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

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.