Does a hunter's gunshot attract predators?

[montana]

https://www.nrahlf.org/articles/2018/11/13/does-a-hunter-s-gunshot-attract-predators/?fbclid=IwAR2cfIbp5IAifrOl3271llfGDwaAWooxK-bsUVBSbolZ6zzeIukGWouhYYU

[RMiller]

I think it does, though luckily I have only had the predators show up after I have left.

I spent 24 years in Alaska and hunted Kodiak twice and another island five times for deer.

It was always said that the gunshots attracted the bears.

I never had one come in to a kill site while I was still there.

We most often never hunted the exact spot two days in a row. But if we did we never saw a carcass left over the next day, they were always picked clean by the next day (more like drug off).

In seven deer hunting trips in Alaska I shot 22 deer. The limit would be between 3 and 5.

Both times on Kodiak we had bears within 15 yards being quiet as heck. They can be spooky.

Even here in Montana we have had coyotes follow us nearly to the truck after dragging deer back. I think the coyotes can hear you without any shooting over several hundred yards. This year my son had to drag a deer back in the dark and he had coyotes following him as close as ten feet away in the dark. He was dragging half of his 13 YO sisters deer and decided to leave the deer and escort his sister back to the car asap without the deer. He went back the next day and the coyotes actually never touched the two halves of the deer and we were able to save it.

[RMiller]

A moose I shot with my bow we were quartering until 1:30 A.M.

I had two disposable cameras that I left at the kill site.

On my way to work at 5:30 A.M. I went back to the kill site to look for the cameras and the gut pile and what was left of the carcass was already buried by a brown bear.

I looked the the cameras very quickly without digging into the mound and got out of there quick.

[Double Naught Spy]

While I believe it could happen, the article information is rather dubious. The information presented isn't exclusionary.

While the shots can be heard long distance, smells can be smelled long distance. More over, predators are always nearby in the wild. They make a living finding carcasses. They are often on the move.

Rifle hunters get scared off deer kills by bears? Happens to bowhunters as well. How is that explained? Are the bears hearing bowstrings?

[montana]

I have never had any encounters with any predator, after killing a game animal. I have had about every kind of critter come flying or running when we would call coyotes. I guess a dying rabbit is quite the attention getter in the animal world for both predator and prey. I have talked to friends that have experienced wolves that are becoming very bold after making kills. My one friend, "who hunts cats" has had 3 dogs killed by wolves. I do know the mountain lions have become much more bold, "than when I was young" when they were considered varmints and hunted year round.

[Stinky Coyote]

[1Shot]

The only time I ever had a predator fool with any game I shot was in east NC deer hunting. You can kill more than one deer a day and we always hunted the last 2 1/2 hrs of light in the evenings. I shot a big doe for the meat about 45 minutes before dark and she dropped in some high weeds just off the shooting lane where I could not see her. We always stay in our stands until it's too dark for hunting and wait on another deer if we want one. It had been maybe an hour from the time I shot until I got to the deer. There was a double fist size chunk that had been eaten out of one of her hams. Had to be a fox or bobcat.

What most people don't understand is the ability of predators to hear and smell. The common dog can hear 5 times better than humans and smell 10 times better I read the other day. It may not be a gun shot that brings them in but the blood smell.

[depletedyourcranium]

The common dog can hear 5 times better than humans and smell 10 times better I read the other day. It may not be a gun shot that brings them in but the blood smell.

Dogs can smell infathomly better than humans.. somewhere in the order of 40 to 100 times better. However it's not just that they can smell farther away, they can parse out the smallest details and nuance of a smell. Essentially, a dog sees with his nose the way we see with our eyes.

A bear has the best nose on the planet, probably an order of magnitude greater than a bloodhound. In all honesty, as long as the wind were in its favor, if the bear can hear the gunshot it can probably already smell the carcass.

[Double Naught Spy]

Dogs can smell infathomly better than humans.. somewhere in the order of 40 to 100 times better. However it's not just that they can smell farther away, they can parse out the smallest details and nuance of a smell. Essentially, a dog sees with his nose the way we see with our eyes.

A bear has the best nose on the planet, probably an order of magnitude greater than a bloodhound. In all honesty, as long as the wind were in its favor, if the bear can hear the gunshot it can probably already smell the carcass.

According to here, and I cannot vouch for how they ever determined this, a bear can smell a dead carcass much farther than they can hear a gun shot. They claim 20 miles.

https://sectionhiker.com/bears_sense_of_smell/

Here it is claimed that their capability is 7 times greater than that of bloodhounds...

https://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/bear-series-part-one-a-bears-sense-of-smell.htm

Here, it is noted that the limits of their olfactory capabilities are untested, which really isn't a big surprise...

https://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/basic-bear-facts/30-senses-a-abilities.html

[Klem]

I imagine whales can hear a lot further, but of course it's a different medium.

My experience is that gunshots scare the animals away. If foxes and similar have been shot at (and missed) they becomes very gun savvy and shy. If they think there's an easy meal they certainly don't come running. Sharks and dolphins are larger predators and are well documented to be attracted to the sound of boat engines, long before burley is thrown in the water. I would think most animals we are interested in are capable of being conditioned to the sound of gunshots (Classical Conditioning). Gunshots = food. It's then a matter of how confident, frightened or wary they are of us.

[just_john]

I had to shoot a bobcat who was after my fresh-killed deer. Opinion is that it was drawn by the smell rather than the sound of a gunshot as it came from down-wind. Just my .02.

[Keef]

I'm selling a new predator call box. Instead of choosing a wounded animal sound, you get to chose from the gunshot sound you think will attract them! Not sure if I should do a go fund me or just start selling shares, pm if you are interested in getting rich.

[montana]

I'm selling a new predator call box. Instead of choosing a wounded animal sound, you get to chose from the gunshot sound you think will attract them! Not sure if I should do a go fund me or just start selling shares, pm if you are interested in getting rich.

Sounds enticing, but the side effects are too risky. Besides predators, it also attracts covenant enforcing neighbors, ambulance chasing lawyers,retaliatory gang bangers and leftist politicians.

[Labrat198]

I had a barn cat growing up that would follow me around whenever I took a gun out. So if an animal lasted long enough to figure out gunshots meant food, possibly.

When hunting on my own land, I will put up a trail cam to see what comes by. Mostly crows and a few eagles during day light hours, but I will typically see coyotes and other predators after dark. That said, I would put my bets on the smell of a kill more than the sound of a gun shot.

[FW Conch]

I'm not sure about predator animals, but I tend to agree with DNS, smell is probably #1, but sound could figure in also.

But one thing I know for sure, and Klem is right, sharks definitely are attracted to boat motor noise in areas where chumming is prevalent. During My time here in the "Conch Republic" of the Florida Keys as a commercial Yellowtail Snapper fisherman this fact couldn't have been more obvious. When we pull up on a popular spot, as Klem said, the sharks are there immediately, before the chum bag hits the water. It's usually Bull Sharks and/or Nurse Sharks. I use a stiff rod with a fully spooled Penn 850 to skip those Yellowtails across the surface to keep the sharks from getting them. I have seen 10' Bulls come up above the transom after My catch. An 18" wide mouth full of shark teeth gets Your attention. One captain said " why don't You slow down and enjoy the fish"? I said, I'll enjoy the fish when it's in the box! ;-))