Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule deer or whitetail? Taste test.

All things equal, which do you prefer to eat?

Can you tell the difference in taste between the two?

I don’t know that I can tell a good one of each apart, but if had far more strong flavored muleys than whitetails. Probably eaten 3-4x as many whitetail too.

Like both but the W. Tx mule deer eat primarily sotol and taste more beef like. There is limited sage or anything to give them a bad taste and they will only eat these things in really poor years. Most hill country whitetails are excellent but some in south Texas eat Cenizo or some sage like plant and can be almost inedible especially if this coincides with the rut. So it varies.

I have both in the freezer.....there is no discernable difference to my taste bids.

The taste is dependent on the plants eaten by the deer. Around my home I have both Mule Deer and White Tail deer. If I kill them in the same area I can't tell any difference at all, because both eat the same things.

have shot a few mule deer in wheat country and thought they tasted as good as whitetails.

Ed

Sitka blacktail for the win.

It’s the dall sheep of deer.

Lonny,

The only difference we can taste is SOMETIMES mature mule deer bucks get a little off-flavor during the latter part of the rut. This mostly settles into the connective tissue, so large cuts like hams, steaks and backstraps don't develop it much, if at all. It also seems to increase after several months in the freezer. Have noticed it after about November 15th here in Montana.

We have yet to taste any hint of that in the meat of mature rutting whitetail bucks, and we've taken them all through November not only in Montana but several other states.

As several other people noted, if whitetails and mule deer are eating the same stuff, the meat tastes very similar. Which makes sense, as they're so closely related they can interbreed--and often do.

Thanks for the replies gents.

I haven't shot a mule deer buck in many years, but when my kids started hunting, they shot several young (2.5-3.5 year-old) mule deer bucks, usually in October, and I thought they ate just fine. Same with the mule deer does they shot. They ate fine also.

It very common here to see mule deer and whitetail feeding in the same field and inhabiting the very same area so it stands to reason they are eating pretty much the same stuff.

Funny thing is though, many older people around here, who enjoy wild game won't touch a mule deer... They say its terrible eating. The same people will claim to love whitetail. I grew up hearing how mule deer was best suited for feeding stock dogs. I haven't experienced bad mule deer, but eat 15 whitetails to every mule deer also so maybe I just haven't hit a bad one yet?

This is what I have noticed and I think antelope is superior, yet you will have all sorts of guys turn their noses up at both mule deer and antelope...

Whitey does in the ag fields will beat mule deer bucks from the mountains every time. Even early season high country bucks. We eat lots of each and their is a difference. In general, mulie s tend to be more browsers, while whitetail graze more on grass but that tends to depend on what food is available. The white tail have a milder flavor. Side note: I am very careful with all of my meat care, even in the high country. I keep it all cool and clean.

I'll join those that suggest that what the deer eats makes more difference than being a mule deer or whitetail deer. I also agree with Shrapnel, in that I prefer antelope to either species of deer.

Spring fed streams



Alfalfa, beans and corn



Abundant and quality deciduous browse.



I take whitetail roasts, chops and hamburger to my relatives in Montana every fall when I hunt there. They all love it compared to the Mule deer that are killed in the Missouri breaks and ranch land. I have to admit I find both almost equally delicious. I do find a taste difference between mountain mulies and ranch land mulies and the same could be said of whitetail dining on non-deciduous browse and those on farm land.

atse,

One other factor is that some hunters don't judge game-meat flavor on how "mild" it is.

I've been convinced for a number of years that because commercial meat has become milder in flavor, due to growing everything from chickens to beef cattle faster on blander feed, that most Americans aren't used to game meat that has more flavor. I'm not talking about "gamey" taste--which is mostly caused by the rut or poor field-handling--but MORE flavor.

Good examples are lamb, or domestic ducks and geese. The demand for all has gone downhill in recent decades because so many Americans think all poultry or mammal meat should be very mild, like 6-8 week old chickens or corn-fed 2-year-old steers. God forbid any chicken should have more flavor than a McNugget, or anybody eat lamb, which these days has more far more flavor than grocery-store or average-restaurant beef.

