1874sharpsshooter

It wasn't what I was wanting but I decided to go ahead and end the buck hunting , except for the wife , and concentrate on a new project which I will post about. Then in December I will pick up doe hunting and get the years supply of venison.

I saw lots of nice whitetails but I was determined to get a Muley. It's been 2 years since I got a muley. Most of the places I use to hunt for them are no longer available. The farmers and ranchers seemed to have found out that they can get good money from out of state hunters , so everyone has hunters coming in and no longer allow anyone to hunt. Which is good for them I guess , but bad for me.
anyway I passed on the whitetails but since I was relegated to one small area , I saw no really good muley bucks. Lots of muley doe though.
I finally went ahead and filled my tag with a smaller buck, the only one I saw. he was unique in that he was a 4 x 2 . Very unusual. He had long tines on the one side though.
I forgot to take pictures as I was in a hurry to get him butchered because the temp was 72 today. Unseasonably warm for the end of November. I did take a photo of his head when I realized I forgot pics.



This was the exit wound.




knight disc extreme
130 gr triple 7
290 gr barnes tmz
134 yards.

cayugad

Is there much difference in taste between a mule deer and a whitetail? I mean after all they are all deer? And if in the same area, are probably eating the same stuff. Will they inter breed or not?

Congratulations on the deer. And nice shooting.

1874sharpsshooter

Some people say Whitetail taste better and they won't eat a muley, but I can't tell any difference myself. I like to eat both. I actually prefer Muleys because they are bigger and you get more meat.. I have never known Muley to interbreed with whitetail. they seem to stay away from each other.

Breechplug

Congrats! That'll be some Good Eating!
Cayugad, we dont have Muleys here in NY but I have had the opporitunity to eat mule deer a few times. It all depends on where the muley was taken and what he eats, taste can vary, I've had some taste good and some just so so. Between a whitetail and a muley I'd take the whitetail. Now if your putting up a Elk vs a Whitetail I'd take Elk any day. Now Im sure there's some great tasting muleys out there, and it's not that is was bad or anything but eating whitetails most of my life muleys just did'nt cut it for me.
(BP)

deepcreek

Cayugad here in idaho we have both .Ican tell the differance in the meat flavor .Ilike both but like muley better.The whitetails and muleys inter breed here(upper snake river).Weve shot a few mule deer withy whitetail racks.There used to be alot of muledeer in the river bottoms now its mostly whitetail.

cayugad

Very interesting. I ate mule deer at a game feed. At least that was how it was labeled. And it was very good. With our deer here in Wisconsin, their taste is all dependent on where they come from and what they eat. A southern deer eats, corn, soybeans, alfalfa, oats, all the grain crops. In the northern end of the state they eat grass, acorns, and only the corn people bait them with. Totally different taste to them.

You really want a strange tasting whitetail is shoot a swamp buck.

1874sharpsshooter

I agree that it depends on what they eat and here the deer spend a lot if time in the ag fields , mostly corn stubble, sunflowers and winter wheat .

oldsmellhound

First of all, congrats on the nice harvest! That is a nice looking buck. I agree with you all that it depends a lot on what the deer eat. My hunting buddy's wife won't eat any deer taken from our land - she says the meat tastes funny. She is used to deer taken from agricultural areas that feed mostly on corn and soybeans. The deer from our land have no agriculture and feed mostly on browse, clover and acorns.

cayugad

My Dad one year shot an old swamp buck and when mother was cooking that thing up it stunk the house up so bad, the old man had a fit. He took all the meat to the local butcher and had it turned into sausage and brats.

.454

Nice buck sharpsshooter. You cant beat the Barnes bullet. It's 3:30 thanks giving morning so happy thanks giving to you and thanks for the nice report.