

[8-Ball]

I don't think the deer have a clue, IMO...

[dillon]

Deer definitely are not bothered by gut piles. However, you want to cover them with leaves and brush. Otherwise at daylight you might find yourself looking at and listening to a flock of ravens which will keep the deer away.

[Wobbler]

After reading this topic I have to tell my story this year. Opening morning I shot a nice doe at 7am and it dropped right by my stand. I let it sit for 30 minutes in case of a buck showed up with nothing coming around. After gutting the deer and leaving the doe's privates on top of the pile and dragging it out myself to the truck I went back to get my backpack. Turning the corner to my stand 100 or so yards away was an 8 pointer standing over my gut pile smelling the gut pile and actually having its nose in the pile facing me. I shot the deer and it dropped on the gut pile then got up and ran about 200 yards before it died. Needless to say I was a believer that gut piles ruined deer hunting. My gut pile this year gave me the opportunity to shoot a nice buck!

[Eric Wettschreck]

I don't think a gut pile bothers deer at all and the reason I say this is I've shot deer sniffing gut piles.

I rather like the fact that yotes like gut piles and after butchering left overs like bones and heads and stuff. We just pile em up out in the field and wait for the yotes to show up and get shot.