Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Meat Quality: Whitetail vs Mulie

Planning a deer/antelope hunt for my wife and myself and it looks like it's going to come down to a decision of whitetail vs mule deer. Aside from that outfitters look close to the same.

We LOVE venison, but being from NH only get whitetails, wondering about the quality of mule deer meat? If it matters the mule deer hunt would be north central WY. Whitetail would be the Bozeman MT area.

Any thoughts on the difference in the meat, if any?

I've never had whitetail. The mule deer meat depends some on age and where it's been foraging.

The best eating ever was a young (read, didn't know what that thing between his legs was yet) buck that ate alfalfa every night and drank out of the storm water retention reservoir next to the field every night (the trail going to these was more like an interstate). He tasted like veal, and very tender.

My family has always favored whitetails for eating. That's not to say mulies are bad eating, but a rutting buck from sage country can be a little strong.

I've brought home a lot of mule deer from western states and Canada and have yet to have a bad one.

Among the best was the biggest bodied mule deer I have ever killed,a hog from the Peace River country of Alberta that was killed in early November. Really great.

I hear in the full rut they can be rank,more so than a whitetail, but if on a combo hunt I doubt the OP will bump into that. Most mule deer seasons are earlier and the meat should be fine.

bowhunting mulies I'd take one over any whitetail any day.

I've heard gun hunters say exactly the opposite.

After eating a couple of great nilgai, a friend got a nasty one... the difference was the Juisache had greened out...

I'm betting age and diet are the biggest factors, with diet affecting flavor and age toughness.

I've had plenty of both. I have to say that an Iowa whitetail that has been living on corn, soy beans, and alfalfa taste MUCH better than an old mulie that's been eating sage brush.

It matters a lot more on what they eat than the length of the horns or tails. Whitetails out of hardwood forest can get pretty bad,but corn fed ones in eastern CO are great. Muleys out of sage or oak brush country are not as good as the muleys out in eastern CO where they eat a lot of corn too

Agreed on the comments about what they eat having more effect than species, sex or age. I have killed a 6.5yr old mule deer in the Trans Pecos area about an hour from El Paso. They have some sage in the area, but it's not a dietary staple for the deer there. Delicious - equal or better than any white tail I've eaten.

David

I have had both whitetails and mulies shot in the rut that were horrible.. But our season for mule deer is way before the rut... So almost all of our mule deer have been excellent... I do prefer them over whitetails, but many folks here would much rather have whitetail..

I prefer whitetails hands down for table fare. I've shot several mulies the worst being an old doe.

It depends what they eat, but I like whitetails more myself as well.

I tried eating a Delaware buck once... ONCE !

Swampy acorn nasty dark meat... BLAH

We buy very little beef or such here. Whitetail is the staple. Ill raise a couple hogs too most years. One to butcher and one to sell. Honestly,I'm getting burned out on whitetail meat. For me,the occasional bit of mule deer meat given us by friends,is a treat. I like it. It is definitely different than whitetail. Would I want to live on it? Don't know. I'd sure like to try it.

elk...grin...

I mix my deer meat with beef fat to make 85% hamburger.

I have bought Hamburg for almost 5 years now...

At $6 a lb for burger these days, it's all good.

If forced to pick, for this part of the world, I'd take a whitetail. A young pre-rut muley buck can be darn good though. In the rut, whitetail buck hands down is better eating

I used to buy extra antlerless tags and would give the deer to non-hunters or older people who liked eating deer but could no longer hunt. I've never had any of these people say "shoot me a mule deer doe" They always requested a whitetail doe.

I can't tell the difference if they are from similar areas and thus eating similar foods. As a test once, I cooked a backstrap from a muley and a backstrap from a whitetail and served them side by side. No one (of eight diners) could tell the difference...YMMV.

The meat from grain fed whitetails in Iowa/Kansas/Missouri/Nebraska is better than any other wild meat that I've eaten. The best eating deer have been those taken during the late, January, antlerless season when nobody has been chasing them for awhile and they've been eating waste grain.

When we had the ranch near Cottonwood Falls, KS, the deer ate a lot of sage and the meat had a distinct sage smell when cooked and was less marbled than deer that were eating a lot of waste grain.

I'm enjoying two whitetail bucks right now killed this year....both mature and large bodied. One killed in the Maine forest,and that never saw an agricultural field,and another that lived on Kansas forbes, beets, and winter wheat.