I have many friends who claim they shoot deer fawns and calf elk because they "taste better." I even had somebody semi-chastise me and Eileen last year when she shot the biggest cow elk either of us have ever taken, because "calves and young cows taste better." But we have taken not only fawns of several species, but both elk and moose calves, and find them bland. We much prefer more mature animals, whether female or male, because they have more good (not "gamey") flavor, and we know how to age or prepare game meat so even older animals are plenty tender.

If you prefer the mildest-flavored game meat possible, then that's your choice. We don't. Our favorite gamebirds to eat are Hungarian partridge, which have a flavor that combines white and dark meat, but even "mild" flavored ruffed and blue grouse beat the hell out of today's commercial chicken. We also prefer more mature big game to younger animals, because like mature grass-fed steers have more flavor than younger corn-fed beef.

I've shot far more mule deer than whitetail, but I honestly can't tell a difference. Mountain, prairie, or wheat field; mature or young; buck or doe; whitetail or mule deer....I can't differentiate the taste.

I know folks who turn their noses up at whitetail, of any age/sex and much prefer mule deer. I know people who claim the opposite. Lots of people I know can't stand antelope, but like deer. I can't tell antelope from deer either (or elk for that matter).

Lots of variables that have been discussed already can be a factor, but individual taste buds are a biggie, I guess. This is assuming those folks don't just "hate" a specie's taste because they had it force fed to them as a kid or improperly cooked once...

Huns roasted are hard to beat. Sharptails close second

Probably the case.I like milder meat, wild and domestic. We raise and butcher our beef at about 900lbs. Less than 2 years old. Don't much care for lamb or mutton. Don't care for wild duck or geese either. Grouse is my favorite. It likely depends on what you are used to eating and develop a taste for. Time of year and food sources will affect deers flavor. Mule deer living in and eating sagebrush tend to be stronger flavored an example.

The best meat I get every year is elk tenderloin and blue or ruffed grouse. Until you have tried these, everything else is just food...

Corn fed whitetail beats any mule deer any time.

Mule deer that have fed on sage brush can have an objectionable taste. My BIL shot a whitetail buck several years ago that the meat had a distinct odor, venison tasted fine it just smelled different than any other whitetail. My wife didn't want to be around it whenever I prepared it or ate it. It came from a wooded area so who knows what it might have been feeding on.

Not in my book. Some of the deer we harvest are what I call the corn fiends and they are so fatty it is a chore to quarter them. The heavy yellow fat and tallow does nothing to improve the flavor for me. We have shot both bucks and does that had a heavy layer of fat all over and the meat was marbleized with fat too. If all the outer and inner fat was removed then these deer were good for grilling or braising or any cooking method that rendered out most of this fat. This is why I don't like shooting does as they are more likely to be like this, this is unfortunate as I should be shooting five does to every buck I take on most of the ranches I hunt.

Other than culling wounded deer and a couple of south Texas bucks that had been eating Cenizo almost all of the deer I have shot have been excellent if cared for and processed correctly which includes removing as much fat as possible.

Whitetail by a mile, muleys, blacktail are for sausage and pepperoni....

A mile? That's along way man...

Love the whitetail shag. Haha

I would add that, IMO, whitetails that eat a lot of waste grain, corn/milo/soybeans, are better tasting and more tender, due to more marbling, than whitetails that browse twigs and other lower protein foods.

I used to hunt whitetails in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas where there was a lot sage in the pastures. The meat from those deer gave off a distinctive odor when cooked and had a stronger flavor any other deer that I recall.

I think the folks who turn up their nose @ antelope have been guilty of treating it the same they would a deer in Nov. @ 90+ degrees, wrap it up in a blue tarp with the hide on, strap it to the yuppie-rack stuck in the receiver hitch, spend another day and a half cruising gravel roads and infusing diesel smoke into the now rotting carcass under the blue plastic tarp.

I don't really notice a flavor difference between whitetail and mule deer, but, where I typically hunt, both are feeding in harvested grain fields or alfalfa for the most part.

Absolutely!!!!

I have had a lot of Whitetail, no Mule deer. East Texas deer tastes better than those from West Texas to us.

The only experience I have with mule deer is from W. Texas and the meat was far milder than a WV whitetail. At times a WV whitetail has a somewhat stronger taste due to the tannic acid in the acorns they eat, but that has never deterred me, a good cook (the Mrs.) knows how to get the "gamey" taste out of them.

