You guys who set up trails with CRs leading into Dead Deer...

How many days before you have gotten a Catch?

I had a Guy tell me last night that I should expect atleast 1 catch a night off the deer I found since there is Fox and Coyotes working on it....nothing today..the body of that dead deer didn't even look like it was touched at all from yesturday to this morning!

I set a few CRs about 100 yards out from it deeper into the woods where it is laying then went another 100 yards toward the field in the area it is at and set there... had 1 CR flipped off the Support wire, which was the first CR between the deer and the field...no deer tracks...CR was Straightened out and the loop closed, All other CRs were setting just like I set them yesturday!

This is my First time setting a Trail leading into a Dead Deer, Never thought I would set on something like this but yesturday when I was setting and ran onto it and saw how heavy the Trail was leading to it then to the Field I could not pass up an opportunity like it!

I HOPE 100 yards away from it is far enough to avoid the Buzzards!! I found this morning where there is pieces of hide that was laying in the field, most likely from a bird of some kind carrying it away?

Don't set so far away, I'd stay within 30' or so, maybe even closer depended on the surrounding cover. If you're worried about burning out the trail, just put them on a slide cable to get them out of the area before they tear it up.
No regulation dictates a distance you must be from the bait, I've been through this many times with many WCOs and I always get the answer to "Use your best judgement".
Buzzards, owls, and raptors don't go wondering down trails. They fly right in and sit there.

I had a different experince with a gut pile. I found it and set ont he trails near it then had bird tracks going all over the place 20 yrds was about the max they went then worked back to the gut pile. I don't know why but that's what I seen this year. At another gut pile birds stayed right on top on the guts never wondered around. So I would take that into consideration some. But you know as well as I do your the boots on the ground there do what feels right you see sign on birds wondering your do the right thing I know that.

17,

From what Mike Spittle told us in the CR class I attended, about Buzzards, I'll STAY BACK 100 Yards..
I'm not interested in trying to remove a Buzzard from a CR that wants to Puke on me as it's way of warding off a threat!

Slide Cables......When were they made legal for CRs in PA? I took the class 3 years ago and there was no mention of Slide Cables being legal to use...I remember something from the Class about added Cables and that any attached to the CR was included in the length, so if a Slide Cable were added, it would put the Cable over the legal limit....that is the only thing I remember anything being said about Slide Cables...while it would be Nice to use a Slide Cable to get a caught Coyote or Fox away from a certain area so it is not seen!

The slide cable is nothing more than a variable anchor point. It does not add length to the cable restraint, but merely allows the restraint to slide along the ground to its final anchor point. The radius of the cable restraint remains constant, and therefor within the law. (I think??)
Your right, they didn't mention slide cables, but it doesn't make them illegal by default.
They also didn't mention the legality of anchoring to a tree with a diameter great enough to disallow entanglement because of the impossibility of the cable actually wrapping around the tree. My local WCO said, "No problem that I see with it. Use your best judgement." I know the 1/2" rule, but I'm talking on a much grander scale (tulip poplar size).
The instructor at the course I took said, "If a dead deer lays here, (took a few steps to the right) you can set a cable here. Just don't set right at the bait." Tim Conway was there and watching, but he's not the guy I'm referring to. I told you last year it was some big dude in a cowboy hat, and you laughed at me. Don't know, but that is the fellow I'm referring to.

MD has no regulation forbidding setting right on visible bait, and in my younger trapping years I used to set dirtholes 15 feet from deer parts (the large bait smell drawing the foxes was the idea- then have lures down the holes). Even at 15 feet, buzzards can be caught, so I learned. They are big so a little fox trap doesn't hurt them. I have caught and released maybe 3. They were like possums and played dead! It was very easy to let them go. I even lifted them up and got them flying. Maybe I am a buzzard whisperer?

As to CR's, what height are they hung at ( bottom of loop)? I'm not sure a vulture would just walk right into one, an eagle maybe. Neither would be hurt by the cable, but you may want the PGC to send someone to help release the eagle! They have nasty sharp talons and beaks.

I also find that vultures don't like to set down on carcasses in the woods that are not in larger clearings, so if the bait is in tight saplings with more mature trees around the sapling patch, the buzzard ratio goes way down.

Interesting about the playing dead part. I found one that was apparantly hit by a car, and I tried to walk up to it to inspect where it was hurt. That thing squawked, and spit, and thrashed so much I couldn't get within 10 feet.
I've only seen it once, but I do remember jumping a buzzard (one buzzard) off a deer carcass in the middle of the forest. He was sitting in such a thick area that I had a hard time finding the deer he was feeding on, even though it stunk beyond belief.

who sees buzzards this time of year?

They might not be in your area, but there down here in around Harrisburg!

There is a Spot I see Buzzards almost every morning on my Bus Run...they are sitting on poles in a filed with their Wings outstretched to warm themselves...My Cousin owns a Pig Farm north of Harrisburg about 10-15 miles, he has Buzzards pretty much roost on top of his pig barn all year long and pick at the "Scrap" pile almost every day...he has gotten pretty anoyed at them in the past 3 years because their numbers seem to increase each year on his property and they make a nice little mess, more then the pigs do....

This Dead deer Deal is getting interesting...1 Guy who sets 100s of CRs each year and looks for dead deer to set the trails leading to them, told me it would be a pretty much done deal in there with the Fox and Coyotes and I should expect a catch a night.. ALL I'm getting is CRs knocked over by deer..this is my first attempt at setting something like this and it doesn't seem faster then setting trails on the farms!

There was a flock of Crows feeding on the deer this morning and the 1 front leg had been ripped up pretty good from yesturday to this morning and looking like coon/fox/coyote or some Animal not a bird did the ripping it up...
I'm giving it till Thursday and then pulling them and hitting the Farms I have permission to set and have been very productive in the past!

I see as many now as any other time of the year. Are they migratory?