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

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.