Hard to tell which is which and both are delicious.

Hands down, Sitka deer beat whitetails and mulies! Not even close...

I have shot a decent cross section of all of them under all kinds of conditions...

Most whitetails tend to hang closer to ag crops and that gives them a big edge.

I have an invite to take an axis hunt this year. I've heard they are mighty tasty. Any experience here with axis?

Ding DIng Ding my favorite.

Field preparation and processing of either specie makes up for any difference.

??

Where ag crops are -- I'd agree.

However three is a LOT of WT habitat where there are NO ag crops.


As to the OP ? I've never had the opportunity to eat any deer meat except WT so I've read this thread out of curiosity.


Jerry

We have both whitetail and mule deer here so of course I hunt both.

Pre-rut it would be a toss up for me, both are great. Whitetails on the corn and alfalfa diet are a little bland, mule deer have a little more flavor.

Rutting whitetail are okay, last rutting mule deer I shot was pretty foul.

6, Axis are great. It has been 10 years since I shot one, but they were all excellent.. I would NOT miss this hunt.. They are a beautiful animal..

If I had never shot a mule deer I'd do that.

BTW if your first time on Muledeer was like mine, don't watch them bounce when they run because, 'well it's weird'.... Concentrate on shooting one.

In the wide open, when they run they tend not to stop unless the encounter a fence or get past cover.

I've never met the person that could eat elk, whitetail, or mule deer and tell you if it was elk, whitetail, or mule deer.

If you want the best red meat, buy some cow.




Travis

I"ve shot whitetail and mule deer and Sitka blacktail.

Of the deer, I prefer the largest deer, the swamp donkey by far... LOL

Yes, very mild compared to other wild game.

A big buck is beautiful, makes a great mount - but like others, the meat from an older buck will be more tough.

The immediate difference that I noticed in Midwestern grain fed whitetails and northern New England whitetails is that it was uncommon for ME/NH/VT whitetails to have much, if any, marbling of fat in the meat, while the exact opposite is true of IA/NE whitetails that live in small grain farming areas. There are differences within Nebraska, in that the whitetails that I've seen come out of the cattle grazing area around Mullen, in central NE, are generally not as marbled as similar size/age whitetails from the corn/soybean growing area around Sutton, in southeastern NE.

To the one who suggested elk: yup, love it.

Not on the table for this hunt though!

We will be hunting in October, probably earlier in October (MT would be first two weeks of Oct),

Our NH whitetails feed on acorns and beechnut primarily. There is absolutely 0 marbling in the meat, just deep red color and yummy.

Either way, this should be a fun trip!

thanks for the input

I like to tell people I made them elk, when I actually made them mule deer.

It magically becomes the "Best meat we've ever had."




Travis

Axis are excellent. No 'deer' taste to them. Ive shot a few and will never go back to mule deer,and it'll take a suicide whitetail to get me to kill one of those.....though I think whitetail is better than mule deer.

Axis rivals elk...

Moose...grin...

Regarding mule deer vs whitetail, the meat "is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get." Diet, age, stress all flavor factors.

Stress example...I wouldn't chase a beef around, shoot it in the head or poleaxe it then expect fine dining.

I have had both whitetail and mule deer and prefer whitetail. Long ago I had some mule deer that had been feeding on sage and it was hardly fit to eat. Also had a whitetail that had eaten something pretty foul, the meat did not taste all that bad but the odor when you were cooking it would run you out of the house. Shot a couple of young pronghorns that had been feeding on grass from atop one of the high mesas in Colorado, they were some of the best game meat I've ever had. As regards elk I've never been fooled into thinking some other game meat was elk. The elk I've killed have had a distinctive enough taste to be able to tell it from whitetail.

Axis is great, but at the risk of being scolded for hijacking......hopefully someday you will get the chance to taste eland or gemsbok....


We've shot some knarly old muley bucks that live on shinoak, forbes, and mesquite beans. I've never had a bad one.

I've had a bunch of nilgai. I'd say it's better than elk or the small bull I had damn near was.

Mesquite bean sandhill mule deer are good...

Less fat = less flavor and a tougher cut of meat. We call deer like that "stew" and "burger".

I've eaten my share of NH deer, mostly from Belknap, Carroll, Coos, Grafton, and Sullivan Counties. Also a few ME deer from Cumberland, Oxford, and Someret Counties. And a few more VT deer from Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Rutland, and Windsor Counties. Most of the Essex county deer were shot from across the Connecticut River in Monroe, NH. 300+/- yard across the river, but about a 25 mile drive in those days before cellular phones.

