Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Tough backstrap

Last season I went out to help a buddy find a deer he’d shot but couldn’t find…. I took a rifle just in case. We found his deer in short order and saw another deer close by. Quite possibly his doe’s nearly full grown fawn. I shot the young deer with the intention of putting some young tasty back straps on the grill for family coming to town the next night.

Had my deer back home and gutted within 45 min. Back straps out and in the fridge within an hour. They sat in the fridge for roughly 40 hours and were marinated in soy, Worcestershire and Italian dressing for the last 10-12 hours. Put them on the grill and pulled them off the perfect medium rare…. I have NEVER eaten deer so tough! Could barely chew it. I’ve killed and eaten a hundred plus deer. Never had meat so tough…. Any ideas on what could have happened?

They should have been past rigor. I've never thought BS was tender though.

But I had a similar issue and that deer had been running for some reason. Stopped close. Easy shot. Young spike. Tough as all get out for a yearling... Adrenalin?

How was the rest of the meat?

Only ones I’ve had like that were cut out to soon before they were fully rigor mortised.

I have never had a tough yearling. But I have had tough bucks and does. Not sure why some are tough of the same size and age handled the same way.

Being quick is your problem. Meat taken off the bone before the animal goes into rigor and relaxes is always tougher. Many elk hunters who use the no gut method have found that when they remove the front and hind quarters usually leaving the bone in, but fillet the back strap end up with tough back strap

This is why I continue to drag ‘em out rather than boning them out afield as seems popular now. I watch the YT folks rush to get their meat bagged up and hauled out of the woods and think, gonna be a lot of chew to that. Last season I dragged out the first one and packed it well with ice, then skinned and quartered it the next day, putting the meat in a 150 quart cooler on ice for about four days before I started cutting it. The next two, killed at the same time, were dragged out and taken to a processor, where they hung in a cooler for at least a week before cutting. It makes a difference. I found this out from Mule Deer, who along with his wife really study this stuff for her writing. Before that, I mostly thought it was a matter of luck, or the stress the critter experienced when killed.

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I suspect it would have to be what was already mentioned above about rigor mortise.

Every deer I kill hangs for 7-11 days. Have gone longer but no need to. Been doing it that way for over 30 yrs. Cannot tell the difference between a buck or a doe. We've marked them separate in the freezer, and both are the same prime stuff. Always good, always consistent. Only thing I've changed in all that time is letting them hang hide on. Produces the same or better aging affects but without drying out the outer layer or losing some meat due to shrinkage.

If it was the offspring of the doe your buddy shot and was still hanging around it could have been stressed. My dad shot a yearling elk one year a day or two after someone killed his momma.

He’d been hanging around refusing to leave and was legally a cow. Dad had a cow tag and figured it would be prime eating and an easy pack out. Even the gravy was tough.

I have come to the conclusion one cannot predict if a deer will be tender or shoe leather, regardless of the age or conditions it was killed in. Aging helps, proper cooling before deboning helps, but some critters are just tough.

The worst elk I ever ate was a calf on a late season hunt. Shot out of a big herd and had no clue I was around. Not stressed at all. Nice and cool out but not freezing. It was absolutely terrible eating.

Some of the best eating and tenderest have been ancient bulls or cows. One just never knows.

I can’t figure it out…

Get what your saying, but.
You ain't dragging everything out. Specially when your on the side of a mountain or in a hell hole and its dark and cold. The farm fawns that can be driven to, sure. Hang em a week. But a big ol mulie or elk? Ain't gonna happen way back in the stuff. I've heard the old timers in the area I live tell me a milking doe or sucking fawn is more than likely gonna be tough. Yet to run into one handled right, but hey, it what they say. Same old timers tell me if you see cattle laying down in the fields it can mean fishing and hunting is gonna be tough. I just told them, "or it can mean their full".

Exactly.

