Watch: Does a Gut Pile Keep Deer Away?

There are many beliefs and myths among hunters, and while some are superstition, others have more credence. The notion that advises hunters not to gut their deer where they hunt seems reasonable, but what really happens? Do the deer innards and associated smells really keep deer away?

When this hunter managed to bag a nice buck he’d seen on his trail camera, he decided to gut the deer in front of his camera and then leave the camera on to see what happened.

As you can imagine, most of the photos are of buzzards chowing down on the delectably soft guts, but there are also photos of a young buck who visited in the dark, and later on some antlerless deer (one of them looks like it could be a buttonhead instead of a doe).

Heck, one of those last deer even freshens up the rut scrape!

Clearly, the gut pile didn’t keep all the deer away. Personally, I like to err on the safe side so I gut elsewhere whenever possible. After all, small bucks and does are often less cautious than the mature bucks that we most enjoy hunting.

What do you think? (Once you’ve seen the little buck, feel free to skip ahead to 2:35 unless you just like looking at buzzards fighting over their meal.)

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.