A topic I have not seen addressed on any threads here or anywhere actually.

What do you guys do with your gut pile after field dressing?

Do you leave it where he was dressed, do you try and move it out of the area of your stand, do you take it home and make a nice wreath for the wife?

Although my wife loves a good gut wreath I just leave mine where it falls.

I leave mine because usually the coyotes or the crows will have it cleaned up within a day anyway.

If a deer dies near my stand I'll drag it a little way before cleaning it out. If I clean it where it may be seen by a land owner, I'll usually bury it, other then that, I leave it where it is.

Save heart and liver and leave the rest!
A couple years ago we went down to Texas on a low fence ranch for a deer hunt. The guide (it was only semi guided so basically they just told you how to find your stand) gave us a garbage bag and to collect the guts and bring them back to camp so they could discard them. Needless to say we said screw that! I'm not lugging guts back in a bag. After we got our deer we threw the whole deer in the pick-up and let the guide gut'em out. He had to do something for his hefty tip!

With whitetails I pack them out whole if at all possible and gut them on a tarp at home and dispose of the guts.

Wolves, black/ grizz bears, cougars are drawn to the smell of blood .. so I try to minimize them from frequenting my whitetail areas.

I wouldnt worry about it much if I didnt have all these predators around.

I shot my first Pope & Younger a few years back as he actually had his nose stuck in a gutpile left over from the previous day's kill. He wasn't alarmed in the least... that is, until my Gold Tip 5575 sliced through him!

I would rather eat the south end of a north bound skunk[:'(] I leave em where they lay.

It depends on where I am. If I'm on public land or a larger property I'll leave it to let nature take its course. If I'm on one of the smaller private properties that I hunt I bring a bucket and take it with me and bury it in my friend's mulch pile. I also try to cover the blood as well. The property owners sometimes take walks on their land and I don't think they'd like to see or smell a stinking pile of guts. They don't ask us to do it, it's more of a courtesy as thanks for letting us hunt.

Don't forget the Balls. In Texas you can be fined for not recovering all edible parts of the deer. Someone on this board said they eat them. So I guess you Texans better start looking for a tasty recipe. I would hate to see you get a fine.