I was hunting with a buddy and shot a nice 8 pointer, big body... we were pretty deep in this timber and had alot of ridges to drag this deer back.... he said i should just field dress it there so it would be lighter, well yea it makes sense but does leaving that in the timber mess up there deer? I did drag it to a near by creek and did it there... Thanks
Gut it where it lays.. The other critters will make small work of the gut pile in days. The creek is probably the worst option as you can taint a water supply with bacteria.
Yea I would just gut it where it lies. Sometimes I'll move it to a place where I can take some good pictures first and then field dress it. You'll probably get all kinds of differing opinions on this, but I don't think a gut pile bothers a deer at all. My Dad has killed a buck in the morning only to have a doe come to the gut pile and sniff it in the evening. He had a pretty short season that year. In our area there are enough raccoons/possums/coyotes that if a gut pile sits over night you can pretty much be guaranteed it will be gone by morning.
x2 I've never NOT gutted one where it lays...and never seen a gut pile affect deer activity or movement. I actually killed one of my best bucks within 10yds of a gut pile from the day before.
X3 In '98 my brother killed a buck 5 yards after it was standing over & sniffing the gut pile from the buck he shot two days prior.
I actually bring the whole deer home and will gut it in the garage. I throw it in a garbage can and haul it onto my own property with my ATV. It doesn't have anything to do with being worried about spooking other deer, I just usually get alot of photos taken in the woods and in my yard at the house. I find un-gutted photo's to be more tasteful so I simply wait to gut the deer.