I've heard this a lot, but the antelope I've eaten has been great and to be honest, I preferred it to the taste of a whitetail.

I prefer mule deer to white tails but doubt I could tell the difference in a side by side taste test.
Old dry does and cows eat the best, but I hate to take the lead out of the group.
I have never thought I could taste the sage from animals taken that were feeding on it.
I think antelope have more flavor, but just natural and not due to feed.
The yearling animals do not have enough flavor to match older ones.
Properly taken care of meat is way better than meat mishandled and prepped.
Tim

I can not, I think the reason why is the only times I've had mule deer meat was at elk camp, I was starving to death after all the mountain hopping, a fried armadillo with gravy and biscuits may have been just as tasty.

Taste like chicken,

I think the biggest cause for any "bad" tasting deer is poor performance by the hunter after the deer is shot. Unfortunately I don't get to shoot as much mule deer as whitetail, but I have both in the freezer right now and I would have a very difficult time determining which is which by taste.

When I was young, pickups were not common. The pickups that were around had little creature comforts, road like buck boards, were very low geared and generally were not considered hunting vehicles. Our '53 International pickup was crude by any way you wanted to measure it! Our '53 Oldsmobile 88 was very comfortable.Many hunters draped the deer they shot over a front fender of their car. The heat of the day and the heat of the engine would cause deer flavor to go south. I remember people saying that corn fed deer was best. Well the corn fed deer were next door. The prairie deer were across the state and mule deer were on the prairie, and not near the farm where I grew up. So, the corn fed deer tasted good. The grass fed deer, including mule deer tasted not so good. Carrying a deer 300 miles on the fender of the car was a much bigger factor then corn vs. grass or whitetail vs. mule deer, IMO.
I think that people have heard that corn fed deer taste best so many times from their fathers, uncles, grandfathers etc. that they have come to believe it. I do not. The deer in my freezer came from Eastern Wyoming and from the Black Hills of South Dakota and both taste great. I am confident neither tasted corn in their lifetime.

Bottom line, mule deer vs. whitetail both taste great.

+2

I don't like the taste of mule deer. That's why I only hunt elk.

Whitetail only in Ontario.

In my experience of having hunted mule deer most of my life here in Colorado and elsewhere in the Rockies, taste can be all over the board. One of the best tasting mulies was also one of the biggest I have ever taken, and that near the end of the rut.
The most reliable deer on the 'taste test' are the whitetails I now shoot on my farm along the Arkansas River. They are always within a short distance from corn, wheat, and alfalfa, and are always tasty and tender. I really think it's all about diet, all other things like field care, temperature, etc. being equal.

I have found that (in my opinion), that the best eating deer meat was mule and whitetail deer that live mostly on alfalfa, corn and beef crops. Also preferably not in the rut! I have tried the taste test on the different species and couldn't see much difference. The same goes for the elk. I haven't eaten an elk from the mountains in years!

Ken

Bighorn,

A few years ago my wife killed a pretty big mule deer buck toward the end of the rut here in Montana, on November 27th, the next to last day of the rifle season. He'd been rutting so hard there were only tiny traces of fat on his body, but he turned out to be one of the mildest-flavored, most tender mule deer bucks we've ever eaten. Oh, and he was in a wide sagebrush valley. You never know until you taste 'em....

I really think this is the defining difference between myth and what is real...

I have eaten white tail so awful the dogs didnt like it.

The last antelope was so good it didnt last the week.

Shot a deer in Connecticut late in the season once. I think he might have been fighting because his ears were cut and one was bent down. Cold with snow on the ground and quick kill and gut. Was the toughest nastiest deer I have taken. Others big and small from the same area were fine. Mostly woods no agriculture. Sometimes store bought beef isn’t the greatest tasting either.

Antelope is damn good table fare

The best game I've eaten so far is antelope

Agreed Rooster. Easily top 3, Oryx is my top.

Well, if we're going to discuss the flavor of more than whitetails and mule deer, then antelope will usually win--unless, of course, they haven't been taken care of properly in the field. Pronghorn meat deteriorates quicker than whitetail or mule deer meat when not cooled down pretty quickly. It's kind of like the difference between salmon and walleye. Walleye can take some"field abuse," but salmon not so much.

