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Originally Posted by ingwe
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
I actually prefer eating the bulls to the cows, even the big trophy bulls, as they have more flavor--though bull meat generally requires some aging to become tender. But both are great.




This is why Im going after a bull this time. John talked me into it. I shot a cow before and the meat was bland ...which apparently is how most Americans like their meat. The meat from Nilgai bulls John has given me I felt was far superior.


Poobs,

I find it a bit more difficult on my old and loose choppers! 😁. Hence my desire for the cow meat. But that last bull I shot was sure delicious.


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kaywoodie,

The meat of all the nilgai I've taken has been aged for a while, which makes considerable difference in chewability! One was aged in the cooler a butcher shop in Texas before being shipped to me; the others were aged in the coolers I brought them home in via airlines.

Depending on the animal, we've aged game up to 3 weeks before butchering and freezing. That long can make a BIG difference even in old bucks and bulls!


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Originally Posted by Mule Deer
kaywoodie,

The meat of all the nilgai I've taken has been aged for a while, which makes considerable difference in chewability! One was aged in the cooler a butcher shop in Texas before being shipped to me; the others were aged in the coolers I brought them home in via airlines.

Depending on the animal, we've aged game up to 3 weeks before butchering and freezing. That long can make a BIG difference even in old bucks and bulls!



JB...have you got any hints for aging them in the summer in Montana?


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Yes sir, that would help me a lot. Way things are around here I usually sent it home with one of the boys to process as I am generally short of time. Sometimes it get a little aging, sometimes not.


Founder
Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester

"Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools,
Being native burghers of this desert city,
Should in their own confines with forked heads
Have their round haunches gored."

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[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Our cooler fills up after a few day's hunting, aging meat more than a week does not work here, we try to shoot the tender ones. Rio7

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Originally Posted by ingwe
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
kaywoodie,

The meat of all the nilgai I've taken has been aged for a while, which makes considerable difference in chewability! One was aged in the cooler a butcher shop in Texas before being shipped to me; the others were aged in the coolers I brought them home in via airlines.

Depending on the animal, we've aged game up to 3 weeks before butchering and freezing. That long can make a BIG difference even in old bucks and bulls!



JB...have you got any hints for aging them in the summer in Montana?


If you don't have a spare refrigerator, then putting the chunks in big coolers with ice works fine. We have a pair of 120-quart Igloos that we use to bring meat home from hunting trips, and just one will easily handle a semi-boned average elk or nilgai cow. When doing that, we put the meat in the bottom of the cooler, then bags of ice on top of the the meat. We place the cooler on the floor next to the garage door (east side of the garage, which is coolest during afternoon), with the drain open toward the door, and the other end propped up to allow meltwater to drain out under the door. Then we keep checking the cooler (or coolers) and adding ice as needed.

Have used that system on all sorts of game, not just nilgai but anything take in warm weather, including September moose, and it works very well. Usually a 3-7 days of aging is plenty for younger animals, but older ones often need a couple weeks.


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My one and only Nilgai, a bull, was taken in S. Texas with my Ruger Hawkeye African, .375 Ruger, and a single Barnes TSX 270 gr. bullet. Range was a bit over 200 yards, bull dropped in its tracks with a lung shot. Bullet was recovered under the hide on the far side.
Meat was aged for 2 weeks before cutting up, and was absolutely superb table fare!


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Mule Deer, The method you are using works great on 1 or 2 or 3 critters, but not so well on 30 to 40 critters a week. we have had as many as 56 critters in our cooler at one time, last season we had to rebuild our walk in's ceiling as the weight was pulling rail and the ceiling down. Rio7

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Originally Posted by ingwe
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
kaywoodie,

The meat of all the nilgai I've taken has been aged for a while, which makes considerable difference in chewability! One was aged in the cooler a butcher shop in Texas before being shipped to me; the others were aged in the coolers I brought them home in via airlines.

Depending on the animal, we've aged game up to 3 weeks before butchering and freezing. That long can make a BIG difference even in old bucks and bulls!



JB...have you got any hints for aging them in the summer in Montana?


ingwe;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the weekend treated you well.

As I've read you might be on the road already, this is most likely too late, but for next time or for anyone else wondering what those of us who hunt when it's warmer do to age meat.

