Parden me I stepped on the dang hook while tosing the sinker.grin

if taken care of properly it is some of the best wild game meat....if treated poorly it is some of the worst.....get the critter skinned and the meat in a cooler ASAP and it is outstanding....let the critter bounce around in the back of the pickup all day, especially on the typical warm day of speed goat hunting weather and sometimes dogs wont eat it

That sums it up perfectly. Good antelope beats elk. Bad antelope makes a shoe taste good.

I agree and I'll add that you have to do a good job of shooting it as well. Shoot it in the leg and chase it all over the prairie trying to finish it, or shoot it in the guts and chase it all over and you'll end up with less than quality fair.

Looks like you hooked a shiner and an old carp.

I've only managed to draw an antelope tag in Idaho once in my life. The one I got was pretty good eating. It tasted a lot like mule deer (I know some will say that's pretty bad).

100%

My first antelope was shot on a snowy day. Some other hunters spooked the herd. I shot my buck as they milled around trying to cross a fence. We gutted him and dragged him a mile back to the truck. The buck (other than for the photo shoot) rode in the truck for about 8 hrs before I skinned him. I could barely eat him, he was so gamey tasting. As a new hunter, it was so bad, it could have caused me to quit, because I didn't like the taste. All subsequent antelope have been skinned imediately after gutting, placed in cheesecloth and transported inside my canopied truck. Now I would rate antelope as the finest meat I have harvested and I have harvested sheep, WT, MD, elk and moose. My sister who doesn't like game meat, will eat antelope.

Treat an antelope right, and it is the best IMO.

Only killed two lope. One was delicious, one was gross. Both were bang flops and skinned right away and cooled down.

It seems folks either love antelope meat, or despise it.. As mentioned elsewhere we make jerky out of all of our antelope.. I think my wife cooked some tenderloin for a game dinner for the relatives from out of state.. They enjoyed it.. When we had lots of antelope, I had a couple families that preferred it to other game.. Since there were lots of permits available, I would give them two or three each year.. Antelope makes the best jerky of any of the wild game.. We love it, so that is how it is used.. Mostly antelope I handle are skinned with in minutes of shooting probably at most 30 min to an hour before the jacket is off..

Antelope meat is some of the finest game fair to grace a dinner table, IMHO. Yet, as others have stressed, putting the animal down and treatment is the utmost requirement. I have taken many, many antelope and have yet to be disappointed in the flavor. I will not shoot at a running 'loper buck or doe. It is important to find that 'loper the is resting, feeding or merely milling around. Dress them right away and get the hide off without getting too much hair on the carcass. Get him/her into a cooler with ice. If no ice at least keep the meat out of sunlight as much as possible. Then get them to a meat processor as soon as possible. Venison is good, 'loper is better. MTG

Some of the finest game meat available in the US, although I've not put any bighorn on my table yet.

I had the meat from my mountain goat made into Thurenger(sp) sausage. Did not last long. Mountain goat is true goat. Antelope not really a goat. Antelope, Pronghorn, are a species unto themselves having a flavor unlike venison. MTG

I have had a few made into jalapeno cheese sausage, good stuff, almost anything is good with cheese and jalapeno in it.

Had antelope (roast/tenderloins) for the first time last night since my 12 yr old son and I tagged out last weekend. Wife & kids approved...so I'll be putting in for antelope rags again next year.

I really like antelope, and I've never had a bad mule deer buck either, even the great big ones. Obviously field care, cleaning, aging are the keys.

Yep. And they're not even an antelope, either. I read that their closest living relative is the giraffe. The reason that they are so speedy is that there used to be an American Cheetah (although may not have been closely related to the African cheetahs).

Fixed the subject line for you!

Eric

Have shot a few (12), and they all sucked worse than eating the azz out of a menstrating skunk.
Shot, skinned, deboned, and on ice very quickly.
Had burger and summer sausage made out of the last 4. I use the burger to make jerky.
It's the best. Guys at work want me to sell them pounds of it. Nope, Im stingy.

