death scent

[dave_fras]

i dont believe in that at all!...a couple years ago i shot a nice whitey from ym stand... and the very next day my cousin shot a basket 4 from the same stand

[NEEHAMA]

no it's true! it comes from a gland in the ears. it's called the daedreed gland. the gland shrinks during the rut. thus not as noticable in nov etc. early season deer produce more when killed. many animals not just deer can smell this odour.

[4pointer91]

Last fall I shot a good sized 4-point muley buck, 10 mins later as I was cleaning it a doe and another 4-point buck came along. The other 4-point stood 20 ft from me and sniffed the dead buck, definately no fear, in fact I thought it was going to attack the dead buck, perhaps myself!!! It stuck around for about 30 secs even after I started yelling at it to get lost. One of those days you wish you were hunting with a partner eh!

[bigwhiteys]

2 years ago we spotted 2 - 4 point muleys fighting. Our partner shot one of them and then we had to run the other buck off as he was trying to fight our downed buck. He hung around until we had gutted and loaded the deer up. He kept circling us head down, snorting, almost in a testosterone trance I guess you could say... No concern about us... And we had a tag too! the lucky bugger.

Happy Hunting!
Carl

[blaker_99]

i don' think there is such a thing as giving of a "dead scent" per say. If any of you have watchd the Drury brothers Buck Grawl video you would be truly amazed. the guy shoot a doe and as he used to buck grawl to call in more deer one of the bucks litterly gorrds the dead doe by tossing him in the air with hi antlers and smashing it up with them as well. if you can get your hands on the video it is amazing. cheers.

[wetcoaster]

There are insect species that have been shown to give off a death scent to warn others but these ocurances are all in species with social and or mating systems that promote a high degree of relatedness between individuals (eg if you crush an aphid on a branch the "death scent" from the crushed aphid will cause the others to drop from the plant in order to avoid predators).

I agree with others here and have never heard of any credible information that suggests that grazing mammals give off death signals with scent. The evolutionary advantage to doing this within ungulate social or mating systems is unlikely to yield a high enough fitness benefit through kin selection to cause this trait to be selected over time.

[Gunner]

My partner shot a 5x6 mulie last fall,and a 2point stayed bedded less than 150 feet away and watched as as we backed the truck in,field dressed the big buck,and loaded him in the truck.He was still lying there watching us when we drove out.Several does stood about 100 ft behind him as well. Gunner

[MB_Boy]

As others have said.......I have never noticed it, but rather the opposite. Same thing with dropping a deer and having another walk in or it's partner stick around.

I shot a second buck one year not much more than 30 yards from where I shot one earlier in the week with the gut pile virtually untouched.

Now.....if there was just a whole carcass that had not been picked over who knows what the smell would do; I have never come across such a situation??

[Fisher-Dude]

I shot a meat buck a few years ago that was with a small spike. I ended up throwing a few sticks at the spike to get him to leave me alone while I cleaned his bigger brother.

In another instance I had shot a nice 4x4 and was getting ready to clean him when a 2 point and a doe came down the trail. They sniffed where the 4x4 was when I hit him, and then walked right up to me despite my waving my arms and talking to them. They passed within 15 feet of me and the dead buck without spooking.

And yet another time I shot a wide 4x4 that was on a hot doe. When I was cleaning the buck, a 3x3 came along, obviously smelling the estrus doe. He walked right up to me, the quad (yep dana, shot while out riding the quad! ), and the dead buck and stood there as I phoned my buddy on my cell to tell him what was going on. That 3x3 spent the next half hour circling and sniffing, looking for that hot doe. He didn't care about the dead buck, me, or the quad.

Death scent? Nope.

[Murder]

I call BS as well. I have had a blacktail doe hang around me while I gutted her brother or cousin.

Maybe if you shoot them in the guts - now that's an awful smell.

Does it smell as bad or worse than when you rupture a goose intestine while cleaning it?