PDA

View Full Version : Dead deer = other deer have cleared out?



MarlinMan
09-18-2006, 04:22 PM
My hunting partner and I found a really good place to hunt - so good in fact that we had barely stepped out of the truck when we discovered a gut pile from a fairly recently killed deer.

We kind of thought that the area would produce some deer but we saw very little fresh sign and no deer.

I was wondering if other deer will clear the area? Does it scare them off?

I should add that the remains were just starting to smell a bit....

MarlinMan

rocksteady
09-18-2006, 04:27 PM
Absolutely !!! They will vacate the area until stuff settles back down....

It's not so much that their cousin Fred got whacked, but probably the noise that the hunters made afterwards (hooting and hollering etc), as well as the clean up crew that comes in behind (ravens/crows/coyotes/bears)...This will make the deer more wary...

Give it a feew days for all of the goodies to be cleaned up and the critters will go back to their normal habits...

Ozone
09-18-2006, 04:35 PM
I have seen the opposite. I have shot a deer dragged it to the shore line( I was hunting from my boat) went back to where I was sitting as it was now only 9am after about 1 hour I had 4 does within 30yrds of me. Some were even smelling the gut pile.

Rainwater
09-18-2006, 04:50 PM
I have helped a guy drag a deer out on the same trail a deer was dragged out the day before. Blood was splattered along the trail and interestingly enough there were fresh tracks in the trail, in the blood. Those crazy whities.

Onesock
09-18-2006, 04:50 PM
Animals die in the bush every day. If animals quit using areas where others have met their doom the forest would have no critters in it.

DBM
09-18-2006, 04:55 PM
I spoke to a guy who's son tagged out during youth season. They found the deer bedded down 10 feet from a fresh gut pile. They were watching the ravens, and low and behold there's a buck!

trigger
09-18-2006, 04:58 PM
Rocksteady is absolutely right. More often than not the deer will spook after shooting one. The noise, the smell, and the critters. I have hunted places 2 days after i have takin an animal and things do go back to normal

Elkhound
09-18-2006, 05:30 PM
My first buck was a nice 4x4 blacktail...shot him in the evening. Found out my buddy took a buck in the same place that same morning, and they wandered around this place for 5 hrs trying to find the blood trail of that buck

MarlinMan
09-18-2006, 05:50 PM
Yeah, thinking about it somemore - makes sense that deer and other animals die all the time in the woods - wolf, cougar etc. What probably spooks them is the human scent and the noise.

As a follow-up question then - how long before another buck(s) move in to fill the vacancy - assuming they're around in the first place.
MM

BlacktailStalker
09-18-2006, 06:04 PM
A dead or shot deer has zero effect on the living deer in the area.

overthetop
09-18-2006, 07:57 PM
I shot a moose one day and the next day, driving up the same road my buddy jumped out to shoot one and slipped on my gut pile. The gut piles were 300 yds apart.

JMac
09-18-2006, 09:26 PM
I think conditions, time of year, and buck maturity has a lot to do with it. In the rut you can see another buck hook up with the flattops of your shot buck in the same area sometimes in the same day. Lots of deer will go nocturnal if it is a prime area for them to be in. If one of them gets whacked at the start of the season they'll stick to heavier cover or only venture out in the open in the dark. The bigger bucks will be a lot more cautious than the younger ones, especially early in the season.

Steeleco
09-19-2006, 03:46 AM
Last Sept, Chappy and I shot two bucks in the same cut block on the same trail 24 hours apart. This year the third buck in the group is still in that area.

wetcoaster
09-29-2006, 01:52 PM
If an area is hunted hard for a while by a number of guys of course deer will be more wary but the sound of a shot isn't nearly as big a deal as you might think and a gut pile = no effect.

Reminds me of a question I have often thought about. Will shooting grouse near deer camp cause the deer to move out. My experience has been no.

Rod
09-29-2006, 11:32 PM
We dragged my GF's deer out of the woods and into her yard last week and 15 minutes later there were 3 does standing where the buck was shot (and later dragged past) watching us gut him.

I have also been elbow deep in a whitetail's gut cavity and had another buck come down the same trail, got bloody had prints on my rifle taking the second deer, and whitetails are as spookey as they come.

Cheers
Rod