I am also convinced that pronghorn meat contains some chemical that tastes nasty to a FEW people--just as some people get a soapy flavor from cilantro. Have known a few people who cannot stand pronghorn meat, even when everybody else eating the same meal thinks it's great.

Whether any sort of game meat is better than another also depends on cooking method. The longer any kind of red meat is cooked, the tougher it gets, and the more "flavor" it develops. Whether the flavor is pleasing to any individual depends on their taste-buds. I know plenty of people who cannot stand to eat even medium-rare meat, preferring well-done. Some game stands up better to what many would call "over-cooking" than others, often due to a higher fat content. Fat in domestic meat (and some game) has a sweet taste, which is why many people used to domestic beef and pork don't like game--and also why many game recipes include some extra fat (such as butter or bacon) and/or sweet ingredients, such as jellies or fruit. (This also applies to darker-meated game birds.)

Then there's the "what we're used to" syndrome. Many hunters who go to Africa claim eland is the BEST meat, but I suspect this is because eland tastes more like beef than most African big game, because of its fat content, which allows it to be cooked anywhere from rare to well-done and still taste good--or at least "familiar." Other African game is typically leaner, so can't be cooked at such a wide range of temperatures and still taste "good." But I've eaten plenty of African game that's at least as good as eland, if lightly cooked, including springbok, zebra and even the weird-looking black wildebeest. In fact one of the top chefs in Johannesburg years ago often chose a backstrap of black wildebeest for a customer-impressing meal.

So yeah, it all depends on personal taste, field care and the cook.

You did not mention a V8 sneak ruining most antelope meat.

Maybe people dont do that anymore!

Or rolling them in a tarp in the bed of the pickup, after at least a couple of legs have been shot off, to keep blood off the empty oil cans and High-Lift jack.

Mule deer hands down, and. I'm from Michigan,

Of course you have to consider what the consumer has heard about the taste of one species or another. Every person I talked to that wanted game meat, preferred elk. So one fall my son and I shot a couple of those gamey, sagebrush eating mule deer and wrapped them up in packages marked “Elk.” Everyone remarked how good that elk was...

Just walk into a big room, full of people and ask who farted.


Soon enough most people will smell the phantom phart.

Blood will rust a Hi Lift....everyone knows that......

Shrap,

We've had similar experiences, many times, when serving various kinds of game meat to either a few dinner guests or larger party groups.

One time we'd grilled steaks outdoors, and since they were obviously steaks off a pretty big animal, one guy said, "Man, elk is the best game meat." Trouble was, as we informed him, they were steaks from a really big mule deer buck....

Jim,

As well as the irrigating shovel. But in my experience both High-Lifts and shovels still work even with some antelope blood.

Especially this shovel...

I think mule deer is on to something about mild.

We live in idao but spend a lot of time in the Midwest. The beef in Minnesota to me tastes like chewy butter.

My Midwest buddies never liked my Idaho grass fed 3 year old open cows that I prefer over Midwest beef.

Oklahoma state university did research and they came to a conclusion that if a calf had a period of negative energy balance during its life span it would not be as desirable a carcass.

A butcher I work for in Oregon states that if you harvest an animal when it's forage is actively growing ( hence higher in sugar) that meat will be most desirable. Clients I work for in northern Minnesota claim the best eating north wood whitetail is harvested around the Fourth of July.

In the Lemhi valley ( Idaho) where we live we are most fortunate in the amount of livestock fed over the winter. Most are fed some high quality Idaho alfalfa during the coldest part. The livestock is fed out in the open hay meadows where the resident whitetails are free to help them selves and hardly any of them it seems go a day without a full Rumen. The whitetail here in my opinion is better than any of the " corn fed" Minnesota whitetail I have harvested.

Quality mule deer 2 me tastes identical to quality elk.

But whitetail can have a big variation of flavor in Minnesota north woods versus farm land.

I also think desert high heat areas sage fed mule deer are inferior to " mountain" or farm ground mule deer.

I have a theory on antelope......if you watch them buggers and their antics chasing , running,dashing during breeding season. I suspect some have run themselves into a state of ketosis, and muscle breakdown that makes them offensive to taste. Where as most have not gone through that level of exerertion prior to harvest and taste fine.

Angus,

I've had the same reaction to corn-fed Midwest whitetails so many people brag about: They taste bland.

