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.

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

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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.

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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[:'(]

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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I always cut the stomach open and check it out.

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Nope

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not on purpose since college when we did abomasal parasite counts.

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Same here.

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I do it most of the time.

The adirondack big woods buck I took weekend before last was full of sticks and twigs.......no agriculture or defined food sources for miles up there. I was hoping to figure out what exactly they eat in those conditions. Must be a tough life for a deer.

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I have never cut open a deers stomach but have many times on turkeys. The wildest was the turkey plum full of snails (whole snails)

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I just went back to the gut pile sight two days later...guts were gone, and only stomach content remained....it looked like a baited corn pile.

Deer just like corn for some reason, IMO. Im starting to believe they will eat corn even over acorns in some instances as acorns are still on the ground in some of my areas, yet the deer are pounding the neighbors standing corn.

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I do everything that I can to keep from bustin' the gut so there's no way that I'm doing it on purpose. [:'(]

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I pretty much do that to all my deer. I like to know what they are eating at all times of the year.

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Not a bad idea Jeff. For some reason I've never done this. Weird thing Is I do It with fish all the time to see what there eating.

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I did it with Aaron. It was my first time doing it (intentionally) and I'll probably do it again.

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I do it to some deer, lets me know what there eating.

But i make sure i do it after that deer is clean and the guts are in there final resting place, then ill cut it quick, look and see and get out of there, hate that smell.

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I always do in my neck of the woods because I have no Idea what they feed on 1/2 the time so I just do it. It helps that I don't have a strong sniffer either.

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I always do, food sources are constantly changing around here so I like to stay on top of the game. Plus the smell dont really bother me, so thats not an issue...

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Cutting open the stomach is a part of hunting, it's research for next years hunt. It's like looking at a elapsed time schedule for the deer which tells you where it's been for the last 24 hours. I'm often amazed at the contents of a deers stomach. In the rut for example, lots of guys say that bucks don't eat as much but I've never shot abuck in the rut that didn't have a stomach packed absolutelyfull. Late season, you'll almost always find corn in them from cut corn fields (if you're in farm country like most of us are). They will travel great distances to getfood, more than you think. A DNRreserch agent in Iowa once told me that they have bucks radio collared up in N.E. Iowa and that many bucksrange 20 miles which just amazed me.

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After we get everything out of the deer, we cut open the stomach. No matter what time of the year it is. Pretty interesting really.

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Not me. It stinks too much.

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Makes sense to me.

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Me play in gutpiles??

yep. :D

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emmmmm, guts.

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Corn?! I didnt eat any corn.....

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That's just sexy, I don't care who you are.

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She has to have a strong stomach, she's a Cub fan.

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I check every deer I kill.

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Oooo.. ouch.

True tho'. Bears aren't smelling much better. [&o]

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Bahhahahahahaaaaaa[8D] catch the game;)?

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I did it on the deer last year, pretty funny actually. Iknew where he was coming from and killed him in my foodplot. My neighbor only hunts Thanksgiving week, and I can hunt there the rest of the time. Well, my neighbor put out his corn for two weeks, and all I did was hunt the food plot nearby, since they were coming there to chase does. I found a gut full of my neighbors corn in my buck, and I know he was on the cornpile just minutes before I shot him. I just thanked him for fattening up my deer and taking that day off.:D[8D]

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Yeah. *sigh*

I'd be happy if the bears just beat two teams all year. The packers and the vikings. ;)

At least I'm not a Chiefs fan. [:o]

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How 'bout them Lions:D

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Let's see, I'm sitting on an Iowa cornfield and shoot a big buck. Let's cut him open and see what he's eating..... NOT!!!

OK, I'm sitting on an Illinois cornfield and I shoot a big buck. Let's cut him open and see what he's eating..... NOT!!!!

OK, I'm sitting in La La land between a cornfield, oak flat and alfalfa field..... and as luck would have it, I shoot a big buck. Let's cut him open and see what he's eating...> NOT NECESSARY!!!!!

OK, it's the peak of the rut... a big buck iis chasing a doe all over the place. I fortunately shoot the buck. Let's cut the doe open and see what she's eating.[8D]

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Nearest ag field is a mile away.

I should have cut him open.