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

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