A friend and I were talking about the deer we shot in Pa and the topic came up about their stomachs. I know they are four chambered, they eat and regurgitate later when it is safe. What is the time frame for whatever they eat to make its way thru there stomach? Could you estimate their patterns or last couple of days by what you find? His had corn, mine only browse. So would his deer be in the fields about mile away before rifle season or the night before he shot it. He shot it four days after opening morning and was 2 1/2 years old, a better buck for this area. I shot mine the first Sat last hour of light and no corn any where in its stomach. This deer was also a 2 1/2 old deer with an even larger rack.

I guess what I'm wonderding is the behavoir of these nice bucks(for PA) when hunters are all over the place.

I was searching on-line for the info you requested, but I couldn't find out how long digestion took. <img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle>

What part of PA did you get the bucks in?
I live in south-eastern PA <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

I've been transplanted in Bucks county for work, but most of my hunting is back home in Luzerne. I will be doing some reseach on this I'll let you know what I find.

I don't think the stomach deal is as good an indicater as you think. The 4 chambers are called:

1. rumen
2. reticulem
3. omasum
4. abomasum

This is called Pre-gastric fermintation. The rumen is constant with all vertabra of the family of bovidae. Meaning ruminants. The rumen is where the food goes as it is consumed. Consider it a large mixing vat. As food enters, enzymatic breakdown starts. This is needed as notice they don't have upper teeth. After consuming and at the time of rest, an animal will regurgitate and &quot;chew his cud&quot;. After this, &quot;the cud&quot; goes back to the rumen and passes on to the reticulum. This is a honeycomb looking thing which you will see in the supermarket labled as &quot;tripe&quot;. It's basically a large filter that blocks anything ingested that's too large to pass on thru the digestive system to keep it from causing damage. As you mention, you can look in the rumen and see corn(or whatever else has been consumed) as it passes on, most of the nutrients are utilized and only fiber is left. Notice as you hunt, all deer feces looks the same. The only difference is doe&quot;s will be in pellet form, and bucks tend to be in (for lack of a better word) turd form. I don't know the reason for this. As you look for feces, it all looks the same. It will be a rare day that you will see corn kernals in the feces, and probably indicates an unhealthy animal. Judging from what you said, I would say no to being able to tell there lifestyle by looking at feces. however, if you can disect his stomach you can tell for sure. I'll almost gaurentee that if corn is available, they will be in it. Deer are just like you and me. They don't wont to eat the same thing everyday either. Corn is only available to them for a limited time and is high in nutrients. So when they get the oppertunity they will consume it. BTW the whole process will take 12-24 hours. Whatever you find in his stomach, foodwise, has probably been ingested in the last 12 hours. But don't be suprised to find an object in there that's not digestable. Something like a nail or piece of wire will stay in the rumen for his entire life.

Good Luck. Capt Brad.

Edited by - capt brad on 12/19/2002 04:58:00

CAPT BRAD

Thank you for your detailed responce, I appreciate the time you spent passing on this information.

I had to figure there would be a general time frame for the digestive system to break down its contents. I was not attemting to pattern deer by what I find. But at the least understand a vague time frame of his recent demise. Hey... 12-24 hours satisfies what I had hoped to find out. I understand with hunting pressure a deer may be pushed or chased, possiblly, to the next county. All the information I gain can only help out, or at the least stop the wondering.

Thanks again,
Tim