Dead deer experiment (continued)

I'm surprised being in Michigan, there were no Eagles that showed up.

Wow. Wish there were pictures from 11/14.

What happened to the raccoon to make him the next exhibit, food poisoning?

Just yesterday I was watching a deer hunting video from 2020 in Illinois I think. The man shot a doe and several minutes later a nice 10 point came around and got within 15 foot of her, then a gnarly 12 point came in circled around her and he shot him when he stuck his nose in her butt. I always thought that the smell of blood would make a deer bolt, evidently not.

Very interesting thread. Thanks for putting those photos up. Last year my buddy shot a big doe when we were hunting at his brothers place. Gutted it 25 yards from the house and his brother placed a trail cam at the gut pile to see the scavengers. We eagerly waited for the pix for almost a week until his brother told us the batteries went dead on the trail cam before he got anything. Now that I think of it; we did have some low temps that week. Oh, well; maybe this year.

I've shot deer that were eating from the gut pile of a previous field dress. Not sure what they were eating, maybe undigested grain, IDK, but I've done it at least twice I can remember.

Hugger-4641 said:

I've shot deer that were eating from the gut pile of a previous field dress. Not sure what they were eating, maybe undigested grain, IDK, but I've done it at least twice I can remember.

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Ive seen sheep and goats chew bones from old kills, maybe to get calcium or salt, i dunno. Havent seen an Axis actively eat from a carcass, but if times are hard......

Years ago I arrowed a doe on Saturday night. Field dressed her where she dropped 20 yards from my stand. Next night shot a buck standing with his 2 front feet on what was left of the gut pile.

Road kill in the front yard I dragged downwind of the house. About a dozen black vultures on my game cam. Bleached bones in one week.

frogfurr said:

About a dozen black vultures on my game cam.

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Black vultures are amazing, and so nasty looking. Weekend bicycling I see them out early in the morning. They turn road kill into bones before noon.

Encoreman said:

Just yesterday I was watching a deer hunting video from 2020 in Illinois I think. The man shot a doe and several minutes later a nice 10 point came around and got within 15 foot of her, then a gnarly 12 point came in circled around her and he shot him when he stuck his nose in her butt. I always thought that the smell of blood would make a deer bolt, evidently not.

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I have shot several deer close to a gut pile. I also had a gut pile disappear in 2 hours. Looked like coyotes. Then another time I had a bald eagle on a pile that was less than 2 hours old.

Frogfurr; thanks for the cool photos. I see you have Turkey Vultures also. I don't see very many Black Vultures around here but we have tons of Turkey Vultures. A large woods is just up the road from me next to a major highway. Lots of car/deer collisions annually, and sometimes the injured deer makes it into the woods before dying. Those deer carcasses get recycled quickly and the Turkey Vultures play a big part in that.

We do have turkey vultures here also. Hueston Woods State Park is just down the road from us. It harbors both black and turkey vultures. And a few bald eagles. Black vultures are smaller than turkey vultures but a lot more aggressive. The black vultures will run the turkey vultures away from carrion. Never have I seen both together.

Farmers around here are not fond of black vultures. They are very well known for killing newborn calves, piglets, and lambs. Black vultures outnumber the turkey vultures here.

frogfurr said:

We do have turkey vultures here also. Hueston Woods State Park is just down the road from us. It harbors both black and turkey vultures. And a few bald eagles. Black vultures are smaller than turkey vultures but a lot more aggressive. The black vultures will run the turkey vultures away from carrion. Never have I seen both together.

Farmers around here are not fond of black vultures. They are very well known for killing newborn calves, piglets, and lambs. Black vultures outnumber the turkey vultures here.

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Black Vultures have all but displaced Turkey Vultures where I live. And yes, definitely a MUCH more aggressive bird.

