Gut piles scaring off deer is an old wives tale, shot several out of the same stand where a deer was field dressed the previous day. I've also field dressed in camp, dumped the innards into a trash barrel and carted to a spot on the property that we don't hunt. Usually by the next day the coyotes have things all cleaned up, surprising how fast they work.
Neither does a dead deer. Shot a buck a few years back, gutted it, then left my pack beside the carcass and gutpile, then climbed back in my stand. In a little bit, his spikey companion returned and walked right over to the scene of the crime. Only thing that bothered him at all was my pack, which he sniffed, then returned the way he came.
They see dead deer all the time, as well as half-eaten ones. Anywhere there are vultures, deer guts in the open get cleaned up pronto. I forgot the liver of a PA buck once. Went back in an hour or so to retrieve it, and only a wet red smear in the grass marked the spot where I had dumped the innards.