Whee! I stepped on dang stone while tosing and strikink the great white snak. Just me.

My buddy And I got two apiece in SD a few years ago. The temps were in the high 80's so we got them cut up and on ice quickly. Aside from being a bit chewy, the flavor of all of them was very mild. IMO milder than whitetail.

yeah yeah yeah....i know they are neither a goat nor an antelope.....but they do smell like an old billy goat so ill stick to calling them speed goats

the one that didnt taste so good, how long did yah look it over before shooting it.....could be yah shot one someone had run the hell out of not to much before hand and got it worked up.....

on time im pretty sure i shot the oldest speed goat doe in the state.....8 hours of stewing in red wine and you still couldnt chew it....flavor was fine but she was one tough old b!tch.....

I have killed a grand total of three speed goats, all near Big Timber, MT. There was virtually no sage brush where we were hunting. It was all grass. The pronghorn tasted like veal! Very mild flavor.

I have also taken mule deer in WY where they fed on sage brush and they were nasty.

My guess from the Great Lakes is that sage has something to do with taste. Anyone else have a similar experience?

nope, we shoot ours off of sage flats where there aint a hell of alot else to eat and they taste as good as the ones that are in crop land....

brentd and rattler are right on. listen and learn.

Haven't hunted one since '10.

That Winter was brutal.


Still not that many around.

My experience with antelope is all over the charts. Perfectly killed and cared for crop eaters turned out yucky. Sage eater after a nasty run-n-gun was the best meat Ive had! My last one was a sage eater, killed in its bed, skinned and cooled on the spot. Excellent!
A couple people mentioned chewy ones...this is only a theory mind you, but Ive seen chewiness result from improper cooling, more than any other factor.

Could be Poobs.

I've kept boned out meat(pronghorn and deer) on ice for 10 days or so before freezing and it has been great eating.


As for flavor an early season buck might be better eating?

Good antelope meat is really good grub.

Exactly what he said. Period.

+1

I love antelope meat. When I was a kid, my dad usually had them processed into jerky, summer sausage, etc. That gets very expensive. As an adult, I process my own, and my 13 year old son and I love it. We still occassionally make jerky and summer sausage ourselves, but prefer steaks.

We were out today, but the herds in northern Butte County,SD have not recovered from a severe winter kill a few years ago. Tough hunting!

^^^ This.

I've only eaten it made into sausage and mixed with other stuff like pork and I thought it was top notch. Never ate it as just straight meat for a copmarison.

This. I'm always amazed when people don't like antelope meat.

I just put up some antelope steaks from my 2013. He was a dink, the smallest buck I've ever killed, but the meat was tender!

I usually have mine processed into jerky & summer sausage. Too me, Antelope is a little more "gamey" tasting than whitetail. It's edible, but not my favorite.

Just because an antelope eats sagebrush doesn't make it nasty. The care of the meat and choice of shot is what makes it nasty. I've been taking pronghorn my whole life and if you shoot one, don't make a good shot and it runs, you are screwed. If you shoot one that has been running, you are screwed. If you get one down and dress it and then ride around in the back of a truck for hours, you're screwed. Get it down, get it dressed and get it cold.

I'll take antelope over deer any time. Had back strap three nights over the last week and it was excellent, even guys who bad mouth antelope loved it.

All my pronghorn meat has been outstanding table fare.

Better than deer or elk to my taste buds.

