Cutting them open....
 

After my adventure yesterday.....and my deer I took, Friday...I wanted to ask a question about field dressing your BOWKILLS.;)

With it being late in the season....and seemingly people targeting food sources again....do you cut open the stomachs of your late season kills to see what they've been eating?

I'll admit I've had two chances to do it (one mine and one a guy I was hunting with) within the last 10 days and it never crossed my mind while I was doing the deed.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I don't do it, because I can't take the smell. But I do know some friends who do it.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I did it once in late November of 2006 on a buck.

Wanted to see where he came from as it wasn't the direction I expected. At least not on that morning.

He was full of corn. Which meant he came from just over 1/2 mile away.. and from across a road.

I'll do it again.. when I need too.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

The only bellys I will cut open on purpose are fish!

Anything else is an accident. I generally know what they are eating in my area, but at least now I have an excuse for when the knife slips[:'(]

RE: Cutting them open....
 

If I kill one this late season, I'm cutting it open. I realy want to know if they are traveling to a corn field that is a ways away, nearly a mile. But, its the only one for a LONG way. There's winter wheat, alfalfa, beans, but that is the only corn around. This will be my first intentional stomach cutting.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

Not a chance. Everything is crop fields where I live, so it wouldn't do me much good. Add in a weak stomach and its a recipe for disaster.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I usually do. But only after it is out of the deer.

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RE: Cutting them open....
 

I've done it several times, and it's is pretty amazing what you find sometimes. Half chewed acorns, and corn, beans, BRIGHT GREEN remains of "osage oranges." The spot I'll be headed to in about half an hour is full of osage, and the deer LOVE that stuff. So hopefully something makes a mistake this evening and gets hungry for some osage oranges.

RE: Cutting them open....
 

I always cut the stomach open and check it out.