When I was growing up the opinion was whitetail were better eating than mule deer. Most of that thought came from west of the divide where most whitetail hunting was done lower down than mule deer and the food was different for them. People used to say mule deer eat pine needles and that is what gave them the bad flavor. We started hunting east of the divide for mule deer in grain fields. There were very few whitetail. No wild taste no matter when are how old the buck was. I did get one old buck that was in the foothills of the big belts that walked like he was full of arthritis and during the rut that was pretty rank. My wife refused to eat it and said it reminded her of whitetail from northern MN.
I have also shot plenty of mule deer in the breaks and badlands that have no grain fields near by that tasted as good as those grain fed deer.