I shot my buck in Hardon Co. SD sat morning 20 minutes or so after sun up dressed him on the spot and walked out to the truck. I put my game cart together and retrieved him, done by 8:30 opening day.I skinned and broke him down back at camp, by 8:00 that nite the meat was less than 50 degrees temp and went into the cooler. I processed him Sunday afternoon when I got home it's only a 2.5-3 hr deal by yourself. Steaks and roasts you can allways cut roasts into something else after you thaw it.Scraps and trim into bulk bags to be ground later.It is about as easy as processing gets, never had one I couldn't eat one way or another.But take care of it just like the others say rfn. Magnum Man

I've eaten pronghorn from several others' killings. It has been excellent. I've eaten Mt goat of my own killing - it too has been excellent- nearly the quality of wild sheep. The two species (pronghorn and mt goat) are not related...

IIRC, the mt goat is most closely related to antelope, while the pronghorn is way out there somewhere on it's own...

Like said above, much depends on shot placement, and after-shot care, tho individual animals can vary somewhat.

goats and sheep are related to bovines and true antelopes

prong horn belong to the same general group but they split off much earlier than the others with no truly close relatives....all of them, sheep, goats, bovines, speed goats, giraffes, deer ect belong to the same Infraorder: Pecora.....

they then split off from there with bovines, sheep and goats going to the family Bovidae and girrafes and speed goats going to their own families of which speedgoats are the last living member of theirs though there used to be a heck of a variety.....same with the girrafe group only the subspecies of girrafes and okapis today but used to be a whole lot....

As stated over and over, care is the key to any game.

We hang ours in a meat locker on the ranch to cool for at least 14 days. For a lot of people it's not possible due to temps, but we are able to do it and it makes a significant difference.

6 days is minimum for us when we dry age otherwise there isn't much point.

You are a splitter rather than a lumper, right?

Infraorder is waaay back there... family not so much, even if you are the last hold out.

Would that make the pronghorn the "tan and white" "sheep" of their family?

yeah i tend to split.....but i also think the system is full of issues cause if yah spend any real time dealing with it, ESPECIALLY when you start messing with plants the whole thing starts looking half retarded at the genus level....start messing with orchids and you really start shaking your head alot....

dts, Interesting what you wrote about hanging antelope.. Years ago, I read a piece about hanging game.. They recommended 10-14 days for elk, 5-10 for deer, and after 3 days it made little diff. for antelope.. We have let them hang as little as 2days or as many as 10.. But the jerky was still the same excellent..
We may try a tender loin of antelope this mth. as soon as I take another doe.. The first is already in jerky and about half gone..
My relatives are still here, we just had a tenderloin from my mulie taken this fall, excellent.. My stepson pan fried it.. It will be easy to try the antelope this way.. More later..

I'm hoping to get a chance to shoot an antelope in a couple of weeks and I'll try hanging for just two days if I get one.

in theory, hanging speed goats shouldnt do much cause they dont have near as much of the connective tissue in their muscle that needs broken down like beef does....believe one of the Wyoming Universities did a scientific study on this awhile back.....that said if your temps are ok to do it it sure aint gonna hurt....

I used to get the whole goat made into jerkey, best there is, friends will fight over it!

This morning before the family left, we slipped out for one last hunt.. I had a doe permit, which we filled just as the sun came up.. While they did some packing, I skinned the antelope, and pulled the inside loins out of the doe.. Washed them off and told my step son if he liked we could fry them up just as he had done the mule deer tenderloin several days ago.. Just to see how antelope would taste fried.. With seven people, there was just about one little steak apiece.. I must say it was very good..A slightly different taste than deer or elk, but good.. Everyone like it, even the non game eater of the clan.. Some of the boys liked it a bit better than deer.. But the rest will still go into jerky.. I think all our jerky is in the Chev. truck headed to Mich.. Great still have a buck tag to fill..

Dang. Can't believe you turn good antelope into jerky. I reserve the real ordinary cuts of the gut shot and or rutty old animals for such use.

Jerky tastes the same whether I use the best meat or the nasty, so why not save the delectable type game and cuts for steaks?

Favorite way is take a 1.5" pronghorn backstrap steak(aka boneless New York) and grill it 3 minutes per side at 450F.



Let it set under tinfoil for a minute or two then devour.

