We have hunted whitetails in 12 states and provinces in North America, in the West from Alberta, Canada down to Sonora, Mexico, and in he East from West Virginia to Iowa to Arkansas and Alabama. All have tasted good, even though they were shot both in the CNS and heart-lungs, but we none were chased with dogs. My friends in West Virginia say that deer eating white oak acorns taste better than those eating red oak acorns, but we don't have enough experience to say one way or the other.
As examples of lung-shot animals that were outstanding, two were the very best all-around eating of that species we've ever gotten. One was a mature but not old mule deer buck my wife shot with a .270 Winchester, near our little Montana town, and the other a 5x5 bull elk I killed on opening day of the Montana bow season in early September. There have been other mule deer and elk that were very good too, but those were so fine we tended to reserve their meat for special occasions.
