Having shot quite a few mule deer near Broadus, including one last month, and also having eaten more than my share of jerky and sausages from Broadus Meats, I can vouch 100% for Dennis. Some are worse, even much worse, than others, but rutting muleys to me pale in comparison to whitetails when it comes to eating. And I know from experience that virtually all that jerky and sausage is from rutting muley bucks that guys bring in and "trade" for processed stuff. That meat has to go somewhere.
Many years ago, I once paid to have a rutty muley buck processed. Never again. It got to where we wouldn't even cook the stuff indoors, it stank up the house so much, and it was hard to gag down.
The muley from last month was not terrible, but not great either. I canned the meat, and that seems to help some.
The shooter whitetail bucks I ran into this year were on private, river-bottom land only. It's not easy to make the call to tag a whitetail doe with a $1000 non-res big game combo tag.
