Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer meat smells like rut

When you take it to a meat processor you aren't going to get your deer meat back. Cut it up yourself. It's not that hard.

I have had some success with a white vinegar soak. I combine this with brining the meat and it is more juicy and tender. The same thing is accomplished with an acidic marinade as Blacktailer mentioned. I have also had good results with things like liver by soaking them in buttermilk before cooking.

I prefer to do these steps before any marinade. After the pre-soak rinse and let dry especially if grilling. I like heavy seasoning too and for really tough or strong meat a par boil and then throw out the water. I do these steps even for sausage or jerky as sometimes the off flavor stays with the meat during processing.

Really nasty or smelly stuff like blood shot shoulders gets turned into a gourmet doggy stew.

I have only had that happen once. One of the biggest bodied bucks I ever shot, an old buck with regressing horns. I don't mean to be gross, but when the meat cooked it smelled like it was marinated in [bleep] ... my apartment smelled like a very, very busy whorehouse. Even the jerky was foul. I added cheap rum and pepper flakes to the brine. For the meat I cooked, I poured chipotle tabasco on it and used that for a searing sauce, then put a lot of garlic salt on it. I was not fully successful, to say "better" might be too optimistic, but I'd say it was less bad.

Tom

Did the garlic, salt and hot sauce..........yup, I ate it.
Tasted like hot sauce w a slight funk.

Not too happy about it.
Would have liked to grill and chill during this lay off.

Guess if I want to actually eat venison I just need to put down a hundred pounder.

He only dressed 181#

One of the stinkiest deer Ive shot.
Freakin reeked.
High shoulder/neck, quartering to.
Folded dead.
Dressed...........no screwups.
Cold and right to processors. They've done dozens for me over the years, tasted fine.

I don't mind the smell and taste of reg venison.
Butter, garlic, salt n pepper, in a pan.............tastes good to me.
No prep required.

And I'm not a picky eater.
But damn, if I had a dog I dunno if I'd make him eat this bastard.

Ive heard more people complain about venison than they do about black bear meat. I figured it would be the other way around.

Are you saying I need to shoot a bear to adjust my palate?


Hell, I'll need a new recurve.

Pretty much will need to make it into sausage, garlic sausage and up the pork ratio to 50%. Even then have had ol Muley buck still have a musk smell that can be picked out. But at least it’s edible.

I've always held the belief that if your knife touches their rear legs/hocks and you don't clean the blade immediately then you will have some portion of the meat that will get some stank on it. I've killed a pile of rutting bucks and always been mindful of the hocks/rear legs and never had an issue. During the rut a buck stops and bends his legs together to piss down them. I've often wondered if these complaints I see from time to time are from rutting bucks that pissed themselves while running after a shot or while rolling around on the ground, which could really make skinning and butchering in the field with a clean knife impossible.

A bear taste like what he eats, if he stink when you kill him he will stink when cooked. I’ve never processed a deer that wasn’t good eating. I have never removed a scent gland . I always cut legs off short thru the joint , front and rear.

I haven't got the kill numbers most around here have, just over 6 dozen.
Never have I flubbed a field dressing.
Dunno why a knife would touch the hocks.
Even if it did, how could it get into the meat?

I field dressed it, got it on the hauler in cold weather and went to the processor.
he has skinning guys, cutting guys etc. Pretty sizable operation (drive through)
Conveyor to wash and coolers.

Been fine for years (when I didn't cut my own).

Think I just shot a stinker.

I shot this deer and he dropped. No roll, or kick, and he was field dressed a few ft from where he dropped (cleaner area).

Dunno if no run meant more blood in the meat.
Dunno if he'd have stunk no matter what.

Just bums me out to do it all right, and end up with something that brings no enjoyment at the table.

Like I said, I like venison fine without all sorts of prep.

I shot a Bambi many years ago thinking I was going to have some great little steaks. One shot and straight down. Butchered and threw some in the frying pan. The stink made us open the doors and windows. I had a 120 pound German Shepard at the time. He took a whiff and walked away. Coyote bait. It happens. Edk

If the meat tastes like liver, I've found that soaking in salt water draws the blood out and improves the taste. Change the salt water as needed until it's not bloody. A 24 to 48 hour soak in milk will remove most gaminess.

Please tell us where you are hunting so we don’t go there!🤣🤣

Sounds like a jerky deer to me

Do what Pete53 said. It gets the blood out, and that’s where the smell is. That said, I just shoot doe for the freezer now. Meat from Bucks goes to the grandson, the starving college kid.

LOL, I'm in Indiana. Some oak stands but mostly soybeans and corn.
Eaten dozens of bucks without issue.

Eaten a few of same size. Only had this and one other buck that sucked.

Think a doe by bow early is proly my freezer deer from now on.
My spot doesn't have many does.

So will start hunting some state ground for a slick.

Just had backstraps from this dude, taken with a single round November 3rd and aged on the bone overnight in virtually perfect conditions. The "rut taste" is definitely there, but not too much so. Gave him about a 6 hour marinade, which may have helped.



A lot of it is biology. Caribou bulls start to drink cows' piss in October as a biological marker to induce rut activity, and become inedible from there on out. Don't think deer really do this, but they definitely stop eating and start burning body tissue as fuel, which doesn't do their eating quality any favors. Archery season deer are way, way better in my experience.

Deer that taste like you describe get pulled from the freezer however it is cut and wrapped. All half thawed cut and ground with 30% pork; heavily spiced and smoked for four hours will taste awesome. I like the LEM Trail Bologna... shoot I can make merganser take awesome with that recipe.