Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Mule deer meat now....any good?

In terms of taste, antelope, elk and mule deer in that order for us. And the mulies are generally a distant third, although we've had some really good ones, including nice buck I shot several years back.

Mule deer in comparable to whitetail and Ive eating dozens and dozens of both. Get the hide off and field dressed or just bone out. Eat great

I dont care for any meat from rutted up horned or antlered antelope, whitetail, mule or elk.

Fat bucks or bulls taken early as in Archery season.znd before the rut can be great meat there is.

I've had whitetail bucks taken off sorghum fields by the vaqueros who lived on huge ranches in South Texas taken in August and September many years ago that were unreal good.
I can respecially remember a couple of big velvet racked bucks covered in fat, but that was a bygone time and place.

I think that's why so many bulls and bucks killed late and after the rut in snow country become edible.

I.killed a big old antelope buck once that stunk so bad I was nearly puking the entire time I gutted it. I gave it away.

Between Northern Montana muleys and whitetails I prefer whitetail, both of which are rutting when I hunt them!

Mulies are good. Take care of the meat and it’s good

I prefer the meat of a smaller Mule deer buck, 2pt or smaller 4pt to other game meat from any horned animal. I have shot lots of Mule deer, and later in the rut the bigger bucks are pretty hard to eat.
We always marinade with sage and Olive oil, and I also find Mule deer to be consistantly good if taken before the rut even the big bucks. The stinky bucks get the sausage treatment and even then it can be nasty if its a really rank buck.

I think what happens is the fat on a Mule deer tastes rank at anytime of year, so when they go to rutting they dont eat and run all over the place using the fat reserves up and it runs throughout the meat, making it unpalatable

sound's so good, make chili verda, food of the hunting gods!

Any animal is better if killed on the gain. Have had early season whitetails taste better then late season elk and I love elk. At my house elk and antelope go on the grill. Deer (mulies and whitetails) go in the burger/sausage and to friends that need meat.

Yep! 👍

I imagine diet plays a pretty big part, as well as carcass condition.

Have taken both off of wheat fields and both were excellent. A tired old sage buck might not be as good.

As many have said, proper care goes a LONG ways. Get the hide off, then get any leftover hair, weeds, dust, and visceral material off then get the meat cooling and it'll be great.

Wrap it up in a blue tarp, strap it down onto the "yuppie-rack" plugged into the receiver hitch for a few days marinating the carcass in dust, diesel fumes, all while not allowing any moisture to escape and you might just as well find a dumpster for the whole works.

While this may sound sarcastic, I see carcasses on yuppie racks wrapped in tarps headed down the interstate every fall. Even when it's really cold the hide holds heat, the blue tarps hold moisture, neither keep out the dust nor exhaust fumes. BLECH!!!!!

I figure any wild game you have to add a bunch of spices while cooking to mask the flavor and smell isn't worth shooting.Best mule deer for me have come out of high mountains. Particularly the Flat Tops in Colorado.Worst were in the eastern CO plains where they fed on on prairie grass or west of Colorado Springs in the sage brush/oak brush country