A question about "the scent of death"

PastorJim08 · 10-19-2009, 08:49 AM

Two weeks ago today, I shot a doe. There was a large crack sound when the arrow hit. I think the sound was from the arrow hitting the off-side shoulder as the doe was quartering away and I didn't aim far enough back. Anyway, after a three hour search there was no blood, no hair, no arrow, and obviously no deer. The last few days I have been hunting a different stand but one that was in the vicinity of where I shot the doe. As I have approached the stand, there is a very strong oder of something that has died kind of close by, although you can't actually smell it from the stand. There is a very large thicket near the stand where the odor is coming from. I looked a little bit in there to see if the odor was associated with the deer I shot but I didn't see anything. I didn't venture very far into the thicket because it's so thick and I really don't want to disturb the area to much. I really just wanted to see if it was my deer, what I did wrong and if I could learn anything from it. But here's the real question. I hunted that new stand for three times and didn't see a single deer from it, although it is at the intersection of several trails. Do you guys think the odor of whatever is dead near there would keep the deer from the area? If anyone has had any experience with something similar, I'd like to hear about it.

Blessings.....Pastorjim

louddrummer69 · 10-19-2009, 08:58 AM

I've actually had deer come and smell gut piles from previous deer I harvested. I think you'll be fine.

bowfly · 10-19-2009, 12:39 PM

same as louddrummer

i have even had deer come in, lick dead deer, lick their gut piles, etc

the doe i shot on the pa opener, her gut pile was in the woods the entire day, as i shot her at 7:20 and her guts were on the ground by 8:00...i had 16 turkeys walk by the pile, 2 red fox, and numerous deer, no worries

this weekend i hunted the same stand, and saw 11 deer, 2 bucks, all walking within 50 yards of this gut pile...no issues in my book

what may have the deer bugged out is if a bear was in there eating on her, or perhaps coyotes too