If in the same area, from what I've eaten I prefer mule deer. Both are good, and if seasoned and grilled I probably couldn't tell you the difference, depending on what I had to drink while burning it. But I can tell you hands down, when I pull the meat from the freezer and thaw/unwrap it the last couple whitetails I had smelled far far more gamey.

I love venison, but I hate the gamey smell.

I have an old mule deer buck in the freezer that tastes very good, and is not any tougher than usual. This buck was old enough that he had lost one of his front teeth. He was taken early October, 50 miles east of Sheridan, in an area with only range lands. As good as any deer I've ever had.

The big difference I've noticed is mature mule deer bucks SOMETIMES get raunchy during the rut, and whitetails normally don't, but even then there are exceptions. My wife killed a big 3x3 mule deer on the Saturday after Thanksgiving a few years ago, so rutted-out there were only a few tiny specks of fat left on his meat. We though he'd be gamey and maybe tough as well, but after aging a week the meat was mild and tender.

If a rutty muley is gamey, the taste tends to concentrate in the connective tissue. Often the bigger cuts taste fine, but the stew and burger aren't as good, and get gamier as they spend more time in the freezer.

Also, over-cooking tends to make any wild game taste gamier. The surest way to make the meat of many big game animals and dark-meated birds taste like liver is cook it too much, but a lot of people do exactly that. Some kinds of game are more tolerant of such abuse, which is why some people think those animals always taste better, but the cooking technique's at fault, not the meat.

Have killed plenty of mature mule deer bucks before the rut and cannot remember one that wasn't very good, and indistinguishable from good whitetail. But here in Montana the regular rifle season goes through the rut, and most people don't kill larger bucks until they're rut-stupid, whereupon they complain about how mule deer taste gamey.

Have also heard about how mule deer from sagebrush country don't taste good, but have killed plenty and before the rut never found any significant difference in taste. As a result, tend to believe something else is going on, whether the bucks are killed in the rut or over-cooked--which as mentioned above tends to exaggerate some flavors.

These opinions also aren't just those of me and my wife, but come from the many people whom we've served both kinds of deer (and other kinds of big game). More than a few have even commented on how good "young" deer taste during the meal, and are astonished when I show them a photo of the big muley buck they just ate.

At one time I would have sworn I liked whitetail better, then sort of evolved to where I preferred mule-deer. With the benefit of hind sight, I've now concluded that it was more the individual animals and where they were taken and when. With many years of abundant non trophy tags for both species I've come to believe that the best eating are whatever healthy yearlings I found and that beyond that I'm not even sure I can tell the difference anymore.

Thanks for all the feedback regarding the Axis deer. Sounds like pretty good table fare. If the Montana deer hunt falls through,I'll give the Axis hunt a whirl.

As for whitetail or mule deer? Here in the Idaho Panhandle, I prefer mule deer. They both live in the same mountains, no crop fed deer here. Its just that the mule deer have more meat on them bones. A mature mulie will fill the freezer up quicker.

I've killed and eaten old mule deer taken before the rut and they aren't bad although I do taste more of a sage flavor. The whitetails where I hunt in TN are largely stick eaters (no ag crops around but we get some good mast crops every few years) and they taste good to me but maybe because that's what I'm used to. The bucks I've killed in IL post rut were not noticeably better than the buck here even though they came from the largest corn crop there may be. Oddly some of the best whitetail bucks I've eaten were ones I've killed in South Dakota during the rut and their diet was largely grass-no ag in the areas I hunted.

The best game I've eaten was a caribou bull I shot in Quebec pre rut but most every one I have talked to says rutting caribou are terrible to eat.

Here in n.e. Wa., cattle, mule, whitetail, elk, and moose all in the same hills eating the same stuff. Very slight difference, all very good. Get a run down rutted out animal of any kind and quality suffers.

Most of my whitetail a have come from agricultural areas, where as most mule deer have come from the mountains or plains.

I've had some really good mule deer, including a 6.5 year old buck killed in early November.

That said, a yearling whitetail doe taken from my usual spot is about as good as meat gets and has absolutely no wild taste.

