Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Early season deer meat

Down here, it may not freeze until deer season is just about over. I killed a big, rutting 8 point two years ago. Had him skinned and gutted, hanging in 70 degree temps in about an hour after I shot him. When I skinned him, I noticed his skin was loaded with tiny little blood vessels. His neck was very swollen and all of his meat looked bloodshot. I let him hang for a little while to start drying out, and then in the ice box he went. I kept the water drained and ice topped off. I’ll do that for about 5 days before processing. Worked out great. The meat was tender and looked and smelled like any other deer that has been properly cared for.

Lately, I have been going through the trouble of keeping the meat on the bones for at least 24 hours. Since doing this the last couple of years I have noticed that the meat has been more tender.

Glad to hear that I am wrong. Just going by your original post. My apoligies. miles

ticks are on the outside of the hide. I don't eat the hide.
Most internal parasites are found in the intestines. I don't eat those either. There'll likely be flukes in the liver. I've never cared for liver and even if you do like it, cooking will kill them. Bad cases will make the liver so ugly that you won't want to eat it anyway.
Anything in the muscles will be there no matter what the outside temperature. One of the most serious is trichinosis and that's not found in deer. You can get it from bear meat. Never eat rare bear. There was a case here in Idaho quite a few years ago. A guy shot a bear and made salami from it that he gave to all of his friends. They all got trichinosis. The salami was smoked but never got hot enough to kill the beasts.

I'm in Florida. I'll shoot one with temps in the 90s and not worry about it. I just try to get the meat iced down as soon as I can. Sometimes that may not be possible for several hours.

Squirrels too…

The best time to kill doe's for eating is when they're fat and pregnant. Cold weather is nice for hanging deer but not needed for eating quality.

Big bull caribou in the rut (Oct 1 or so) are beautiful, but those in the know don't kill them for meat then. Often (almost always, in fact) they are too rank to eat. I've killed yearlings or 2 year olds that were ok. By Nov 1 or so, the big ones are skinny, often tough, but again edible. I'll take mine in August, or early Sept., if I can, and thank you very much.

Moose in the rut (late Sept thru into Nov) can also be too rank to eat. According to the one I killed on Sept 29, and another November 1. By Sept 25, you are taking your chances... depending on the individual animal and if they have been fighting or not. I was given moose meat taken by bow, nearly identical in size, taken a couple hundred yards apart, on two successive years, one day apart (Sept 24 and 25th), along the TAPS north of Fairbanks..The one taken on the 24th had been fighting, and even the dogs would not get within a couple yards of the meat. The one taken on the 25th had not been fighting, and was excellent.

I will no longer shoot a bull moose between Sept 20, and Nov 15, even given the opportunity. Same with big - repeat- big- bull caribou to Nov 5 or so.

I've often wondered about you guys eating rutted up deer- must be a different thang with them?

Ref the bear meat: At least one of the early Arctic explorers _-I forget who- probably died either from trichinosis in the bear meat or eating polar bear liver, which is so high in Vitamin A that it is toxic.

First late season caribou hunt the wife and I went on an old timer told us to be sure and not shoot anything with horns over 3 feet tall or 3 feet wide. Said they’d be so rank the foxes wouldn’t eat them.

She passed on two huge double shovel bulls and shot a cow. An ancient cow with no teeth that was inedible unless crock potted or run through a pressure cooker. 🤦‍♂️

As for rutting deer. Our rifle season is during the rut and I’ve killed many bucks as they chased does. Never had one that was anything but great eating. Wife even killed an antique old buck with almost no teeth that stunk horribly like piss a few years ago. He was fine eating. Maybe due to their smaller size? The fact that they don’t service a harem like other members of the deer family?

I’ve read from multiple sources that both moose and caribou bulls will slurp cow piss right from the spout to see if they’re ready. No idea if it’s true but if so it can’t possibly do anything to make them better eating. I don’t know, I’m not a scientist.

I killed a heavily rutted bull caribou on Friday. It is a bit chewy so I want to let it age a bit more but the flavor is just fine, like every other rutted bull I have killed, of any species. His meat also had nearly no smell though his skin and hide was covered in piss and whatever else. Sometimes rutted bulls/bucks stink on the outside and sometimes they don’t IME but rarely is the stink on anything but the hide.

I hear time and again that caribou bulls in Oct and later are no good for eating but I just haven’t found that to be true. Old wives’ tales run strong (this isn’t directed at you LAS, I guess our experience just differs). Same with 2 bull moose we got on Sep 6 and 12 this year, both of which were rutting, though it seemed a bit early for that. They tasted perfectly fine with no stank whatsoever.

As a slight detour from the OP’s question, this caribou bull did have some serous atrophy and yellowish fat that was spread all over the lower front legs, brisket and ribs, but it is just on the surface and after scraping it off, everything under it is just fine. ADFG website says this is normal for rutting bulls and their metabolic changes. It looks nasty but doesn’t hurt the meat. Had some strips from under that yellowish fat last night and it was just fine.

where i live and sometimes hunt best tasting deer meat is shot in August or September a old poacher told me reason deer are laying around eating nice green grass , are not fighting or rutting or breeding yet . and to be honest my best tasting deer have always been the early season deer , with does or fawns are also better tasting. bigger bucks in the fall November /December Rutt taste horrible best to make sausage with that meat. early deer the meat is very blood red late season deer meat gets almost a purple look to the meat .

In my area, nothing beats an early season, alpine buck for eating. They are up top eating that deer heart which makes for some amazing meat.

Snow! Nice. I'd take that over the pouring rain we've been having.

I have to wonder if early season deer are generally thought to be better tasting partially because the warmer temps help break down the collagen faster? That has more to do with tenderness than taste but I still have to wonder if there is more to it than their early season diet. Warmer temps during aging has made for more tender meat IME, assuming it doesn’t get too warm and it spoils.

Calvin, temps were right at 32F, so it was wet as hell. I don’t know what is worse, constant rain or slushy snow and sleet.

If I waited for it to freeze twice here I’d be shooting a deer maybe once a decade

Possibly or they haven't been chasing pussy over half of the county when killed.

Same goes for the poor doe that gets killed about 30 seconds ahead of a buck trailing her that wasn'tright on her tail.

My buck last year came through at almost full speed about 30 seconds behind another buck and doe, all of em had their tongues hanging. No way all of that adrenaline pumping can make em taste the best.

Some claim a rutting buck isn't fit to eat but I haven't had a bad one yet the way we gut, get em to the house, get them skinned ASAP and let them cool out and hang at least overnight if weather permits.

A good rain doesn't hurt wash the stink out either.

No stink on the inside until someone let's a piss covered knife hit meat or someone pops a gut or bladder when field dressing then blames it on the rut while the urine leaks all over everything back around the split pelvis.

That ‘reasoning’ I can see being the case with a lot of people, fo shizzle. Same with them leaving it in the back of a pickup for a week in the sun. I’ve seen folks do that then complain about the meat quality.

I’ve ticked the guts with both bullet and knife and had to wash the meat throughly to get the stink off.

Man if I get stomach or gut matter on my meat, I draw the line there. I ain't eating it. Your braver than I.

Trim it off. Maybe 1/4-1/2" deep. You would be trumming that stuff anyway because it will dry as it ages.

Stuff from the store is far worse than that.