Anybody ever used vultures to find a deer the next day???

Just wondering if anyone has ever shot a nice deer and tracked it but, didn't find it. Then, went out the next day or two and watched for vultures. Obviously the meat won't be any good and I hate that but, I'd like to at least retrieve the horns. Anybody had any luck with this? Buddy had a tracking dog but, couldn't get off work till it was too late, the rain moved in. Bummer, don't know how I'm gonna sleep tonight.

I watch for them every time I go out. Never now when you might find something nice. Found a coyote last week

will take a couple days for the flying gut wagons to find it. probably after the yotes & pigs tear it open.

Not many buzzards around this time of year. I took a hog out of a snare 3 days ago and has not been a buzzard on it yet.

Buzzards hunt by sight. Unless there is a lot of blood, it will take a few days for them to find the animal. Just like Maggie noted.

Cooler weather slows down the buzzards finding it. I have heard they have great sense of smell also. So if that is the case it will take longer for the animal to smell this time of the year. If the deer is dead after the rain will be a time to check for buzzards also since the air will be clean so to speak. Depending on where animal was hit in the body you might check water also since if they fever they will go to water. Listen for coyotes early in the morning also.

Buzzards Migrate.... they are mostly gone by December 1

I have used them a couple times on my place. Each time we found the animals the next morning br way of buzzards. I hated it but at least the hunters got the racks. I'm south so we have buzzards year round.

Still covered up with buzzards where I hunt in East Texas.Got bored and tried a couple experiments last couple of weeks. First,put a gut pile from 2 hogs in a small area 500 yds. from camp so we could do some varmint hunting that night.It was noon. Buzzards found it in less than 20 minutes,circled it for 2 hrs. before they came down.About 25 -30 circling.When we got down there that night,you couldn't tell we put anything there. Varmints came in the evening and drug it all away. Then,sitting in a stand that I varmint hunt from,noticed a lone buzzard a long way off,he came right in and responded to my mouth squeller. Couldn't see me but stayed over me for a long time.Went against anything I had ever known about them.

Last year we found a buck the following day that was shot by the son of a lease member by looking for the Caracaras.

Caracaras are your best shot.

GL.

Have more trouble with then near/on the road this time of year. Some idiot killed a pig then dumped the headless & loinless body right on the road. I think every buzzard in that part of the county was on the body. Morons, could have at least drug it 10 foot further away from the road.

The reason for the story is that it was super fresh, no smell, no flys so it goes to show the buzzards were going to sight to find the meal.

The buzzards never loose one and have been the end to many lies and poor efforts to find a downed deer.

It happened to me just last season when a member of the landowners family claimed to have shot and missed a buck. The next weekend, the buzzards made it obvious the guy never looked for the deer. What the coyotes didn't eat was less than 50 yards from the food plot.

Tell your buddy to give his dog a try even after a rain. My dogs have tracked the next day after a rain, with great success. The only times it has deterred them is in areas where the water ran-off. I have a dog that has even tracked through knee-deep (to me) standing water in a slough...I'm assuming by finding scent on vegetation sticking out of the water, but I'm not sure.

Watching for crows will often work.

We have ravens here also and sometimes they will fight with crows over a dead body.

We don't have any buzzards where I hunt during most of the deer season. They have already headed for Mexico. Some years where it is unseasonably warm, they hang around later, but most of the deer season, they are not around.

About 4 years ago I was on an elk hunt and that's exactly how one hunter in our group found his gut shot elk 2 days later. He arrowed a nice 6 X 6 and shot him too far back. The elk ran for at least 2 miles that they tracked then lost. Blood trail dried up and they found where the elk had wallowed in mud to stop the bleeding. The buzzards were circling a hillside and that's where the hunter found him. Otherwise, he would have never found him because of the location. The hillside was very steep and thick with brush.

Never had to use them on a deer but have had them lead me to other interesting stuff. They know to fly the roads looking but they rely on smell just as much.