A long-time friend, E. Donnall Thomas (who among other things is editor of TRADITIONAL BOWHUNTER magazine) says in his experience elk vary more in taste than just about any other big game, and Don has eaten big game around the world, including plenty of elk. We tend to agree. The least tasty we've ever gotten was a 1-1/2 year-old "heifer" I shot in late November in Montana. According to all the wisdom, she should have been very mild in flavor, but the meat had a definite hint of liver flavor. Dunno why, as she was dropped cleanly with one shot, and was field-dressed and cooled down promptly. Also once killed an average-sized 6x6 bull in early September that was even blander than corn-fed whitetail, and have eaten mature bulls taken in late October that had a definite musky flavor, though not like the occasional REALLY rutty mule deer buck.

The main factor, of course, is that wild animals aren't domestic animals, raised under pretty controlled conditions. As a result their flavor can vary considerably due to diet, locale and weather, time of year, and of course the rut.

I totally agree about the elk.

The Lemhi unit elk generally taste " liver like" with a grainy sirloin texture.

The beaver head elk Montana elk I harvested last year was most excellent!

Less grainy and no " liver essence".

Jim I hear they taste good after t hat too... grin

You can still eat em. But it takes em down to about a choice level.

Haha

Which ever U choose

Whitetail versus Mule Deer

The alternative is worse

As in Tag Soup!

Have had both on the same plate at the same time. Not much difference. Though they both fed on the same wheat, so it stands to reason.



Caribou stands out as a favorite but haven’t eaten it in years. A proper fried squirrel is hard to beat. Grouse and dove are favorite birds to eat.

Rabbit and pheasant stand out as second tier eats.

I have shot and eaten mule deer and white-tailed deer, from the mountains and now, the plains where I live. The does have very little difference in taste, but a rutting white-tailed buck trumps a mulie buck every time. The mulies even smell worse, when field dressing them.

Antelope does are about as good as it gets, to me.

I've heard that Oryx is very fine eating, Jud. I'd like to try it someday.

As far as mule deer and whitetails go, I haven't noticed much difference. But I've never shot a rutting mule deer either.

Always hear folks going on about axis being great eating. Never tried it. Would like to.

I think a lot of the preference for elk in my area comes from their relative rarity. My family has been successfully killing elk in Colorado since the 70’s and Oklahoma since the 90’s. We go to CO every year and have a ranch in the best area of OK for elk hunting. For most guys around this relatively poor area an elk hunt is a bucket list type hunt. Therefore elk steaks hold some kind of special place in most folks around here’s minds. I started a new job a couple weeks ago and it took exactly 2 days for everyone in the plant to know I’d killed a bull this year. I’ve probably had 7-8 people tell me how much better elk are than our local deer as they were trying to buy or bum steaks from me.

I’m pretty particular about meat care, deer, elk, even wild pigs when I decide to butcher one. To me unless you get a bad one, really rutty buck or a couple mule deer I’ve had from CO that were big old bucks and just really strong flavored, I don’t really taste a huge difference. I have a bull from CO and a middling sized 10 point whitetail buck from OK in my freezer right now. To me they are both excellent eating with no huge difference between them.

I pulled a dirty trick on a guy today....

I asked him if he wanted some deer meat because in the past he never turned it down when I offered and I know he likes and appreciates it. He has mentioned many times that he likes whitetail and elk, but doesn't like mule deer. In fact, he said mule deer "stink"

He thought I was giving him whitetail, when I actually was giving him mule deer. He likes burger and grinds up most of what he gets.

He texted a bit ago and said the burgers he grilled up tonight were "great!!!" And yeah, he used 3 exclamation points.

Haha that's good stuff lonny!!

Mule deer eating scrub oak acorns have tasted as good as whitetail eating pecans. But the worst I've had was from a mule deer taken about 30 miles north of Yellowstone park near Nye, MT.

Now, his wife just texted me saying the the "meat is very yummy"

Good grief, now I'm starting to feel like I should come clean on the deal.

But than again, if I do, they might suddenly get that phantom-funky-taste mentioned earlier when eating the rest.

Probably better to just let the meat placebo do its thing...

I'd wait a while, til it's bout gone lonny. Haha

Straydog,

That's been my experience with mule deer eating scrub-oak acorns as well.