Can't say about muleys, but since I've started cutting up all my deer myself, I've never had a stinky one, even bucks that were really smelly from the rut. Commercial cutters use power saws that smear marrow and tallow over everything and often aren't too picky about what goes in the grinder. I butcher with knives, trim away as much sinew and fat as I can, and vaccuum pack. Burger meat is chunked, frozen, and then thawed and ground as needed. Except for what gets braised or put in chili, or stir-fried, I cook it quick in a little butter and oil with salt and pepper until the pink starts to seep out. Good stuff.

Shot 'em both. Eaten both. Never could tell the difference. My take is field care makes the difference. Last DEC in CO I shot a mulie doe and a whitetail doe and you can't tell one from the other when you pull a package out of the freezer.

I hunt mule deer and whitetails in eastern Colorado and western Kansas every year, both buck and doe. I cannot tell any difference between the meat of the deer killed in sandhill sagebrush and that from cropland areas.

I myself prefer the taste of the whitetails, but the difference is small and very subjective. This year I killed a very large rutting whitetail buck. There is zero gaminess to his meat. On the other hand, mule deer bucks with even a little bit of swollen neck will have an off smell and some slight gamey taste. Not much, but enough to tell the difference. I actually think it's more of a perception of smell than taste. Both are excellent. The only bad-tasting deer I ever had was a immature yearling mule deer buck. Mountain mulies have a distinct flavor that sets them apart from plains deer. Not bad, just different.

My preference when meat hunting remains with the plains whitetails of either sex. Next best are dry mulie does. Mule deer bucks and wet does come in last ... but not so much as to pass on a good shot. I wouldn't make my choice of tags based solely on the meat ... and I'm a meat hunter first and foremost.

Feed can make a big difference. Years ago my brother and I shot 2 mulie does. High mountains, in snow, we skinned them immediately and got them cooled. We did it all by the book. They were both inedible. The meat was too strong to eat. It stunk up the kitchen when cooking. Even my garbage gut lab wouldn't eat it, literally. We ended up throwing it all away. There was something they'd been eating that gave it a horrible taste and smell.

Bob H;
Good morning to you sir, I trust this first Saturday of the second month of the year finds you and yours well.

This is, as you can imagine, a hotly debated topic most anywhere folks who hunt and eat venison gather to discuss table fare, so for whatever it's worth here's our observations.

I grew up eating Saskatchewan moose with a smattering of whitetail thrown into the mix, the whitetails added when we were first married and still on the farm there.

Since moving to the BC interior we've eaten local mulie and whitetail bucks as well as local moose, elk and Columbia Blacktail from the BC coastal area as well as Sitka Blacktail from what was then called the Queen Charlottes.

Overall it's our impression that the less stress caused by seasonal conditions an animal experiences, the more tender it's meat is. That's a broad statement to be sure and there's been exceptions too, but that's what we've found.

So the Sitka deer on the Charlottes never have winter really and maintain good body condition year round. They're grand eating in our experience.

Likewise the Blacktail from our coast seldom see snow or any lack of good forage to speak of and were pretty tasty to us.

Locally the whitetail we hunt most never see an agricultural field and early in season one would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a steak from a whitetail or mulie buck of similar age class taken from the same mountain.

We have noted a few interesting trends in flavor, such as mulie bucks from a valley to the west have a bit more of a tangy flavor - perhaps more sage up there? We're not sure.

There's been a couple instances where we've noticed a bit more gamey flavor in late season mulie bucks than whitetails in the rut, but it's certainly not the case in all or even most of them.

Lastly, we used to cook up side by side steaks from whitetail and mulies to see if anyone could tell the difference and nobody who we did the test with ever could - not once.

Anyway sir, hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there. Good luck on your hunts this fall and good eating afterward.

Dwayne

That is why I used "tend."

I agree with Travis. I have a hard time telling the difference if the elk or mule deer are shot in the high country. Here in the lemhi valley however the mule deer seem to smell stronger than the whitetail. I also find the grainy almost liver like grainy ness of elk or mule deer less palatable than white tail. Since I started canning the meat I doubt any one could really tell the difference. Women seem to have a more discerning palate. However the local land owners certainly more inclined to give permission to harvest elk or mule deer. The whitetail are more highly regarded as table fare.

Mule deer by a landslide!