I like a little spicy salt with it, or not.

So good.


So tender I sometimes forget to properly chew and about choke out sometimes......grin

Yep. 99.99% of the folks who say they don't like antelope meat didn't clean it quickly, cool the meat down and/or age it.

If it's done right, it's superb. I killed a little meat buck this year. Super tender meat and it tastes great!

I hear ya! Usually bread ours, but basically the same deal. So tender and mild. Delicious!

If I was on Death Row, I would request pronghorn backstrap as my last meal, that's how much I like it.

Breaded then grilled? Mind expounding a bit? I have a few in the freezer awaiting and am interested in something new.

"If I was on Death Row, I would request pronghorn backstrap as my last meal, that's how much I like it."

Exactly. Antelope backstraps are the best game meat ive ever had.

Josh

Agree. The one I shot last year was fantastic. The backstraps can't be beat.

Dip in egg, roll in flour, throw in hot pan with lots of oil.

I don't get too complicated with my cooking.

Here's a variation of that, finger steaks. Roll meat in flour with salt and pepper, dip in egg and then roll in crushed saltines. Pan fry in deep oil.

Had some damn good lopenchiladas yesterday.

kawi give up the dope.................you are as bad as gus.

Thanks! That's what I was thinking, but was thinking you were grilling them, which I was unfamiliar with. Might put that on this weekends menu! I prefer uncomplicated as well, since the 'fancier' I try to cook the worse the results seem to be...

First time for 'lopes this year and I paid close attention to all the edibility or lack thereof comments I heard. Two guys at work assured me it didn't matter what I did, they would be entirely unfit to eat. Process all our own deer and I'm very particular about game care so I actually wasn't too worried.. We shot 3 buck 'lopes openeing day and each was skinned, 1/4ered and on ice within 2 hours of death. They spent the next 5.5 days in a coooler iced down until they were processed and frozen. Waiting for my oldest daughter to come home from college for the weekend to do some chops on the grill but had to try some sooner. Put a 2# pack of lowly stew meat in crockpot yesterday with some chicken broth, stewed tomatoes and misc. spices. Served over noodles (rice for the wife) and all agreed it was good stuff. Good enough that the wife took the leftovers for lunch today. If it wasn't so good I'd give some to the naysayers to prove them wrong. Figured it best to leave them with their ill thoughts so there's more for the rest of us.

as i said before most those that say speed goats are inedible leave them bouncing around in the back of the truck all day or weekend, usually on a warm day(try this with beef and see how it tastes ) or they take it to a bulk processor and dont necessarily get their goat back if they did take care of it.....

+1 I went out yesterday and shot my buck....undisturbed and had him at the processer in <2 hours from the kill. Got the hide off quickly and had him cooling fast. Everyone I've handled this way has been excellent. I pass on opening weekend on public land because everyone is driving around running them to death. Yesterday I had the country to myself......15minutes from the house.

rattler - I've always said the same in regard to people that claim to not like venison. Here in NW PA, they'll shoot a deer, rip about 1/2 of its guts out, drive around for 1/2 a day to show everyone their prize and then hang it in a tree for a week in temps between 0 and 70 degrees and proclaim that venison is barely fit to eat. Thinking beef might be a bit gamey too handled like that!

Would really enjoy hunting out there later in the season with no folks and unpressured critters.

the other thing i run into with people that dont like venison is they cant stand anything but well done and you can grill venison to well done WITHOUT it turning to liver tasting shoe leather but you need to cut the steaks real thin.....my wife is a wuss and cant stand any pink in her steak so when we are butchering we cut a portion of the steaks thinner than the rest and those are hers which can be grilled to well done and still keep them halfway juicy.....the girls and i like medium rare so we dont have this problem....

but if you have someone in the family that insists on their grilled or fried steaks being well done just cut them thin and the flavor improves dramatically.....

