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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 12,131
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 12,131 |
John; Good evening to you sir, I hope the second last weekend of February was a good one for you and Eileen. Hopefully I can be forgiven for telling this story again, but I still clearly recall my mother giving dad the gears for bringing a bull home from his annual moose hunt near the Manitoba border in the bush country of central Saskatchewan. Honestly I don't recall if it was tough or not however, because Mom - God rest her soul - believed in cooking all meat pretty much to death and then having it swim in gravy before serving it. Honestly I didn't really like steak until I was in my late teens and had someone order a medium rare steak for me in a restaurant.  My brother in law killed a few bulls up in the Cariboo country near Horsefly over the years and one of the bigger ones was truly and sincerely chewy, even the burger. It had a "zesty" flavor to it too and while it was edible it wasn't as good as a lot of other moose we'd had. All the best to you folks as we head into warmer weather and longer days. Dwayne
The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"
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Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 8,517
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 8,517 |
Oryx !
So says my wife.
She likes it enough to want to shoot one.
She doesn't normally want to kill anything, so it must be that good.
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 22,736
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 22,736 |
I brought one of them Orecks home but couldn't figure out which end to cut up first! I took it back to Home Depot.
My home is the "sanctuary residence" for my firearms.
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Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 61
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 61 |
1. Elk
2. Desert mule deer
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,180
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,180 |
Ate some Hawaiian black ram at my pards place here In Kauai last night, it rates right up at the top..
Ping pong balls for the win.
Once you've wrestled everything else in life is easy. Dan Gable
I keep my circle small, I’d rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies.
Ain’t easy havin pals.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 8,182 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 8,182 Likes: 1 |
I had 1.5” thick backstrap steak cooked rare off of 2 different whitetail bucks that bit the dust this year and one raghorn bull elk for supper three nights last week. All were great but the elk is a little tougher than the deer.
Not a bad place to be when the freezer is stacked to the top with deer and elk steaks and your 4 year old tells you he wants backstrap and those asparagus trees for supper.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 46,247
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 46,247 |
I'll be back at the Bush Camp on the Limpopo this fall, don't yet know what's on the menu, but it will be fantastic!
Trump Won!
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,482
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,482 |
Good Whitetail is my favorite. It is our primary meat. We have deer meat in some form four to five days a week.
Two factors that produce noticeably better tasting meat are taking the animal early in the fall, when their fat reserves are up and shots to the brain stem or thoracic spine between the shoulder blades so there is instant death.
Someone opined the taste difference was due to the hormone dump on a death run. I don’t know why, but the results are noticeable comparing deer of same age, sex, size, and same area of browse.
So table meat cuts are shot as early in the season as possible. Late season goes to the grinder mixed 60:40 deer to pork to add fat to it.
I have shot Axis four times and never been very happy with it. Might have been the particular area, but it was not good to me.
Blackbuck is excellent.
Elk is good, mule deer not so much, rattlesnake is ok, but a real pain to eat with all of the bones. After hunting in south Louisiana, first hand taste tests give the prize for absolute worst meat to Nutria, Coons, and Possums. Never again will those go on my plate unless it is the end of the world scenario. Wild turkey and ducks are edible, but so so. Goose makes wonderful gumbo.
The big green swamp frogs are fantastic when well prepared.
No flame intended, but I always comment on comments that are 180 out of my thoughts. I've eaten a lot of axis and never had a bad bit of it. I've eaten enough blackbuck to know I'll never even try it again. And while guiding we were sent out one night to bring back a mouflon doe. We could not find one to save ourselves so we whacked a black buck doe in the head with the 22 mag. Talk about getting chewed out. The gals that owned that 16,000 acres could COOK. Great cooks. I figured I was going to learn. What I learned was come back empty handed rather than a bb... and that if you drown bb in enough bell peppers it tastes like.. bell pepper. Also I cannot for the life of me tell any difference between a Sept/Oct deer and a Jan/Feb deer. We eat whitetail. Its a strong flavor to us, but we are used to it, but its FAR from the top. Isn't it cool and strange at the same time how taste buds can vary?
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 2,716
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 2,716 |
Rost,
probably has a lot to do with the plants available to them and local conditions which translate into meat quality and taste.
The difference in fat from October to December in the rut or post rut is dramatic at least where I hunt. I’ll try to remember to take photos next year.
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,859
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,859 |
My favorite is spike bull elk. To me they just seem to taste better than other elk. Moose is damn good too.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 8,182 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 8,182 Likes: 1 |
Curious for those who mention eating “fat” deer or other game. Are you eating the fat? Since game doesn’t marble and I trim every last speck of fat when I butcher a game animal I don’t think it would make much difference to me but I’m curious to know how you guys do it.
I have eaten fat on wild pigs and rendered lard from bear fat that was excellent but for members of the deer family it all gets trimmed and tossed.
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,482
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 57,482 |
Rost,
probably has a lot to do with the plants available to them and local conditions which translate into meat quality and taste.
The difference in fat from October to December in the rut or post rut is dramatic at least where I hunt. I’ll try to remember to take photos next year.
We hunt in La Grange on our property and in the hill country at Round Mountain whitetail deer. I see the wild swings on fat too. But as another mentions we trim off all fat. Won't even think about ribs if the deer are fat. Just get rid of deer fat, its adds a bad taste. That said its easy to trim it off. RE diet. Yes, totally can affect. I"ve eaten mule deer off sage that were not great to me. Ones from the mountains are always great. Blackbuck I've eaten from all kinds of areas of TX and have yet to eat one that made me think, yep I"d shoot another. Axis about the same all over TX even in our area. No bad ones yet. Different times of the year too. Guiding for years in Rocksprings I've eaten them all year long. But Nilgai, great to me before the juisache greens out, ones just after that have been bitter. I"ve also eaten a fair bit of game thats tough due to age, but flavor has not been bad. Just age it well and use other cuts, but I"ve heard of folks saying hamburger can be tough even.. To be fair we try to avoid shooting/eating anything full rut. It happens at times but we try like heck to avoid it.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 8,295
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 8,295 |
with respect , when talkin whitetail venison meat here in Minnesota,there is a huge difference between a fawn,doe and bucks during the rutt here in Minnesota fawns are always still tasty,does and bucks in early September are very good. but once the rutt starts buck meat goes down hill but still makes decent sausage. does too during the rutt are not as tasty as early September but are still decent to eat. by late December all whitetail deer seem to taste better ,even bucks by the end of December are better tasting here in Minnesota.the best tasting whitetail deer is still is fawn shot early in September thru mid October,these fawns during this time of year are succulent,makes me hungry just thinking about those loins frying with onions.
LIFE NRA , we vote Red up here, Norseman
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,143
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,143 |
One of the best meals I had was in South Africa a couple of years ago. Kudu backstrap steaks over the grill at a perfect medium rare.
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