Gut pile ?
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,445
RE: Gut pile ?
I have not seen deer strongly react one way or the other. I can say I have shot a deer 5 days after somebody else left a gutpile under a stand. In all we shot 3 deer from that one stand in a span of 15 days. All were field dressed on the spot. It would appear that the gutpiles did not drive deer away.
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: May 2004
Location:
Posts: 3,179
RE: Gut pile ?
As someone who hunts in Idaho and has had lots of experience with using animals (horses) to pack things in or out, I can tell you that animals have a great sense of smell. This sense is also used as a defense mechanism. To get a horse or mule to pack out a dead animal usually takes a lot of training. The scent of a dead animal is pretty potent to another animal. The last thing I want to be smelling 2 or 3 weeks down the road as I'm hunting is rotting guts, either. It is a deterent. Except for the animals that feast on it!
#9
RE: Gut pile ?
not sure about bowhunting... But in 2001 my best friend, his sister, and his father all killed bucks from the very same tree within a two day span. His dad scored first on an 8pnter right at first light, his sister later that day on a 10pnter, and Adam nailed a 9pnter the very next morning. All three were shot within 50yrds of each other and he says they seemed completely oblivious to the gut piles. All 3 were coming off the adjacent property which is heavily hunted so they may have been highly stressed which could have caused them to ignore the gut piles but ya never know.
#10
RE: Gut pile ?
I have never witnessed any ill affects. I have even seen rutted up bucks go to an old gutpile site from a doe early in the season and make scrapes at it. I've actually used this to my advantage once to shoot a buck.