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

2019 buck, 181# dressed.
Dropped on spot in full rut.
Dressed without issue and it was cold, took to processor.
Cut and vacuum sealed.

Thawed and some meat smells like he's runnin around in the kitchen.
Musky.

Had a 200# buck that was similar many yrs ago.

What to do?

Have killed dozens of deer and this maybe the 3rd funky one.
Two decent bucks and one doe (late season).
All whitetails from ag areas.

Eat it and be glad you aren’t at the grocery looking at an empty meat case.

There ain't no fixin, it, sad to say. You can cover it up, but it never goes away. I f times get tough, use it to feed the dogs, and go get another one.

Front shoulder shots always have a stronger taste . It tastes a little bit like liver with all the blood in it.

2020, first decent doe comes along she's in the freezer.
This funky buck stuff, antlers on the wall about all theyre good for.
Dayamn.

I aint the most picky eater, and like venison fine.
But I do have a strong sense of smell and this stuff is overpowering.

Like the bastard is running in the kitchen LOL

Same thing happened to me back in 1984. Near as I can figure, processor cut through the hock glands when skinning and didn't clean his hands.

EVERY cut of meat from that deer stunk, couldn't eat it.

Started butchering my deer myself after that, and never had an issue.

Pepperoni, sausage or kielbasa’s pard. Even bear is edible that way!!! 😂😂

I did have brats and italian sausage made.
Left most of the burger at processors (I never use but a little for jerky).

Dunno if this stinky buck has stinky meat or the processor fugged it up.
Guess I'll go back to doing it myself.

The processor has a bunch of people working for him, it aint one guy skinning and cutting.
So I doubt it was hide to meat contamination.
But then, I dunno.
Tasted over 100 diff deer, this the 3rd funky one.
Just bums me out.

This works for me most of the time:
Fill big bowl with ice, lay meat cuts on top, when the ice melts, dump the blood and repeat. Marinate in Dales marinade for an hour. Batter and fry. Eat on buttered biscuits. Hope that helps. Some times it’s great and sometimes it tastes like a deers arse marinated in Dales.

I had one mule deer years ago that I shot in the peak of the rut - could smell him from 50 yards away as we walked up to him. Buddy with me commented on the stench. It was a clean shot - took one step and went down, gutted on the spot, plenty cold with snow and I took care of him myself like I do all of them. Tried my damndest to eat it but was just nasty all the way. Fed some to the dogs and ended up tossing the rest prior to the next season. I shoot plenty of rutting mule deer that have a stronger flavor and with creative brines and seasoning, am always able to enjoy it. I think sometimes you just get a nasty one and can't explain it...

Yup, don't shoot whitetail bucks during the rut if you want to eat them. Been there done that.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking, have shot bucks in rut, couple dozen, and only one other a stinker.
He my avatar buck.

This one had a bigger neck.

Problem with taking deer to a processor you can't be certain it's your deer you get back. I've butchered my own for years, only used a processor once or twice in 56 yrs. of deer hunting. Only had one deer in all those years that the meat had an off odor, the wife couldn't stand to be in the kitchen when I was preparing it though it tasted OK.

As opposed to the rear shoulder?

soak the meat in a sink covered with water and a capful of white vinegar, it will help but may not remove all the muskiness

You have not smelled or tasted rut until you try to eat a rutty caribou. Literally, a drop to your knees retching smell on approach...

A very simply solution that takes the rank away is a soak in milk before frying.

I tend to slice it thin and soak overnight in the frig. Make a stir-fry the next day with it and you will be blown away.

It is so good that is the only way I tend to eat it, but I have done the same with backstrap cut into steaks and rolled in flour before frying. Same thing, cut in chunks for stew works great also, from experience. No point in wasting it. I also consider myself a bit sensitive to "rank" meat.

Don't know if this will work in your case but this is how I cook game that has a "wild" taste.
Trim the meat so all of the fat and any surface that was exposed during aging is off . You now have fresh red meat.
Take a baggie and put in about 1/4 cup BALSAMIC vinegar, a couple tablespoons of olive oil, 1 or 2 mashed up garlic cloves and if you like, a little bit of raw onion. Put the meat in and turn it all around so all of the meat is coated.
Now squeeze out all of the air you can and toss it in the fridge. A couple of hours usually works, overnight is better.
Cook on a hot grill only until it is rare, about 4 minutes per side usually works for me.
Hope it works, let us know.

