This past October my son took a buck pronghorn and I took a doe pronghorn. Up until last night, we had only eaten meat from my doe, which tasted much like venison but with a little extra zip or spiciness to it. My wife and oldest daughter actually preferred it to our customary venison.

Last night we had a roast from my son's buck, and meat had a distinct flavor. My wife, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law liked the meat a lot. My wife again said she preferred this meat to venison. To me the meat tasted like the meat itself smelled and as the inside of the pronghorn smelled when I field dressed it, which is a little off-putting and disconcerting. I don't think the flavor is a "wrong" flavor, and I don't think it is a spoiled flavor. I'm tempted to say that it is a sage brush flavor, such as I have heard other people say about the taste of pronghorn meat. I'm cautious to use this tone because I don't know what it is supposed to mean! Having never eaten sage brush myself, what is is supposed to taste like?!

Is this likely to be the "sage brush" flavor people sometimes attribute to antelope meat? Is it a taste that you grow used to? For the record, the animal died within 10 feet of where it was hit and did not run. It was a single shot kill. We field gutted the animal prompty, probably 15 minutes after the kill. The outside temperature was about 50 degrees. I had the animal quartered and on ice within probably 4 hours. The animal did not run but fell about 10 feet from where he was shot. We drove 15 minutes to the taxidermist's house in town

Most important thing is get that hide off ASAP. The skin in the first place has a strong smell anyway. Skin the dang thing out right where you dropped it and through it in the cooler, like right now because its usually about 100 degrees when you get them. There not bad tasteing but different, some folks like them and then again some other people like eating mule deer too, not bad, but just unique in its own way. Bobby

You've made it pretty clear that you killed it clean and took good care of the carcass. That is very important with antelope. In my experience, and I'm expanding that with the experience of my parents, who have been taking 2-3 antelope apiece for years and years, antelope is prime eating. We all rate it better than deer (whitetail or muley), and on a par with elk, although not similar in flavor.

That said, my parents swear that no antelope ever tastes gnarly unless the hunter did something wrong in killing and caring for the meat. I believed that until I went on my first antelope hunt a couple years back. I killed two does and a really big buck. The does tasted perfect, but the buck was atrocious! My parents grilled me hard about the kill, but I dropped him in his bed and had him quartered (I had to backpack him out 3 miles) immediately on cool day, and in a meat cooler within 6 hours. He tasted like he'd been eating sulphur. I can only attribute his rank taste to some peculiar food preference, like a human who insists on eating anchovies. (Not that I've ever eaten a human.)

Sometimes, rarely, a given antelope will just have that flavor. Remember, any antelope has an exotic flavor not quite like any other game animal in this country.

Its been a while but it seems like I remember that the taste was kind of a sweet taste, to me very different.