Go for it man dont let him hold you back. And that garbage about deer seeing and smelling a gut pile making other deer leave is BS. I have gut deer and left the guts there and 10 minutes later have a deer walk up to the gut pile and lick the salt off the guts, we see this year after year, mostly during gun season. Your buddy is very very very slow, and Im not sure if he should be out there quite yet. Use the op to harvest mature does to your advantage.