This buck was strong rut when shot. And he was a stinker.
Have no prob w the 100" eight pointers .....no special prep on meat.

Processor bones it all out, cubes and vac seals.

Like I said, this stuff smells like hes behind me making a scrape by the oven.

Ive shot other bucks in rut and they not bad.
But this one had the thickest neck Ive ever shot and i dropped him deader than snot. No run or bleed out.

Loins thawing, will try to soak. Report late this evening when drunk

Will try your method this weekend as well. Thanks.

LOL if not palatable, how do red squirrels taste? No season and have my deer woods full of em

I sort of like that flavor.

If you want to cover it, use low and slow in the crockpot. Mississippi roasts, barbacoa, etc.

With the ground, I would add other things, bacon, blue cheese, etc.

Thawed a smaller pack- loin, and rinsed em off in the sink.
Smell is still there but way less.
Got em soaking.

In 1979 I shot a big rutting Whitetail that smelled pretty rank, not unlike a billy goat which can be pretty rough. Eating the meat caused all kind of trouble. My jeans got to where they were tight and binding which was ok but the girls voices got a deeper tone. Actually what happened was the meat was so rank it would stink up the house when I attempted to cook it. I had a poor black elderly neighbor that wanted it so I gave it to him. He said it was good.

hookeye,

There are some good solutions to this, a few already mentioned here--but even more in one of my wife's game cookbooks, TENDERIZE THE WILD: marinades, brines and rubs for wild game. In it Eileen not only includes over 100 recipes, but explains some of the chemical reasons for gamy or tough meat. It can be ordered from www.riflesandrecipes.com.

Thats how I feel about Pronghorn Antelope...too goaty and swells up while you chew it, yuck. Try alot of spices and use a slow cooker? Hope you can use it. Good luck to you pard!

Make hash.
Big pot
Equal weight chopped sweet onions to meat 10 pounds)
Teaspoon of smoke
1 jar mustard
1 jar BBQ sauce
1 head garlic
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 table spoon black pepper
Salt to taste
Carmalize onions
Toss in meat stir on low heat with wood spoon toll meat tears apart east 4-5 hours.
Add the rest and cover, weight the cover with 15# on the lowest setting for a couple more hours.
Serve over white bread, rice, grits.

the best way i have found to cure a nasty old rut`n buck smell is put all the buck meat in a large enough cooler you can shut the lid all the way down. you can do just the quarters too then debone afterwards.so put all the buck meat in the cooler boned or quartered,add cup of salt, 1/2 cup of vinegar fill with cold water and ice ,shut lid takes 3-5 days keep it cold . drain water, rinse meat with cold water ,cut and bag meat up and freeze,this well make a difference. this method also works on a nasty gut shot deer too.

Jim,
I'm surprised at this. My one and only experience with pronghorn was one I got last Oct. in the Texas panhandle. Some of the best game meat we have had. Super tender and delicious. Did I just get lucky?

Blacktailer,

You didn't get lucky in our experience. My wife and I have killed a bunch of pronghorns over the years, in four states from New Mexico to Montana, including bucks in the rut and after the rut. The only one that didn't taste great was a buck I shot in Wyoming, while hunting with a couple of friends.

One of the ranch workers volunteered to take it back to the ranch headquarters and hang it up to cool in the shade, so I could stay with my friends. It turned out later that he did not go directly back to the ranch, due to having to make a drug deal--and it was a warm, sunny day, with my buck in the rear of his Jeep Wagoneer. That buck was almost inedible, though we eventually found ways to use the meat. (Eileen has been dealing with a wide variety of big game for a long time.) Antelope are probably the big game animals most easily ruined by poor field care.

