? About Harvests at Food Plots.

[taz3]

If you harvest a deer at your food plot, is there any concern about other deer returning at later dates? I've often wondered if it has any affect on the ones that may have accompanied the harvested deer.

[taz3]

We were late starting a plot, so I scouted the area to find where the deer naturally tend to be on the property and setup a plot. The last week or so, activity has picked up significantly and 3 of us all use the same plot, usually at different times though, so the question came up. We are all first year hunters, so we're still learning the ins and outs.

[Kegbelly]

X2, try not to leave your scent all over the field, and field dress it elsewhere. One guy in our club took two off the same field in the same day, he says the second one was smelling the blood on the grass where the first one was dropped that morning.
I've shot deer when there was a group of deer on a field, more than once had some of them come right back to see what all the fuss was about.

Edited... main reason I take deer elsewhere to clean is gut piles draw coyotes. We got enough of em around without givin em free meals

[VixChix]

Deer don't seem to be too bothered by gut piles. I've found deer tracks right through the piles the day after.

[Lake shooter]

Whether they get a little wise or not about this or that, the more time that goes by the more they will use the plot just because the other more desirable food is really thinned out to almost gone, depending on what you planted of course. My BIL down in Alabama used to ring his hands every year because his rye was a foot tall and nothing was eating it! I told him that simple research shows rye to not be high on the list of highly desirable whitetail chow. Sure enough every year, come January they would finally start tearing it up by necessity!

Something that will hurt you far more than most other things is trying to hunt food plots a lot in the morning. The deer are there when you arrive and quickly learn NOT to come out then! The same thing will happen if you're sloppy about noise, your approach route and scent even in the evening.

Good luck with it!

[JPjunkie]

It doesnt bother them at all You could leave gut piles every twenty feet and they could care less I just dont like to look at or smell them while hunting

[rayman]

I think it is better to kill a deer than it is to spook it away, for more reasons that one. The answer to your question is yes, but that doesn't guarantee you wont kill several deer at the same spot.

[FNARSCOT]

Do to Coyotes I refuse to gut in the field . Deer could care less about blood and often come to check it out . Best to drag you kill out a.s.a.p by 4 wheeler or tractor if possible as they are less bothered then if you walk around and coyotes and hogs are drawn to downed animals. We skin with out gutting cut off shoulders,hind quarters, back straps,Sneak in for the tenderloins than cut off the neck roast .The head is saved for the skull the rest goes to a common pile to hunt coyotes over in a place where we would not likely hunt deer. If I can I will bury the stripped deer to make the coyotes work for their "free" meal. Hogs are not as much as a problem where I presently deer hunt but they will be soon. They are see within 10 miles of here on a regular basis and there are only 2 kinds of hunting spots those with hogs and those about to have them!! Yotes are so bad here I'm about to dust off my traps and head to the city (where they are running wild) and make some cash removing the little vermin.