More than one of my friends from "back East" says that whitetails eating white-oak acorns taste great, but not so much when eating red-oak acorns.

Interesting thread. I think tastes, and preconceived notions, all add into the equation.

Truth be told, I don't care much for any deer. At least whitetail, mule deer, or blacktail. Not really a fan of elk either. Moose or bison, however, I really like but haven't eaten a ton of it. I'd like to do a blind taste test to see if this all holds water, as I might be fooling myself.

Haven't had enough antelope to make a decision, but based on numerous reports I really want to try more.

I like duck (domestic) and lamb, but my wife doesn't care for either one. However, she and my son have eaten a decent amount of elk, mule deer, and blacktail deer without a complaint. I really got tired of eating it, and was happy to empty the freezer of it. Not sure what to make of it all.

In the past few years, I've passed up on a legal deer and elk as I have zero desire to eat them. I would turn all of the meat into pepperoni or sausage, which seems like a waste. Or burger with beef fat. We aren't hurting for meat at my house and I'd take beef or cheap pork shoulder steak over any deer or elk cut. I have friends that love game meat, and am starting to think that I should give them the meat. They literally get depressed as the freezer gets low.

My kids like rabbit, and based on the ramblings of Steve Rinella, Hank Shaw, and Jonathan O'Dell, I'd like to try jack rabbit. Probably sounds weird to some!

if its either a big whitetail buck or mule deer buck we keep the tenderloins and backstraps always to fry or grill but the rest goes for sausage . I have never noticed my deer rather mule deer or whitetail deer tasting different if I butcher my deer myself ,which I always done for 40 years just because I take care of my meat better than many butcher shops,my son and daughter learned to help butcher wild game at a early age too. the last animal I had butchered at a shop was a caribou in Canada 15 years ago and that meat was not fit for a dog after that sob shop cut that caribou up in Quebec. Antelope if taken care of properly , quartered and iced down quickly in a cooler is very tasty meat as is a fawn deer in October is. I had an old friend say the best eating deer meat is in august before these deer start fighting and having sex I asked him how he knew that and he told me just never mind and he just laughed.

I used to hunt woodcocks when I lived in Maryland, I thought it was the best bird meat I ever ate.. Deer I have only ate whitetail which was always great.

I also ate moose in Alaska it was great also.

Conducted a taste test tonight with my wife and two kids home from college. Conditions weren't perfect considering the animals, but it might be as close as I'm likely to get anytime soon.

Backstrap steak from a whitetail buck and backstrap steak from a mule deer doe. No real way of knowing age of each animal, but I'd guess the buck was around 3 years old and the doe could have been older than that.

Buck killed 11-20-18 and doe killed 12-1-18. Both deer died within 250 yards of each other, so they were living and eating in the same habitat. Both died quickly and neither moved from where they stood when shot. Both gutted within 15 minutes. Both skinned within 3 hours. Temp for hunting and hanging was in the 30's. Both were hung in my shop for 4 days in temps that never got above 40 degrees. Both backstraps from each animal were previously frozen before cooking.

After thawing for a day in the frig, I cut steaks 3/4" thick and gave each side a few "whaps" with a meat mallet and they were probably 1/2 inch thick after that. I lightly salted and peppered each of the steaks. I wanted anything that might mask the true flavor to be minimal.

I knew the real judge of the four of us would be my wife, because she has a nose like a bloodhound and would pick up anything even slightly different.

I was the only one who knew which meat was which.

Steaks were cooked on the grill to medium rare. Maybe 2 minutes per side.

2 of the 4 picked the mule deer doe. 2 said they couldn't tell the difference. My wife picked the MD doe because she said it had more flavor, but not in a seasoning sort of way, just slightly more flavorful tasting. I had to agree. But it was very close between the two. WT was more maybe slightly more mild, or should I say just less meat flavor.

If I had mixed them up on the plate though, it would have been a challenge to tell one from the other.

For what it's worth?

Best deer I ever ate lived in and around cornfields. The worse I ever ate have been ones that live amongst the sage brush.

Mule deer over whitetails for me. And then axis over mule deer.

I agree with sage brush adding an offensive taste to some people.

