One thing related to deer hunting that amazes me...
 

How quickly a gut pile disappears.

I got mine last evening, and was rolling out of the woods after field dressing at about 6:15.

I went there this morning to retrieve a chair I had to leave in the woods. Not even a speck of blood where I dressed the deer. You wouldn't have known we were there from the looks of it.

Critters love us hunters!

Sounds like the OP has some yotes around, as that is what I would imagine got most of it.

Its strange isnt it. Ive had em gone the next morning after I killed one the night before, and ive also had em sit up to a week.

Two interesting events happened to me showing how animals adapt to human actions. Several years ago I dropped two does in Warren County, NJ. I dress both of them out and dragged one to my car. On the way down the hill I passed a fox heading up to the gut pile that was decidedly annoyed that he had to step off the trail for me. When I returned to the second deer; he took about six steps and sat down waiting for me to leave before he went back to work on the pile. Didn't show any interest in the deer. Must have known to leave it alone for his own well being.:)

Another time I was busy dressing a deer when a noise above me made me look up. In the tree above me was 4 turkey vultures waiting for me to finish. Have to admit I hurried that job up and got out of there. Those birds eyeing me was a little unnerving.

I watched a blackbear clean up a gut pile within 2 hours of the deer being dressed.
RR

Many people hunting out in the Rockies say that the grizzlies are now conditioned to come to a shot knowing that there is probably a free meal for them!

+1

You beat me to the punch !!!

Very true that.

A few years ago i shot a buck on my field gut it & dragged it under my stand, then waited for a doe. Almost immediately a bunch of Bald Eagles & Ravens showed up, they were so noisey, that no other deer would ever come around. Anyway they had that gut pile gone in maybe 15-30min! Some ate it on the spot, while others grabbed some & flew off, they were fighting the whole time. I was happy that they were quick and out of there.

i really doubt any animal would ever come towards a gun shot, more likely the hunter downs his game and right there instantly the smell of blood hits the air. how long does he wait before attempting to recover his game? half an hour? an hour? and then how long does it take to gut and skin an elk? and how many times do they walk back and forth packing meat?
its clear to me what the bears are attracted to, the scent.
it's a funny little thought though... it sure gets repeated a lot.
didn't i hear that on one of those alaska shows my grandpa watches?

it's usually the grays that tear up our gut piles! next time you shoot a deer set some coilsprings in the ground ;)

Hunting dogs will absolutely condition to come to gun shots.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if grizzly bears were doing the same.

where are all these hunting dogs that are conditioned to come to gunshots?
I've never had an animal come running to me after i shot a gun, have you?
has anybody?

No, every animals instinct is to run, which is why people have to use blank guns to train dogs. because otherwise they would run away.

are you trying to tell me hunters use gunshots as a come command?
if they did they would be stupid because their dogs would obviously run away from them.


foxpros new big bang predator call: yes friends just like every time you shoot a deer and a grizzly bear comes barreling out of the woods at you. well we here at foxpro have replicated that. no bullet wasted and you dont even need a deer! so come on and ring that dinner bell.
msrp $599
would that surprise you?

You have come up with an amazing amount of BS in just this one post, LOL! First, yes, we used to shoot our guns as a last resort when our coonhounds or beagles, especially our coonhounds, would get on something and we'd loose track of them. If that failed and they were so far they couldn't hear the shot, more than once we left a coat on the ground and they'd be there when we went back to get them the next morning. My DD pointer that just died in July never had a shot fired around him when he was a pup, just some loud banging of pans at meal time, etc. He never once flinched when we started him on birds and when someone would shoot at a distance many times he'd want to head for the sound figuring there was a bird to retrieve or chase down. When he'd run a long way on a wounded pheasant and get out so far I'd lose track of him just one shot would let him know where I was and back he'd come! How old are you and what experience do you have in various types of hunting because you just made a fool of yourself with that post?!

I've heard of the coat thing, or hat or whatever.
smart idea and normally works, especially with wool
i've owned a few beagles
one was rabbit hound association (i dont know what that is just the lady i bought her from gave me the papers, i guess they just know the dogs lineage or whatever)
your dog was a special case, not to be afraid. none of the hound guys here use a gunshot to bring in their dogs. the serious guys use gps collars now. and have always just whistled or hooped, never fired their gun. at the most all ive ever heard is a pea whistle. why waste a shell? when a pea whistle is plenty loud.


youre the one reapeating bs you heard on alaskan wilderness shows as if it were the gospel. do you have any eveidence that grizzlies come to gunshots? no? then its BS!

lol you are very wrong and seem to have no idea what your talking about.

Rockport---Yea, but he knows everything because he stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, LOL! I wonder if he's ever hunted west of MD in his life, however long that's been! Seems as though he had a big disagreement with a bunch of us a year or so ago and then ended up changing his username to what he posts under now. Not sure, but I think this is the same guy! Anyway, I've hunted out in Wyoming most years since the early 90s and as the years go by more and more guys are chasing grizzlies off their kill sites before they even field dress their elk. That means the animals are associating the shots to an easy meal because there is very little smell for them to come to before the animal is even butchered!

EDIT: Yep, it's the same guy and his picture under his username makes it appear he may be in his 20s. Heck, I've got a pile of longjohns older than that!

That is really a bad move but I admit Ive also resorted to it quite a few times.