When I was on the faculty at Kansas State University, one of my graduate students studied whitetail deer diets and energy relationships on Fort Riley. The post was in the middle of typical east Kansas farm country, surrounded by farms. The perimeter and the broad "buffer zone" around the artillery impact area were farmed as well by contract farmers. In addition, the officer in charge of the wildlife program on the fort was an avid quail hunter and there were food plots scattered around the fort everywhere-I would guess that there were a dozen or more 2-acre plots per section.

The deer were large and healthy. Does that weighed in excess of 200 lbs live weight were the norm and some approached 300 lbs. Bucks were also very large, both in body mass and antler size. Everyone you asked said that the deer got large and fat on the corn, milo soybeans and wheat that were present in abundance.

We collected ten animals each month for intensive analyses. We did this for two years. Since this was the army, we could make everyone who harvested a deer during the fall hunts bring their deer to our check station, whole. We dressed their deer and took blood, rumen and other samples from each animal. Like everyone else, we expected to find that these animals were living the white-tailed deer equivalent of the "life of Riley".

Briefly, these animals were absolutely the healthiest group of white-tailed deer that I had the opportunity to study. Disease and internal parasites were nonexistent. As winter approached, they had all put on enough body fat that, energetically speaking, they literally did not have to eat another bite until sometime in the last half of April. The surprise came when we looked at the contents of the foodstuffs in the rumen samples.

We rarely encountered any of the domestic crops raised on or around the fort in rumen samples. When we did see them, they were less than one percent of the total--usually much less. Virtually all of their diet was comprised on native plants along with a few introduced things (mostly ornamentals that were growing wild).

Since we were collecting ten animals a month, we usually kept some venison to see if there was any variation in palatability from season to season and there was actually very little. Around the first half of April, when they were burning the last of their winter fat reserves and starting to eat the first things that were greening up, you could say that there was a slight loss of palatability, but I don't think that most hunters would even notice the difference if they weren't looking for it.

Around here, we have mule deer that pretty much live in the corn and alfalfa pivots for nine months out of the year. Since I don't hunt them, I can't say whether they are physiologically different from the ones that live in the nearby mountains and foothills. However, I can say that the little Coues whitetails up in the mountains are much more palatable than mule deer taken in the same habitats. My family as a whole usually ends up with a few of each every year, so we have ample opportunity to make comparisons.

Well, Having eaten all I would say Blacktails are the best

From my experience mulies and whitetails in general taste about the same and both taste better than antelope.

Some have told me how good antelope taste but I have yet to find that the case.

Art

You are certainly not the first person I have heard say that. Several other people whom I also value their opinion have told me the same thing.

What I am wondering, what do you think these Sitkas eat that gives them such good flavor or does the good taste come from some other factor?

I also have heard Sitka is delicious. Why?

Great post.

DF

Some observations, here in E. Colorado-

Most of our mule deer on the eastern plains along the Arkansas River drainage don't spend as much time around agricultural areas as do the whitetails. As a result, their diet is different, and I believe that is the most important factor influencing how the meat tastes.

As a result, I greatly prefer a whitetail, taken off the river bottom next to alfalfa, wheat, and corn fields. In fact, many of the whitetails on our farm spend much of the year living in the corn, until it is cut and they are forced to move elsewhere, although they don't really use it for food until the ears have matured. I have also found that how the deer smells when cleaning it can be an indicator of how the meat will taste later on. An odorless whitetail is almost a guaranteed quality animal for table fare.

Both me and my wife, however, prefer well cared-for pronghorn meat over either whitetail or mule deer.

After eating both whitetails and mule deer my whole life, I have never been able to tell the difference on the table.

As stated above, what they are eating, condition, and care of the meat have a bigger impact on palatability. I have killed some mule deer bucks that smelled extremely rutty, but did not affect the meat at all.

Axis is fantastic and would welcome the opportunity to add it to my freezer anytime.

The lone moose I killed was incredible! Much better than beef IMO. So good, my wife asked if I could get one every year.

I have had more individual variation in the meat quality with elk than any other critter.

Am anxiously awaiting my trip to Africa this June to try some Eland, Oryx, and others if Diana so smiles on us.

As near as I can tell preference is personal and subjective. Personally, I prefer whitetail, but to me Sitka blacktail tastes very similar. There are caveats, however. Texas Hill Country whitetails were not nearly as good as Black Hills whitetails. They had a flavor that was not as palatable. I am sure from something they were eating. Adirondack whitetails (hardwood forests) I have always liked very well. There is a particular tributary drainage outside Rapid City that has produced the best deer venison I have eaten - several times. Absoroka WY whitetails and WY Black Hills whitetails are great - these are forest deer, no ag fields.