Around here they are both delicious if killed before the rut, I will take the Mule deer if they are 2pt or smaller 4pt
It can be challenging to eat a steak from a big 4pt Mulie in the rut,, and the gravey dont help much, lol

I have never had bad whitetail and I have had a LOT of bad mule deer, in fact, I won't even shoot a mulie anymore. They gotta be 200" bucks before I even give them a second glance.

I agree with the comment about Sitka blacktail being the best too. I still guide a lot of mule deer hunts and I can't stand the smell of these "stinky deer".

There is no comparison, at least in Arizona.

Dennis,

Are the Arizona mule deer in the rut? What are they eating?

Have hunted both Coues and mule deer in Sonora, where they tend to occupy very different kinds of habitat. Despite that, the meat of both was excellent. But the hunts were early in the rut, when bucks of both species were far from worn down.

Not a big venison fan here, never tasted a better wild meat than water buffalo which is like a very strong beef with a darker meat, but Aussies never bring much venison back to camp as it won't keep in the weather and the coolers are primarily for beer and maybe some butter.
Not being a cook of any persuasion if it doesn't impress on a flat iron on an open fire it doesn't usually go much further. Just a different upbringing in a different climate.

Something most won't know, taking wild game is/was/maybe still is illegal over there as butchering any meat for human consumption is required to be done in a licensed abattoir. Naturally, there is no law enforcement for this, nor any DNR or anything else.

I think the mule deer rut much harder than the whitetails. I was hunting a few years ago and had a 190" muley 'challenge' me repeatedly. I never even nocked an arrow. Our coues deer are still a little more timid during the rut and I think they eat more. The last 'trophy' mule deer I killed was in '97 and it was so rank that the dog would not even eat the meat. That was the final straw. I had two sets of hunters give me meat sticks made from mule deer. The package was labeled 'Broadus MT' so I am assuming they killed the bucks in Montana. The sticks were so gamey that I had a running joke with my dog. I would ask her if she wanted some mule deer. She knew exactly what that meant; going to the fridge to get a meat stick as a treat as I couldn't stand the smell of them.

I think they are eating a lot of cliffrose and other aromatic browse in Dec/January.

The coues deer we killed in Mexico last year were delicious. We were only able to sneak a small amount of meat home but it was great. I know quite a few hard-core coues deer hunters like me that will no longer hunt mule deer. To me they smell worse than a rutting bull elk and that is saying something.

I ate a LOT of game meat last year and in order from best to worst, I would rank it as follows:

1) Dall sheep
2)Eland
3) Moose
3)Sitka blacktail
4)Gembok & Impala
5)Virginia whitetail
6)Coues whitetail
7)Kudu
8) everything else with Mule deer and warthog being at the bottom of the list.

The big mule deer we have killed in mid September have been decent but not great. About a half dozen of those that have been between 5 and 9 years old. We have killed 2 bucks recently in mid November that were in the same age class. One was 202" , and the other was 187" both were rutting hard. The meat of both was boned out and well taken care of, and was literally unedible. It was so strong that nobody, ( or the dog) wanted to eat it. The rutting white tail bucks I have eaten have been much better, although not like does. But I love hunting big mule deer, so I will just have to endure.

I'm really surprised by dennis' take o mule deer. I've never run across a bad one out here, and we kill them in full rut as well. As a matter of fact my buddy dropped a big 5.5 yr old 180 class typical last week, rutted up and a bit smelly, and the backstraps were delicious, as they always are out here. Maybe it's what they eat, not sure.

JG,

I am surprised as well, but have also had several people from southwestern Idaho say mule deer there can be bad-tasting as well, even if not rutting. Can only guess, as you do, that it's something they eat.

The only "deer" I've heard of that dogs won't eat are rutting caribou bulls, but that seems to be the consensus no matter where they're hunting. Have never encountered that myself, as all the caribou hunts I've made, from Alaska to Quebec, were from mid-August to mid-September, before the rut, sometimes before they shed their velvet.

I assure you this is a real phenomenon and not my imagination. Mule deer taken during our August archery hunt, at least the ones NOT from the desert are just fine to eat. I might even try a piece of jerky from the late October hunt but after that and especially in January they are flat nasty. Maybe it is just a regional thing but that mule deer given me by some caribou hunters last summer that was from Montana was pretty rank as well.