Coonhounds are really bad about it. If you are not careful they will simply learn to reverse the role and you become the one finding the coons while they sit around and wait to here a gun shot so they can come get the coon.

I'm sure you already know all that which is why you used it as last resort but it might be helpful to others.


We had a female coon hound that once she got old she would just lay down and wait for the other dogs to tree then she would go whip them and claim the tree and take all the credit. She had no idea we could see exactly what she was doing.

That ole girl ended up getting a special retirement home in the heated shop and lived to be around 20 years old. She was a hell of a dog in her day.

I always got a kick out of those driven old coon hounds that we would have to leave overnight. They would be laying where the truck was parked the next morning with just absolutely nothing left in the tank.

I don't know anything at all to speak of about bears but that doesn't surprise me a bit.

Yep, we only shot as a last resort like I said and it didn't happen very many times in over ten years that we ran them. The coat trick was the best way to retrieve them most of the time and that didn't really happen that often, as our two along with the others that a friend owned were some dang good dogs. Sounds like that old dog of yours figured out real quick to let the younguns do the job and then take the glory, ha! That's funny, but animals are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for, especially our young "expert" from MD!

We never tried a coat. They would just be laying where the truck was parked. I say they but it was mostly just the one male dog. He was a damn good hunter but he didn't know when to quit which I guess comes with the territory. His name was smoke. He lost an eye one night and wanted nothing more than to keep hunting. Ole smoke was something else. He ended up having to be put down to early in his career he was just so beat/crippled up.......he loved every minute of it though. He just wouldn't have it any other way. We had to dig him out of the ground on several occasions after he forced himself all they way into holes after coons and couldn't back out.

We also have used a shot to bring in our beagles and they most certainly would come in. If we would jump a rabbit where the dogs couldnt see it, and shoot at it, they would instantly be there trying to figure out witch direction it went.

so wheres the proof about the griz? mr expert topgun

you guys can believe the heresay about grizzly if you want to i dont buy into ot

Do you agree you were very wrong about dogs yet?

DELETED by JW STOP THE BASHING

i said in my post i had never heard of anyone using a gunshot to call back in a lost dog, didnt know people did that.

all the old guys around here use metal whistles with a big pea so i dont know what to tell you. thats great yall do that and im glad its helped. i wasnt really wrong though. a whistle works just as good as a gunshot.

I could never prove it but a couple years ago there was a family of coyotes living close to where Dad and i dove hunted. We would clean our doves next to the field and the next time we would go there would be lots of coyote tracks in the silage field where we hunted. This happened several times so when coyote season opened up I called the field and had 2 coyotes respond immediately. I shot at one at 250 yards in a cross wind 3 times before it finally trotted off. When I was leaving I looked back to where it had ran and it was just standing there watching me leave at around 400 yards on the crest of a hill. I decided to double back and when I crest that hill there where 4 coyotes on the back side just kinda running around. Well 2 more misses on me and I was out of ammo.
One of my worst days of shooting ever but the morel of the story is I believe those coyotes had got used to dad and i shooting doves and getting a meal afterwards and where not concerned with the gun fire.

Wow MD you sure know how to look foolish! Children learn by watching and listening to their elders. You should try it some time. Grizzlies that live in areas where deer and other big game animals are hunted regularly most certainly do learn to associate the sound of a gun shot to a free meal from the leavings. Unfortunately they sometimes aren't content to wait for the leavings. The fact that you of the ripe old age of 22 never heard of it, isn't surprising since many people don't. However I never saw others want to argue about it. If you think you are making an impression, you are, however, it is not the one you really want to make.

so youve had black bears come to you after you shot a deer? like immediately after as if they came to the sound of it? no you haven't nobody has. they come several hours later to the scent. out west they probably take all day getting an animal out and if they see a grizzly he would probably tell everyone oh he came to the gunshot when clearly thats not the case. bears are guess what everybody? scavengers!!! bingo, dont need to learn anything from you guys. yall will believe anything you hear on tv. bear smells blood-bear comes to blood.

Not with our Beagles it doesn't. And I am not talking about just 1 dog I am speaking of every rabbit dog we have owned since 1975. A whistle means time to go home to a hard headed beagle, a gunshot means another rabbit to chase! And believe me a good rabbit dog never wants to go home!LOL!

You seem to have a problem I can't help you with.

I'm not surprised somebody that thinks they "don't need to learn anything" doesn't know very much.

that is exactly right

He has a problem no one can help him with! Some kid who can use his razor for 6 months before changing the blade telling people with hundeds of years of experience between them how things are.

Lot's of 'em. A lot of possums, too.

that would be really neat!

I had a bobcat on the gut pile of a small buck I shot one year. It was neat to see.
-Jake

Coyotes love
 

those gut piles.

I once checked on a coyote I shot, without taking the fur. Two days later there was just fur left. Coyotes feed coyotes.

They should turn the "Deer Crossing" signs into signs -"Coyote Sanctuary."

What I found works well is to gut the deer in an open area so crows, vultures, and eagles can easily see the guts from the air. If the birds do not quickly finish off the guts, the racket the crows make will quickly attract other animals. Ideally, if the birds can finish it all off, all the better as I do not want to be attracting a bunch of coyotes. Everything is gone in a day.

the gut pile from a deer we shot a couple of weeks ago during whitetail season was gone only an hour and a half from the point it hit the ground. coyotes are definitely doing well here.