DEER CARCASS - HOW TO AVOID RUINING A HONEY HOLE???

[MEdude]

Archery whitetail hunting in Maine. September.
Game cam shows multiple deer almost daily… and occasionally coyotes.
Not a food plot / feeder situation. Natural wild woods, a fair distance in, through thick, steep, often rocky terrain.
NOT an easy drag out, so I plan to field butcher via gutless method and haul out in a pack.
(Pretending I’m a western dude… )
The WMD allows for multiple deer to be harvested.
Sooooo,
My concern is leaving a carcass will foul the honey hole, either by stench of death, attracting more coyote traffic, or both. Looking for suggestions on how handle this.
Just trying to make a plan to avoid blowing up the area.

 

[Northern-Nomad]

I’m in a very different area so experiences may vary I guess but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. For one if you shoot a deer it probably won’t die on the spot so you’ll be looking to butcher away from your stand anyway. If you want to play it safe though I would just drag it maybe 100 yards or so more out of the way into a little hole or thicket and butcher it there. That’ll add a little more work but it might help eliminate some unwanted attention to your kill.

 

[Laramie]

Deer generally don't care about dead deer or gut piles. I have deer on camera licking a gut pile from last season. The coyote concern may be a factor for a day or two. I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[92xj]

I’ve seen a deer killed licking /eating the gut contents of a deer killed the day before. They don’t care.

 

[Gseith]

I average 3 deer out of the same spot every year. If I kill something I usually don’t see anything the next day, but by the next weekend they are back.

 

[Drenalin]

Agree with the three posts above; this has been a non-issue in my experience. I shot my biggest buck last year in the same spot a buddy killed a different buck the day before.

 

[MEdude]

And this is why I asked the question here!

Super appreciate responses based on experience.

 

[KyleR1985]

If given the option to hunt a honey hole where a deer died of natural causes, with no human traffic at all, or one where someone hunted 2-3 days before me within 50 yards of where I want to sit….

Give me the spot with the carcass.




I’ve killed and seen killed a lot of deer within bow range of deer we’ve killed in the days weeks and months prior. The details of the spot matter. Human scent, or a pack of coyotes making camp will impact it to some degree. But not the dead deer directly.

If the deer dies in a spot you can drag it downwind of where you hunt and where the deer traffic is, sometimes 20-100 yards is enough to reduce that impact.

That said, a skeleton with 20lbs of guts will be gone very quickly and coyotes will move on fast.

 

[FranklinBluth]

Deer don't care about other dead deer- just limit the human scent you're leaving behind.

 

[ColPenguin]

Buzzards, crows, coyotes will clean up the remains quickly.

Enjoy your time in the woods. Don't overthink this one aspect. It will change behavior patterns of animals for a day or two. You're not going to blow out your spot from stacking a couple dead deer in one area.

 

[sbtaylor]

AIn all my years of hunting has been a non-issue. Although down in Florida, when I de-bone my game to pack out, the carcass (head, hide, bones and all) will be gone in 24hrs. Sometimes less. Between the buzzards, hogs, and any other swamp critters.

 

[camping1601]

I'd drag it as far away as you can. I hunted a carcass for Bear a day after I killed a deer and processed it and watched a doe freak out over it once it spotted the carcass. The carcass was down wind.