Last year we gutted a deer not far from my brother's house and set a trail camera on it.
1st visitor was a fisher
2nd visitor was a fox
3rd crows
4th coyotes but we're skidish to get close to the gut pile for a couple of days after finding it.
Also deer will investigate the gut piles.
We kept replenishing the pile with scrap meat and bones from the deer we were cutting up.
I have the camera SD card some where in my gun room back home.

My son only hunts behind his house and places trail cams on his gut plies.
About the same senerio of visitors.
For a few years there were two pairs of coyotes that would eat off of the gut piles. Both females were missing a front foot. One missing the left front foot, the other missing the right front foot.
Last year one of them never showed up and the other one wasn't looking that great.
They were hitting his gut piles for about three years.

Mostly the red foxes would hit the gut piles.
Never seen a gray fox show up.
Also redtail hawks would eat off of them as well.
This is in south/central New York State about twenty-five miles from the Pennsylvania border.
Never seen a opossum visit a gut pile..

I'm sure what State you are from will have a few different critters that will visit your gut piles.

Field dressed an 8 pointer on our place a week ago, took another one there 3 days later and there
was a fresh scrape only 20 feet away and he has hit it again since then. Maybe they were rivals.
Good posting.

Encoreman said:

. . . . I always thought that the smell of blood would make a deer bolt, evidently not.

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Not always. My buddy always used to tell
me that skunk musk would run the deer
off.
Whitetail deer are curious. If they weren't,
it'd be nigh impossible to kill one during
daylight hours

My granddaughter shot a big doe on the Sunday of the youth hunt. By Tuesday, the only evidence of the gut pile was my pair of rubber gloves. The gloves were the reason I went back. Few years back, my youngest boy shot a nice buck that dropped in view of our hunting blind. Dressed it out where it fell thinking it may give us an opportunity for a coyote or fox. Next day we watched a doe eat the contents of the stomach that something else had tore open during the night. Several seasons ago I had a 7 pointer and a doe run up to me. Not wanting to shoot a young buck with good potential but still wanting venison, I shot the doe. She flipped over at the shot and landed upside down in a brush pile where she thrashed for several minutes before expiring. Basically had to drive the young buck away so I could dress her out. He was still standing there watching me as I dragged her down the hill.

Ranger99 said:

My buddy always used to tell
me that skunk musk would run the deer
off.

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Back in the 80s, "Skunk Scent" was a very popular cover scent. Stunk so bad, even in the bottle, most Sporting Goods Stores kept it in a refrigerator or the back room. My wife made me keep mine in the garage. Only used a very small amount on a cotton ball in a film canister as it was almost impossible to handle it without getting the smell on you. Can't tell you how many deer I shot while using it. Like any other scent tho, the deer became cautious of it if it was over used. Your buddy may have experienced that scenario.

buck460XVR said:

Back in the 80s, "Skunk Scent" was a very popular cover scent. Stunk so bad, even in the bottle, most Sporting Goods Stores kept it in a refrigerator or the back room. My wife made me keep mine in the garage. Only used a very small amount on a cotton ball in a film canister as it was almost impossible to handle it without getting the smell on you. Can't tell you how many deer I shot while using it. Like any other scent tho, the deer became cautious of it if it was over used. Your buddy may have experienced that scenario.

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Mainly, his logic was that " skunks only
spray when in danger " so he figured that
deer would smell it and think danger ahead.

22250Rem said:

Very interesting thread. Thanks for putting those photos up. Last year my buddy shot a big doe when we were hunting at his brothers place. Gutted it 25 yards from the house and his brother placed a trail cam at the gut pile to see the scavengers. We eagerly waited for the pix for almost a week until his brother told us the batteries went dead on the trail cam before he got anything. Now that I think of it; we did have some low temps that week. Oh, well; maybe this year.

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................ UPDATE....... This year for sure. Filled my antlerless tag this afternoon at the same place. We dragged it down and I gutted it in the same spot. Trail cam is now set up pointed at the gut pile with FRESH batteries in it. Stay tuned; I hope to get some interesting trail cam pix E-mailed to me soon.