I'm kinda paranoid about it, so I always drag the deer away from my spot to gut it. With that said, a hunting buddy of ours hunts the same point every year. About 3 years ago, he shot a doe opening morning just after daylight. He gutted her right there and dragged her out to the barn we hang our deer in and went back to camp. Another guy in our hunting camp went over about an hour later to check on him cause he'd heard him shoot. The guy that killed the doe is an older guy and we all try to help him out. When the second hunter arrived he saw the gut pile, put 2 and 2 together and assumed that Sonny ( 1st hunter) had tagged out so he sat down to hunt since he hadn't seen any deer that morning. About 30 minutes after sitting down to watch the point, he shot a decent 8 point standing over the gut pile. He said the buck walked right up to it and started sniffing it....had his nose in it when he killed him. Maybe a rut thing?

Along with what some of the others have said about the gutpiles disappearing in a few days.....I'd second those thoughts. Normally around our neck of Missouri, all that's left of a gutpile the next day is the stomach....and that will be gone in a couple more days after the crows get at it. Sometimes a dead coyote appears to......funny how that happens in a redneck county!


GH