Since I know you've read Eileen's book "A Slice of the Wild", I'll clarify I'm recommending it for anyone who hasn't as it contains the best explanation of meat aging I have found.

We picked up a big upright freezer that had a brand new "slightly too small" compressor installed into it by a repair place. They were selling it as a big beer fridge.

Usually I'll skin the animal, cheese cloth it and leave it until at least the next morning so rigor has relaxed a bunch - covered in Eileen's book again folks. wink

Then it's into pieces and into the fridge.

[Linked Image]

Since this photo was taken I've done two additional modifications.

On the door on the bottom shelf, I've installed twin computer fans to help the air circulate inside. The original fan can be seen at the top in the center and we found that it didn't circulate the air quite enough so some of the meat would turn a wee bit brownish after 7-10 days. I tried a small household cooling fan, but that was too much air flow and while it helped the meat not to turn color, it made a bunch of crust that needed to be cut off.

The other modification I did last fall was to add an indoor/outdoor digital thermometer. This way I can see what the internal temperature is in the fridge at a glance.

When I load a couple deer into it, sometimes it'll tend to freeze the meat at the bottom, so it requires a wee bit of monitoring and temperature adjustment, but certainly nothing too onerous.

We've also seen other folks up here buy a beer fridge and gut it and then install their own angle iron/bed frame rail hanging and racking system and that works for them equally well.

We've not done that as we use it for vegetables and other stuff occasionally too that it's nice to have the original shelving setup still there.

Hopefully that helped someone out there this morning. All the best.

Dwayne


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MD's described method works great for our warm weather hunts. Been doing it that way for several years now.


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Originally Posted by JGRaider
MD's described method works great for our warm weather hunts. Been doing it that way for several years now.



That's how I do it also but I don't leave the animals in but 3-5 days average, 7 days at the most.


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We always do elk and big pigs like MD says. But I usually give 90% of my nilgai away to my hunting pards. As I am the only one at home that will eat it. They usually give me some steaks and sausage. And I’m fine with that.


Founder
Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester

"Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools,
Being native burghers of this desert city,
Should in their own confines with forked heads
Have their round haunches gored."

WS

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id skip S. Texas and look into booking a hunt in NW India. very, very reasonable pricing


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Originally Posted by RIO7

Mule Deer, The method you are using works great on 1 or 2 or 3 critters, but not so well on 30 to 40 critters a week. we have had as many as 56 critters in our cooler at one time, last season we had to rebuild our walk in's ceiling as the weight was pulling rail and the ceiling down. Rio7



Ingwe was not asking about dozens of critters. He was asking about aging the meat he brings back from Texas after his own hunts.


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Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Originally Posted by RIO7

Mule Deer, The method you are using works great on 1 or 2 or 3 critters, but not so well on 30 to 40 critters a week. we have had as many as 56 critters in our cooler at one time, last season we had to rebuild our walk in's ceiling as the weight was pulling rail and the ceiling down. Rio7



Ingwe was not asking about dozens of critters. He was asking about aging the meat he brings back from Texas after his own hunts.


I didn't understand the point of his post



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Mule Deer, I understand what ingwe, is asking, and i am aware he's not asking about dozens of critters, any thing else i should be aware of ?? Rio7

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Well, gee....

Then like jwp I am wondering about the point of your post. Was it that you cool a lot more animals than Ingwe--or me?


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Made no sense to me either.


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Well, we're all getting older... :-)


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Originally Posted by ingwe
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
kaywoodie,

The meat of all the nilgai I've taken has been aged for a while, which makes considerable difference in chewability! One was aged in the cooler a butcher shop in Texas before being shipped to me; the others were aged in the coolers I brought them home in via airlines.

Depending on the animal, we've aged game up to 3 weeks before butchering and freezing. That long can make a BIG difference even in old bucks and bulls!



JB...have you got any hints for aging them in the summer in Montana?

get ahold of me and ill give you my plans for a home aging cabinet


The government plans these shootings by targeting kids from kindergarten that the government thinks they can control with drugs until the appropriate time--DerbyDude


Whatever. Tell the oompa loompa's hey for me. [/quote]. LtPPowell


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