One other possibility, however, is that a few people may have taste buds that react weirdly to something in pronghorn meat, somewhat the people to whom cilantro tastes like soap. I say this because of knowing maybe 3 people that thought antelope everybody else really liked was awful. One of them even said it tasted like dog food--though I dunno how he knows that!

when my kids were younger and still home both my son and daughter liked antelope over all the other game i brought home like elk,whitetail,mule deer,caribou,but they did like buffalo too. but i have always been very fussy with my antelope and all game animals,i skin and quarter my antelope right away and all the antelope meat gets put in cooler full of ice,i also always butcher my own antelope.if you put your antelope in the sun or up on top of a vehicle in the sun to show off don`t expect it to be tasty,. when i worked at the wild game processing place i seen some really poorly taken care of animals.some people never even wanted their game meat back in Wyoming but paid for processing by law ,most of that went to the food self all processed and froze.

Goes for any and all game/fish.

A buds mother in law will not eat deer her kid or husband kills but loves my buds deer.

It's all in how it's taken care of from field to freezer.

Are you talking about tarsal glands on the hock or glands up in the rear hams?

If tarsal glands, those are the first thing to come off of either a doe or buck before I open em up.

Peel the hide off as soon as possible and get glands off right at neck/shoulder intersection.

We have a rule about antelope. The meat's far too good to ruin, so it's guts out, hide off, and into the cooler in less than 30 minutes... or sooner.

The hair is tubular with a pungent lanolin-like oil inside, and cutting through hairs and letting them sit on the meat surface ruins meat. Lazy hunters and slob hunters are the principle reason many don't like antelope.

Ive only eaten pronghorn once and it was a bit sage flavored, but fine.
JUst cooked up the loins, they still stunk but way less.
Could taste it, but even lesser in power than smell (pre cook).

I dunked it in hot sauce. Had some new Taco Bell Diablo.
Belly full, nose is clear.

LOL

Its usable, at least the thinner bits.
I shot a 131" 9 pointer a couple yrs ago,
Had some summer sausage made (processor does a great job there)
but they screwed up and ground the whole deer.
I gave it away.
So did not taste any steaks off it.
175# dressed.
I dunno how old he was, 2nd day of gun season, full rut, but he was NOT as stinky as this yrs, neck not as swollen.
And when I shot him he ran 50-75 yards and piled up.

Age, rut, drop or run.........processor.
Dunno what variable is most in effect.

I'll go back to cutting my own.
Not had a prob with any of them.

Interesting idea. I process my own too and don't recall ever having a funky smell on the meat with careful preparation.

1-1/2 year old does are good eating.

I've seen more than one soak boar hog meat in baking soda and water...

When faced with a stronger-than-usual bunch of venison, I go for the long and slow recipes.

With grind, we'll make Cincinnati-style chili.

With a steak or a roast, I'll throw it in the crock pot with a bottle of cheap Russian dressing. This makes EXCELLENT bbq-ish stuff.

After about 2 hours of cooking, the kitchen fills with the dead buck smell and it stays for about 2 hours more. By the time dinner's read-- say 4-6 hours-- the smell is gone as well as the taste. Another tip I use a couple TBS beef suet in a recipe like this. It makes it more beef-tasting.

If one skins around the tarsals and continues using the same knife for rest of the chore without cleaning it, that's when trouble happens. Same for handling meat with your hands when in contact with the tarsals.

I've never had a bad whitetail taken during the peak rut.
Runner or not. 300 lbs or 150 lbs. 170" or 90". 8.5 y/o or 2.5 y/o. 12 provinces and states - they all taste good.

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.

No luck with Megansers I always do the cook on a plank recipe and then eat the plank. Rutty bucks never had one I had to throw away. A little funk to the sausage never bothered me but some women I know claim they can smell the after effects for a day or so with mixed impressions.

I eat does, give the buck meat to guys at work

Years ago, my BIL and I got 2 muley does in a late hunt, during the rut. It was near 0 and they were in 6" of snow. They both stunk so bad that we had to throw them out. Does don't get that hormone smell so I figured they must have been eating something to make them like that. I have no idea what it would be, though.

Roast it with some chilling sauce.

The Italian Sausage was OK.
Had a few tonight.

The summer sausage was very good, of course it's all gone.

I'll shoot a buck hopefully this yr, but will just get some summer sausage made and donate the rest.

Zip a doe by bow and cut it myself.

I have managed to fix this before. Cut everything you have into relatively thin strips. Not jerky thin, but getting there. They can be big pieces they just can't be that thick.