Oh, I believe you. We have had an occasional rutty, mature mule deer buck that was definitely affected--though not to the point where the meat was inedible if prepared correctly, or made into sausage.

The rut also tends to last longer in more southern mule deer, and the drier conditions might result in the meat being more affected because there isn't as much nutrition in mid-winter vegetation. Dunno, but do know the 190+ buck I killed in Sonora in January tasted fine.

Mentioned in an earlier post on this thread that a few years ago Eileen killed a mature mule deer buck on the second-to-last day of the season, I believe the 27th of November that year. (The rifle season goes through the Sunday after Thanksgiving.) It was so rutted-out there were only tiny specks of fat on its body, and we thought it might be inedible. But it turned out to be really mild-tasting, and tender, quite a surprise. I am guessing it was already recovering from the rut, and while it was taken in a wide sagebrush valley, Montana mule deer don't normally resort of eating sage until winter, and there were some irrigated hayfields nearby, which both species of deer flock to as the fall gets colder.

The most inedible deer I've ever killed was a very big fallow buck taken during the rut. Dunno if a dog wouldn't have eaten it, but we sure didn't. Fallow bucks have that reputation, though the does are very fine eating.

Have also taken several axis deer in rut, and they are always excellent eating. But like other tropical deer, the rut is very lengthy and not nearly as "hard" as that of northern deer. In fact axis they breed all year round in Texas, though there's a summer peak.

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.

To add: I deliberately make the decision to time my trip to coincide with prime rut dates, so i get what I deserve in that regard. Virtually all my experience in tagging/eating Montana bucks over the years has been smack dab in the middle of the rut, so I know I am apt to get the stinky ones.

Rick,

Yep, we have yet to get an off-flavored whitetail buck even when they're taken during the peak of the rut, whether in Montana or elsewhere. And I have taken hard-rutting whitetails in many other places, from Old Mexico to Canada, including several eastern states and provinces. Dunno why their flavor doesn't deteriorate during the rut like mule deer, but there it is

Of course, one of the other factors in buying sausage or jerky from a processor is that quite often the trim-scraps that that get thrown into the grinder are often from a bunch of deer, not the hunter's. Many suffer from poor field care, so the rut may not be the only factor--which is one reason we make all our own sausage and jerky. One guy we know does venison-cooking workshops,. He says that maybe 25% of the deer meat he's been brought as "samples" for workshops is actually fit to cook, particularly in states where seasons take place in warmer weather. But a lot of the deer have also obviously been gut-shot, or had the guts punctured during field-dressing.

When Eileen was writing SLICE OF THE WILD, her big-game cookbook that includes everything from field care to recipes, we decided to take a couple of our deer to local processorsrecommended by friends, because we never had before, and she needed to know what might happen. One of them did not follow Eileen's directions for the cuts on her deer, though the meat was fine and we're pretty sure it was the young mule deer buck she' taken. But the meat we got back from the other processor was obviously not from my deer, another young mule deer buck, because some packages included small chunks of sagebrush. Obviously the processor hadn't made sure the meat was clean, but I'd also killed my buck in the middle of a lodgepole pine thicket up in the mountains, far from any sagebrush.

John:

Yep, when you "trade" they can give you processed meat immediately, assuming you are ready to pay up, and so it is clearly not your buck. I tend to visit Broadus Meats at least every other day in the evening after dark just to see what is coming in. And you are right, it is amazing the condition some of those bucks are in well before the butcher can get to them.

For years guys regularly would "donate" the meat to the Indian reservation, and I remember the fee being something like $40. A few years back they had changed policy and even if you donated you had to pay the entire processing fee.

I canned my buck this year, and all things considered, it was the best move.

I will not be canning my next whitetail buck!

I had no idea that some processors offer the trade meat deal? Really not surprising it sucks.

Although you know many places throw yours right in with everybody else's when they grind it up, but they claim you'll get your own back....

Rather than run the risk taking somebody else's in trade, I'd just as soon donate the deer and buy beef.

Once in my life, I stopped by a meat processor on a Monday morning at the peak of hunting season and after seeing the chit(deer and elk) that was hanging and being delivered by hunters, was the end for me of ever thinking of using a processor to cut up my game. Not the processor's fault either, it was what he had to work with that was disturbing.