According to the hunters safety instructors here in Maryland when I took my daughter through the class said that you are to take the guts with you and I asked him why and he said it was because the smell would cause the other animals to shy away from the area and other people didn't want to have to walk in the mess. I told the guy he was full of it and that was the dumbest answer I have ever heard. I have shot a deer in the morning and then went back the same afternoon and shot another one in the same spot.
Here is what I do, bow season opens here on the 15th and as an average the temps have been in the mid 80's on opening day.
Take the meat and leave the guts minus the heart, and liver if you want to keep them. During the early part of the season with the temp so high here I take three coolers with me and fill the smaller of the three full of ice and then I get some clear unscented garbage bags and will skin and gut the deer and 1/4 it up and place the meat into clear bags and leave it loose enough so the heat will escape the bags, take and place a layer of ice on the bottom of the empty cooler and then make a layer of meat and then more ice and do this until the cooler is full or the meat is all in the cooler, leave the drain plug out so the water will run out, nothing worse that trying to cut up meat when it is soaked in water. Add ice as needed to keep the cooler topped off until you want to cut the meat up.