Make up a brine in a tub--mix cold water with as much salt as the cold water will handle. You can throw some bay leaf in there, whatever spices you can spare

Brine the meat a few days in the fridge. It will actually go a long time in the brine without spoiling, probably over a week. Keep testing--you'll be able to tell when the funk is pulled out.

This really will pull the funk out.

You may want to rinse the brine off but what you'll be left with is lightly salted meat that you can grind or cook however. If you freeze the meat after you grind it just mark that it's been salted or brined.

This has always worked for me and doesn't require a lot of expensive flavors or marinades. Only downside is you have to remember not to add salt to the meat when you cook it.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

This is one of the reasons I’ve gone to hunting the muzzleloader season. We have used an overnight buttermilk soak and then slow cooking with tomatoes and chili seasoning. Serve with cornbread and stout beer.

I suspect he was not kept cool enough at the processor especially before being skinned if he wasn't immediately skinned. Also, sometimes processors take in so many deer they hang very close together, for how long? In a confined room (cooler). They could absorb transferred smells from deer that were run, not cooled quickly etc.

Is it your deer? Hard to tell. Sometimes all deer are processed at the same time, especially ground. Mix up of which belongs to whom?

I remember a steer my parents raised for our own use. The fatted calf was shot, skinned, gutted and hung in very cold weather. We had to hang it in the unused milk house. It still was too cold. Stoked a coal fire in the wood burning stove. Not only was that damn thing on the tough side, but I swear it tasted of coal ashes. I could barely eat it. Of course all these years later my mother says it was my imagination, the meat was fine. I was glad to see the end of that critter.

The processor is a major operation, kinda like a "disassembly plant".
They bone everything out and vacuum seal. Had dozens done there, came out fine.

I've done my own, and used another processor too, with good results.

Think it was just this deer.

Way back I shot a buck w recurve, spined, Snuffer sticking dead center in vert. Asked to have that back.
Picked up deer, it wasn't there (receipt had it noted). Owner blew me chit like I was blind and I didn't go back for a decade.

Went back in 2015 and they fugged up, ground whole deer. 2019 I wasn't thrilled to go there, but deer were in buds truck and he likes that place.
Dunno if buck was stinky (he was pretty rank laying in the woods) or the processor fugged up.

I'll just go back to cutting my own.

Bought a diff place and garage is smaller, and full of the ol lady's crap. I'll call a dumpster a month before season and make room for butchering.

It was a cold day, uncomfortably.
Deer was done in field without issue, delivered without issue and the place is like a factory.
They don't fugg around.

Hell I was freezing just doing the paperwork there.

It is drive through drop off, LOL, and 2nd day of gun season, the line wasn't long.
Years ago I saw the trucks, lined up off the property and down the road.

Think they were handling the amount OK that day, should not have had a problem.

I'm no fan of the place, they p*ssed me off twice (their brats and summer sausage however are VERY good).
They aint the cheapest either.
And some distance away.

I suspect it was the deer and not them.

Will cut my own this yr, and zap a doe in early bow

There are a number of causes of "strong" smelling/tasting game meat. (Of course, for real outdoorsmen, this condition is desireable.)
Among the chief culprits:
Use of ethanol-blended gas when transporting the animal.
Use of a FRAM filter in the transporting vehicle.
A bad ground.

5sdad,

There is a little town in your state named “Templeton”. That town produces some fine, fine brown liquor from a small grain called “rye”. Ya’all wouldn’t have been sampling some of that now would you??

Nah, although that sounds good. I just try to tie all of the 'fire's traditional values in where I can.

good to know your meat didn’t go to waste....

I always kept my meat in an ice chest for a couple of days with the drain plug out. Just keep dumping more ice inside it as it melts. Always worked for me, I process my self anyways, so I don't know if this is an option for you. Killed some pretty stanky buck and hogs, never had one smell bad when cooking it.

We do the keep on ice thing for 7-10 days. We have had both pigs and deer stink when cooking. All game goes to the test sniff now. If it has that strong musk, its done away with, IE we aren't going to eat it.

That said I've shot old rutty bucks and old boars and sows that didn't smell a bit really and were fine to eat. I"ve had to donate or get rid of 50 pound piglets and 2.5 year old deer.

Could be something like my one nephew... that boy has hormones even at 30. I stink when I sweat, he will run you out...