Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Fallow deer for the table

Hey guys, thought I'd share a few pics from Friday. Went for a still hunt on some private land and run into this guy- bedded down at around 200 meters through the forest. After glassing the small mob he was with I decided to harvest him because he was lighter in colour than the rest (poaching is a real problem in my area), and looked to be the most delicious.
A standing shot on a rest with my sauer and the interbond did the rest.
After gutting him, I packed him out whole (kiwi style) and he's hanging in my shed ready for the freezer this afternoon.
Happy days. Sorry the photo quality isn't great.

I had never eaten fallow deer until my trip to Argentina earlier this year. It is very tasty.

That's right, I butchered the animal yesterday and we had venison tacos with fried beans for 7, everyone loved it including my lefty sister in law! I don't know how it compares to the American deer like white tail or mule deer, but I do prefer red deer when I find them, the fallow deer seems to have a gamier (not sure if that's a word) taste.

Personally, I prefer Fallow venison over the others I have tried, with Red being a close second.

I find Roe ok, but a bit bland, where as Fallow to me tastes of "game" and the taste is very distinct from beef.

The best tasting venison I've had is a fallow pricket that had been hung in a chiller for 14 days before skinning and butchering; I am getting hungry just thinking of it!

Nice looking, tasty critter.

They are quite tasty. Enjoy. Congrats on a successful hunt.

I have no experience with either roe or fallow deer, but was going to chime in with my experience with whitetail and mule deer, that the way to make them good table fare is to let them hang with the skin on for at least a week or 10 days ,depending on ambient temps.best temp is high 30's- low 40's
I didnt used to think it made much difference, but now think otherwise.

Female and your male fallow deer are indeed delicious, but big males can be iffy during the rut. They can have a definite off-taste, a lot like some big mule deer get in the rut. At that point the best use for the meat is sausage.

The best deer I've ever eaten is axis, and even the big bucks don't taste any different while rutting. Have found the same to be true of whitetails. Both my wife and I have taken big bucks well into the rut, and the meat was still fine.

watched 3 real nice fallow bucks feeding this morning all 3 in the velvet, took a couple of pictures but they were to far for my camera to get a good picture, i have found the fallow to be as spooky as the axis, the only differance is the fallow are easy to see because of their color, when hunting axis or fallow pay attention to your stalk and the wind,both have great eyesight and nose,the axis is better eating. rio7

Mature Fallow bucks definitely get very stinky during the Rut as do Red stags..In both cases they also loose a lot of body condition during rut and the carcass quality suffers appreciably.

Re the colour of Fallow, it depends on the colour phase present. They can go from almost white to almost black, and local populations are often a mix, at least over here anyway.It also depends on the time of year as there is a very marked difference between their summer and winter coats..