Do gut piles spook deer?

[Boogieman1]

I feel it's just because are naturally curious animals by nature. If they don't relate it to danger from previous life lessons they investigate. Afew years back I was playing around after the season and called in a mature buck with a turkey call. We don't have any turkeys! Curious creatures

[Octang]

Not a gut pile per say, however, I shot a real nice 10 pointer one year. I always stay in my stand for 20 minutes or so after the kill to give it time to die before I go marching over to it, and while I was sitting there waiting a younger buck came prancing down the same trail. When he stumbled on the mature buck lying in his path, he literally jumped/jerked like it shocked him and he turned around and left the way he came.

[Lockdown]

Not a gut pile per say, however, I shot a real nice 10 pointer one year. I always stay in my stand for 20 minutes or so after the kill to give it time to die before I go marching over to it, and while I was sitting there waiting a younger buck came prancing down the same trail. When he stumbled on the mature buck lying in his path, he literally jumped/jerked like it shocked him and he turned around and left the way he came.

In that situation did the little buck KNOW the big one was dead? Was it during/close to rut? I'm thinking he might not have realized he was even dead and didn't want his but kicked.

Little bucks are very cautious when they approach my big buck decoy

[Lockdown]

If there is any chance of spooking a mature buck. I always; err on the side of caution. No gut pile, doesn't spook the buck. We hear it asked all the time, what can I do to improve my chances? You eliminate the things in your control. Those small things sometimes add up to bigger things.

We hope/think the gut pile doesn't spook the buck. Or, we know for sure that no gut pile doesn't spook the buck. Which is the better choice?

I understand your viewpoint Stan (and always value your perspective) but whether you leave the gut pile or not you've undoubtedly left a TON of scent in there. Most of us leave and come back with a friend to help drag. So in and hunt, back out with gear, come back with friend, back out with buck and friend. That's a lot of scent.

I think one of two things need to happen to kill back to back from the same location: 1) the stand set and place where the buck died needs to be conducive to clean access to allow another hunt for a mature buck 2) a transient buck needs to come running through that hasn't been in that specific area since you laid the scent down.

I think a lot of people have a hard time translating mass scent vs low volume scent. Big difference in leaving a little ground scent compared to rolling around gutting a deer. If you grab a horn and drag the buck out of there you leave way less scent than gutting the buck there. The wind will wash away your ground scent sometimes within a few hrs. Depending how windy it is. The wind will not wash away a gut pile of scent. It would hard to argue that fact. I guess my low impact concept is what causes me to take the best option.

I'm speaking from experience. I have seen mature bucks get out of Dodge when encountering a gut pile. Just my advise don't do it as the better option of doing it. If your not going to hunt area again then gut away. If your hunting small properties better do everything you can to get another good hunt out of that small property.

I have to drag my bucks out by myself. I have no friends.

Very interesting. Has anyone else seen a mature buck react negatively to a gut pile? If others have witnessed the same I'd definitely think twice about where I leave it. (Assuming I or someone else planned on hunting the same spot in the near future.)

[Stanley]

Very interesting. Has anyone else seen a mature buck react negatively to a gut pile? If others have witnessed the same I'd definitely think twice about where I leave it. (Assuming I or someone else planned on hunting the same spot in the near future.)

A good friend of mine said he saw a good buck practically do a back flip to get way from a gut pile. It's really hard to document because you only get bucks on a camera that tolerate the gut pile you don't see the ones that spook or stay away.

[Lockdown]

Very interesting. Has anyone else seen a mature buck react negatively to a gut pile? If others have witnessed the same I'd definitely think twice about where I leave it. (Assuming I or someone else planned on hunting the same spot in the near future.)

A good friend of mine said he saw a good buck practically do a back flip to get way from a gut pile. It's really hard to document because you only get bucks on a camera that tolerate the gut pile you don't see the ones that spook or stay away.

I think it's a personality scenario again. Some bucks maybe don't like it, some might be intrigued??

[Octang]

Not a gut pile per say, however, I shot a real nice 10 pointer one year. I always stay in my stand for 20 minutes or so after the kill to give it time to die before I go marching over to it, and while I was sitting there waiting a younger buck came prancing down the same trail. When he stumbled on the mature buck lying in his path, he literally jumped/jerked like it shocked him and he turned around and left the way he came.

In that situation did the little buck KNOW the big one was dead? Was it during/close to rut? I'm thinking he might not have realized he was even dead and didn't want his but kicked.

Little bucks are very cautious when they approach my big buck decoy

Good question, I assumed he knew he was dead, but I can't say for sure. Like you said, big plastic decoys trick them into thinking their arch enemy is standing there.

Certainly can't say my story proves anything one way or another, I just found it to be interesting to observe.

[rempse2]

I don't believe the gut pile itself spooks deer or blood remnants on the ground. I have shot several deer in the same exact vicinity where i gutted deer just days prior.

[isitseasonyet?]

I agree that I think it's the ground scent that spooks the deer, animals die all the time, so that shouldn't be a new smell, however, me tracking around is.... but I only get one tag for the season, so I don't worry about it. If I'm leaving a gut pile I'm not coming back until next year when it's long gone