RE: Cutting them open....
 

I find this funny.

Maybe not everyone hunts Ag fields.

I know I don't. They're within 1/4 mile.. 1/2 mile.. and even 1 or 2 miles.. but I very rarely hunt on top of them.

I don't see whats so un-necessary about a hunter trying to learn something.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

It's just plain cruel to pick on the Lions.

But it is fun.

Q. How do the Detroit Lions count to 10?
A. 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5, 0-6, 0-7, 0-8, 0-9, 0-10

Q. What's the difference between the Detroit Lions and a dollar bill?
A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar.

Q. How many Detroit Lions does it take to win a Super Bowl?
A. Nobody knows and we may never find out!

Q. What do you call 47 people sitting around a TV watching the Super Bowl?
A. The Detroit Lions.

Q. What do the Detroit Lions and opossums have in common?
A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.

At least they got rid of Millen.

okay, back to gutpiles....

RE: Cutting them open....
 

Then cut that deer open, dirty your knife and find all that corn inside.[8D] If you've done your homework you'll also find acorns if they're around, green browse(I challenge you to tell me what bush it came off), you'll find dried up oak leaves and other leaves, smillack, honeysuckle.... anything that's available. The bigger amounts will be the corn and bait piles. What does a bait pile fed deer tell us.[&:] I challenge MOST hunters to tell me what the contents of a stomach are. They'll mostly come up with stinky rotten crap that's all green and slimy. Sorry, I forgot the apples. Duke, 1/4 mile is just a long rifle shot. Deer make that trip in about 10 seconds.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I cut them all open, just something I have always done when I am finished gutting them.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

While I see no downfall to cutting open a stomach to learn its contents...I have to agree with David that if I am setup within 1/4 mile of an ag field, it would be insane of me to think that deer isn't eating that ag crops....harvested field plucked clean for silage? Now we are talking a different story, but if crops are in...thats what the deer is eating.

1/4 mile is 440 yards. That is no distance at all in the whitetail woods. heck 1 to 2 miles isn't that far of a stretch for deer, especially in November.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I disagree with david. Cutting the stomach open will tell you what the deer did for theprior 24 hours, food sources can change for deer on a day to day basis and this info willallow you to set up on that food source they are curently on. I was hunting in Will County Illinoiswith a friend about 8 years ago, he shot anice ten on 300 acres we were on, we cut the stomach open, it had nothing but acorns in it. There were no oaks in this wood lot (that I knew of)so I started looking around and I found a smallhillside with about five acres of white oaks and after I set up, it sounded like rain with all of the acorns falling--I didn't know these oakswhere even there as it was our first year in on this ground. I set up in the oaks that night and shot a 147 inch11 point. I would not even have been looking for those oaks if not for the tale my friends deer's stomachtold us. I've seen deer gorge on apples, maple leaves, etc, etc. Knowing the food source of choiceat seasonal changescan be a great learning tool.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I don't, if I'm keying in and hunting them on their food sources I know what they're eating!

RE: Cutting them open....
 

But thats not the point.

I have sometimes cut bean.. and alfalfa as well. Ag fields are everywhere around me. Lots of crop types to choose from.

I don't cut every deers belly.. but the one deer I did cut came from a direction I did not think he would on that hunt.. that morning sit.

So I cut his belly to see where he came from.

The field he came from was just over a 1/2 mile.. and across a road. Which is EXTREMELY interesting to me since the buck would have had to cross that busy road in broad daylight.

And while 1/4 mile is just a long rifle shot for some.. as a bowhunter it is quite far enough.

I don't know David. Sometimes you make a lot of sense to me.. and other times I think you assume too much about other hunters..

I think you assume too much on this one.