When to field dress?

[BUCK-EYE]

How many people think when you field dress a deer close to were your stand is does it affect the rest of the deer in your area? Yes or No?

[KILLER B]

I always do it where they fall. Doesn't seem to bother the other deer at all. The coyotes, crows and possums normaly make quick work of it anyway. IMO anyway im sure others will say different.

[vermonster13]

I've shot one smelling the pile from another twice so my vote is where they fall.

[Stone Knife]

I don't like to dress them out close to any of my stand locations. Last year i shot a doe  in  the spine of coarse it went right down on the spot. I dragged it quite aways away then dressed it out. That afternoon i sat in the same stand, some does came in, they acted pretty nervous and were sniffing around were the deer laid. There was just a little blood there and they didn't like that at all. I cant even imagine how they would feel about all the blood and entrails in that spot.

[BUCK-EYE]

I was thinking about this on the way into work this morning.My brother shot a nice 9pt out back behind the house.We loaded him up in a wheel barrow(poor mans drag cart)and wheel him up by the house to field dress him.I`m not sure if it spooks them either but I didn`t want to take a chance. Don

[tim roberts]

I have seen one lick the blood off of the ground from where I shot one the day before.  I have also watched them walk right past a pile, with no problems.

[dino]

Had a buck make a scrape a few yards from were I dressed a deer.  Don't seem to bother them so I don't let it bother me. dino

[BigRonHuntAlot]

If you can get em dressed Fast after the kill then by all means move em. If its a half hour or more then dress em on site, especially in warm weather. I, personally don't think it spooks deer that walk up on a gut pile... but if it makes folks feel better...  well, confidence means everything. LOL

[CheeseHead]

Originally posted by KILLER B:
I always do it where they fall. Doesn't seem to bother the other deer at all. The coyotes, crows and possums normaly make quick work of it anyway. IMO anyway im sure others will say different.

Ditto....

[ksbowman]

I haven't seen it make any difference at all to the live deer,but I am a firm believer in getting them gutted and cooled out as quick as possible. Ben

[30coupe]

I'll cast another vote for right where they drop. Dead stuff and blood are not unusual things where deer live. As Killer B said, other critters make pretty short work of the remains anyway.

[Minuteman]

Deer spooking at the field dressing site are probably smelling the hunter not the blood.

[Whip]

I once hunted a stand in North Dakota the day after a buddy of mine shot a deer.  He dressed it within sight, but out of range.  Had a continual parade of deer all morning past that gut pile, including one HUGE 10 pointer.  Seemed like there was morbid curiousity as they all stopped by to look at the pile.  
I was wishing he had dragged the deer back and gutted it UNDER the stand!

[JRY309]

I always field dress where they fell,it allows the meat to start to cool and makes them alittle easier to drag.Never seen it bother other deer and it usally doesn't last very long from the scavengers.

[Tom Leemans]

Usually where they fall, but if I can drag them to wear I can roll the guts out, a little downhill, I sometimes do that.

[Killdeer]

Haha, I don't have to drag a deer ANYWHERE to find a downhill...I mean uphill, slope! Where I hunt it's ALL slope! I gut 'em where they land. I agree that any nervousness over the site is due to the hunter's scent and not the offal.

I shot a buck during muzzleloader season one year, and while I was dressing it a doe passed within ten yards of us, coming up the hill from downwind. She looked, I stopped moving, but she never spooked. I think the smells coming from him masked mine.

Killdeer

[SouthMDShooter]

i shot a doe in the head with my rifle and of course it dropped right there and i stayed in my stand and an hour later deer came in and didnt even pay much attention to it at all...Curtis

[Ray Hammond]

I like to drag them TO my stand, and do it right under my tree.

[bluegrassbowhunter]

I've heard it wouldn't bother em,BUT I never gut mine in the area wer I'm hunting...& I have my reasons for not doing it...I don't want my neighbors dogs having another reason to be roaming around my hunting area looking for the smell of a gut pile...& some other private places I have to hunt the landower doesn't want me leaving gut piles laying around either...I didn't ask why,it's his land...

[Shovelbuck]

I generally do it where they drop. Allthough I once drug one to the adjoining land to gut it right under another hunters stand that I didn't much care for.   :D