121553

Depetydog, there is a lot of thruth in that statement. There is a lot of diff in a young deer and an older one. Sometimes you think that an ole 4-5 year ole buck chasing does all of november would be as tough as a piece of leather but this is not so as most of my deer are taken during the rut. Two years ago I shot a p/y that barely scored to make the minimum that was in pre- rut, I was totally surprised how tender it was and the layer of fat that had already built up on it in the month of sept. I think a lot of it has to do the way the meat is handled after the shot. Lot of wannabees take and parade there game on the hoods of there vechicle and cook it over and over again and wonder why it taste the way it does. Dughhh!!! Cool that dang thing ASAP. I have had some old does that I have shot for camp meat and sometimes you just can't do anything with it other than make burger. It depends on how you care for it mostly, but sometimes you get the gamey one. Bobby

hunter9022

I think the taste mostly has to deal with how the animal is taken care of in the field. You dont take care of the meat, its probably not going to taste as good. I also think that some older deer may be a little tougher, but not necesarily every one.

dbcooper

To me - the keys are what they eat and how they are taken care of once they hit the ground. I would not hunt mule deer if I still had to hunt on the Western slope of Colorado. The deer eat sage and they taste gamey as all get out. The ones I kill on the Colorado Plains will rival elk any day. Understand that "gamey" is a relative term. Some folks like the wild flavor and others can't handle it. I spent a fair amount of time in a small wild meat processing plant this fall and I can tell you that the difference in smell is unbelievable between a nice cow and a rutting bull. I didn't eat any of the rutting bull meat but the smell while we were cutting it up was overwhelming at times. I can't imagine that the meat from some of those animals was fit for human consumption. But like some have said - I suspect a fair amount of that scent was do to the way the animal was handled. I have watched the way commercial plants process beef and the first thing they do is rip the hide off. I try to do the same thing - the sun will never set on animal of mine with the hide on.

skeeter 7MM

Nope the only poor animal I have ate that came from the rut was a Bou, the rest no flavour that can be attributed to mating stage. Textures can be affected by age but this only means some creative ways to infuse juice into the meat to prevent it from drying when cooking. I have ate game that did taste better than others but attribute that to care in the field, trimming or cut when butchering, shot placement or food sources available to that animal on a smaller scale. My bucks last fall were every bit as good in table fare of the cropland does I harvested, all where harvested cleanily and attention to quality was used when caring for the meat after the kill.

texasaggiebowhunter

I can contradict myself. I have killed bucks in full rut, big huge necks swollen, that have tasted great, and I have killed bucks that were in peak rut that were so gamey they were not fit to eat.
One thing I have noticed that the quicker the kill the better taste of the meat. Deer that have ran a long ways just seemed to taste different. I think that stress of the animal at killing time has something to do with it.

Tim Buma

I'd say that the condition of the animal is most important to flavour and tenderness.i.e. skinny animal can be rank and tough.
Time of year and age doesn't matter much.
Also be sure to age your venison before cooking (If you have the opportunity.) Hang it for a week in a cool place.
I have two nice stags hanging in my woodshed right now, they were shot last Tuesday (10 days ago.) It's been cold and I tried some steaks yesterday..mmmmm....
They were shot in full rut. (Rut is just ending here in NZ.)

Power

Cool! What is hunting like in NZ? Would you compare it to our Whitetail deer, Mule deer, or Elk hunting in the states?