Mule deer are OK, but given the choice I go out of my way for whitetails versus mule deer. I am thinking all the mule deer I have taken have been forest and rangeland deer, not ag land deer.

Axis from the same Hill Country areas as the whitetails, I preferred if I could get it. Very good. To whomever was asking. No hesitation axis will be quite fine.

For me it is somewhat the scent of the cooking meat, and therefore the smell of the cooked meat. Pronghorn is not my favorite, and that is for sure the scent of the cooked meat. Doesn't make a difference what they were eating or how fast they got cooled or skinned. Pronghorn has a peculiar flavor all its own. Near as I can tell you like it or you don't.

Elk is a staple. Moose is difficult to judge. I have had some that was good. Friends gave us some from two young WY bulls that I have found to have a slightly sour flavor, like chewing on a willow branch. The meat is fine, not spoiled, well taken care of, but oddly sour willow flavored. Salicylic acid, the original aspirin from willow bark. Maybe moose is good for arthritis.

So to OP, if you are going to hunt in the west, take the opportunity to hunt a new species. Mule deer are quite edible, and you will just have to try some to see how you like it compared to whitetail.

In 2008 I was 57 had never shot a deer, the wife was 53 and neither of us had ever eaten deer.
I brought home (5) mule deer.

Now in 2016 I have brought home a total of 20 mule deer, 1 whitetail, and 3 antelope. It all tastes the same to me. Best cooked with some bacon for flavor.

In 2008 our son still lived with us and he at 3X what a normal person would eat.

We have reached a new equilibrium. The 1 year old granddaughter likes "snack sticks" made at the butcher shop with venison and beef fat. I slice it thin so she will not choke. In 2015 I got an entire mule deer yearling turned into snack sticks and the kid with only 6 teeth is going through all of it.

I have about the same opinion. Mule deer shot in Colorado on the slopes covered with scrub oak that had plenty of acorns to eat tastes the same as whitetails that have been eating acorns from oak trees in east Texas. I have only had one bad tasting deer,a mulie killed about 30 miles north of Yellowstone park. It was killed during the week of Thanksgiving and was really bad. I wish I knew what he had been eating but they were also rutting.

Talking north central WY you are around the Bighorn's which is where we take a half dozen deer and antelope every year. We are no longer head hunters but back when we took bucks we found no meaningful difference in the taste when good field practices are followed. Your outfitter should guarantee good practice. I have a slight preference for antelope and with doe/fawn non-res tags only $34 with a big freezer you can get some very fine eating for very little.

Antelope are horrible, nobody should ever eat them! Stinking goats!

I forgot to touch on antelope in my first post. It is some of the finest table fare there is when properly taken care of. When it is not, take it to the nearest dumpster.

Shooting them off of winter wheat fields and alfalfa fields makes the eating even better.

Put me in the Sitka Blacktail camp too. By more than a goodly margin.

All my deer have been good, but I've never had a sage-fed Muley.

I feel this necessitates a sample of Sitka Blackie ... to be fair, of course.

I must say elk is better. Which necessitates a moose for the same reason.

Illinois corn fed whitetails are darn tasty.
But never had a bad tasting deer.

Mule Deer hands down over northern Mn deer any day.

Elk and lope is my favorite.

Never had Sitka blacktails but by all accounts they are very good.
Unlike others, I do not much care for Columbian blacktails and they can get pretty rank with the rut approaching. Early season they are okay, but come november they are at the bottom of my list. At this point I don't bother hunting them any more.
I have eaten a lot more mule deer than whitetail, both are very good to me.
A good moose is even better, though I don't hunt them much any more. Way too much work after some fool shoots one and ruins a perfectly good hunting trip!

Just like beef, it depends on their food. Farmland feedlot deer of either species tastes similar to elk. Does aren't full of rutting hormones, and either sex tastes better without adrenalin. So for good flavor, ambush a deer that eats with cattle in a feedlot. Even then, if you kick up a doe with fawns to protect her adrenalin level will make her almost inedible.

I shot a young spike once, 18 months old. In a pine forest

I figured should be the best ever... had it processed since I was to busy I thought at the time to cut and wrap it...

I paid a lot of money to have vac sealed steaks that tasted like what I imagine a pine cone does...

NO clue what he was eating but I threw all the meat out.