A lot of supposedly experienced hunters don't understand this--which is explained thoroughly in SLICE OF THE WILD, Eileen Clarke's book on big game from field to table. www.riflesandrecipes .com

Cold shortening had crossed my mind when I read the OP, but I didn't bring it up because he said that he'd eaten 'a hundred plus' deer, so I presume he had taken some in the past in similar temps and the same rough timeframe before deboning.

Also, it was 45 minutes between the kill and getting the deer home, skinned, gutted and the BS filleted off within an hour. That generally has been enough time for rigor to set in for me,, though how hot it was out may have had an influence on that.

The deer I have taken BS off of literally 5 minutes after the shot.....yeah. Those things were like eating a cordura steak.

I have always done what you describe, mostly out of necessity. Last few years I have tried to kill my meat bucks post rut off the beach. I have noticed a better quality of meat letting them hang and it’s certainly easier to have perfect meat with no hair or debris.

The moose we are eating right now we only have o marinate for two days. 😂

One thing that works well is a Jaccard tenderizer.It's a quick way to take care of tough meat.
https://www.amazon.com/Jaccard-2003...p;hvtargid=pla-4583795260447326&th=1

I was thinking stress as well. I have never had a tough back strap. I have long believed it’s in the killing. There is also a reason to let them hang a week.

Well, chalk this up to a lesson learned… can’t remember ever getting a game animal sliced up so quickly after killing it…won’t happen again either. Thanks all who responded.

Gotta let it hang if cool enuff

This.

Have had fine eating rutted up bucks and the toughest deer I ever had was 1.5 year old doe.

She became all burger.

Some hang and some are in the freezer within 2 hours of getting killed.

As already mentioned, hanging or even ageing in a cooler on ice for at least 7 days is the ticket. Hanging skin on is better. But sometimes that is just not possible.

If I have to process one right away due to warm weather or just don't have the time, the whole deer gets ground into burger. Backstraps and all. we use a lot of burger so its not a problem. That grinder tenderizes them just fine.

Because I cannot control the logistics of proper aging, I have now used this tool for two bulls. They then go into a glass bowl of marinade for 24 hours. Whether it gets cooked on the grill, oven or broiler, it turns out to be very tender.

It's been chewed for you already.

Not for nothin’, I stopped using Italian Dressing in the marinade, found the back strap turned stringy (and tough)

The half dozen or so deer I've boned in the woods were not noticeably different than ones that hung for several days. Lucky?

I bought this old Hobart Steakmaster for $60 about fifteen years ago and I'm glad I did.If I have some meat that I want to make tenderized cutlets,I run it through the Steakmaster when I'm processing the meat.It really tames tough meat quickly.

Mom used to fry up cutlets like that when my brother and I were in grade school. We called them rubbermeats.

I have also heard that freezing breaks down cell walls and will make it more tender also. Have not tested it myself yet.

My processor told me to never cut one up before rigor mortis sets in and then comes out. A buddy of mine tested that once having shot a cow elk late the last day of our hunt and gutted and taken to the processor immediately. He told him to cut it and wrap and freeze to pick up the next morning as he needed to get on the road. The butcher cautioned him against that to no avail. My buddy said it was the toughest meat he’d ever had; blamed it on being an old cow. The cow was no more than 2-3 years old judging by her size and good teeth. That’s why when anyone offers venison I try to politely decline saying my freezer is full, but if they insist the pups are real happy.

The longest drag I’ll have is maybe a mile and a half. Most are 1/2-3/4. I’ve settled on jet sleds as the best means overall as I can haul in some helpful stuff and then haul everything out, keeping the carcass clean. With my knee as it is, my much-younger wife helped me pull all the deer out, a very welcome assistance. Still hoping for a bear, which oughta be interesting…..

Dragging on snow is a relative breeze, but that’s a rare event during the regular season.

I don't "drag" , I carry the out on my back. In 60+ years of hunting I have NEVER, had a backstrap that was anything but fine eating. Dress them fast , hang them up for a few days and start eating the tender, and smaller parts, before they dry out.