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

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.