I lost a deer about 2 1/2 weeks ago when she crossed a creek and went in to a field of tall grass about 30yds from where she was hit. Also it didnt help in tracking that it started to rain. I know because of the shot that the deer is dead. My question is how long would it take coyotes to strip it down to the bone? The reason i ask is that i found a deer skull today and am not sure if they can strip it down that fast. All that was there is skull, jaw bone and a few vertabra(All stripped clean and not conected). I am inNWIllinois And i know that we have a lot of coyote here. What are your thoughts? I want to think this is my lost deer but not sure.

Two and a half weeks is plenty of time for coyotes to strip a deer down like that. I had a deer die in the forest near my house a year or two back, and the coyotes had it stripped to clean bone in a matter of 2-3 nights. Two and a half weeks and your looking at nothing left. Just my opinion.

I had to back off on a doe last month. Came back the very next morning and she was stripped down to the bone. Parts scattered over a large area makes me think there were several. No longer will I let one go over night

hey that blows i never lost a deer and hopefully i wont the best thing i can say is if you want to try to find more start at where you lost it and start making circles around one area then move 30 ft up and do the same thing its carcus is probably still there good luck

On our property we can not leave a deer over night if we hope to recover the meat. They find it within 24 hours and will consume at least the entire hind end.

in northen minnesota the timberwolves clean a deer out in a matter of an hour or two,I always cary a flashlight in my pack when hunting,the evening is my favorite time of day to get a deer.This is why shot placement is so important,a good hit will kill a deer in 5 minutes or less.I`ve seen the spine shots that drop them instantly but its not wise to aim for that

Here is what the coyotes did to my deer in 90 minutes from the shot.

thats a shame.decent buck anyways.Good thing they dont eat the antlers

Thanks. I did manage to salvage a fair bit of meat from him. If fact there is a load of pepperoni in the smoker from him right now!

I shot a deer 3 weeks ago. I found him the next morning and coyotes had gotten to him pretty good. I caped him out and took the backstraps because thats all that was good. I went by him again a week ago and his skin that was left on his legs were still there but mainly all the meat was gone. His ribs were pretty bare and the coyotes are pretty thick in there. Hope that helps u out.