Good tip but thankfully the wife and both my girls enjoy theirs with a nice puddle of blood left as juice for the potatoes.

An overcooked piece of venison can be some rough stuff.

Always keep a few clean roast type hunks out for chipped steak. Put it on the meat slicer to shave as thin as possible while still partially frozen. This gets cooked to well done in skillet with seasoning, olive oil, peppers and onions but still turns out tender. A little horseradish sauce and you're looking at a sandwhich you can't buy at any price. Some of this stuff makes 'ya feel bad for folks who don't like venison.

I just had some backstrap from my first pronghorn, and it might just be my favorite wild game. Fork-tender, I think I'll go fry up some more.....

Hmmm, now if giraffe were to taste like a good antelope.......

For sure. That goes for deer, also.

That'd be a LOT of tasty neck roast!!!

true but you often get away with it more with deer cause the hunts are often later in the year and its colder so much of the meat cools down in the back of the truck anyway.....especially around here wheremost the speed goat hunting is the first part of October and most deer hunting is in November...often a big difference in day time temps when it comes to the meat.....

BOOWAA A girrfe neck in the ground. Things neaded a backhoe with sober operator( the trench has to be strait) tinfoil enough to blind a jetliner on a sunny day and buckets of goodies. VS goats that require 10' of nose to tail prime goat a somewhat sober backhoe operator(the trench need not be so strait) and buckets of goodies. Close but not. Grin. Please be safe and have fun Kawi!

An old friend of my was out here a couple years ago, and shot two doe antelope.. He took them home and fed them to his gun club during the annual wild game dinner.. He said they were the hit of the evening..
The little steak we had at breakfast the other morning was the first antelope stk. I have eaten in 40 years.. When I drew my first tag, my wife and I ate it that fall.. But one of the guys I worked with made his into jerky.. It was excellent.. So the next fall that is what we did with it.. That has been the way we did things all these years.. We hunted antelope first.. Made jerky as quickly as possible, then hunted deer and elk for the freezer. It is good, but it also makes the very best jerky of the three local big game animals.. I still have my buck hanging in the shed.. Will cut him up tomorrow probably..
Most of my game is hung skinned, and cooling in the shed within minutes of being shot.. Especially antelope.. Deer some times we have to drive aways, or skin it in the mts. if we are hunting else where.. Elk usually are skinned as soon as I can get them hung.. If they have to be brought out the next day, then they are skinned as soon as I get them hung up..

This is #25 for me, and the best eating of all, and the first 24 were excellent. One of them was ancient, too. Sage has nothing to do with the meat's flavor, IMO.





It's all in being clean and careful with how they're handled; gut & skin as they are falling to the ground, and Don't get much hair on the meat.

Also, the hairs have a cavity full of a lanolin like oil that is extremely pungent. If you cut a lot in half and get them on your hands you'll taint the meat badly. I carry water and paw-wipes to clean up as I work the carcass.

Those who don't take this care never like antelope.

I agree with you on that. I've shot them off hay/sage/greesewood. If taken care of it tastes like pronghorn, damn good.

Last comment on the post - had chops from the first 'lopes we've shot or eaten last night. Sorry we only have 3 in the freezer. We'll have no trouble eating them all in short order. Tender and more mild than our farm fed venison. The naysayers are obviously doing something terribly wrong.

IMO that applies to about any game animal.
Antelope is probably my favorite game meat of all.

Bill

well yeah of course it does but speed goat goes south quicker than most, the window your working with to ensure the meat is good seems to be alot narrower than with say a whitetail or elk.....

...........or Moose. Went on a Moose hunt to Newfoundland several years ago. Day I shot my critter was pushing 70 degrees and we left it on it's back cavity proped open, hide on, until the next day. It then was airlifted whole via helicopter along with all of our camp to a waiting trailer to be transported another hour plus to main lodge where we commenced to skinning. Now a solid 24 hours+ since it was killed. I was sick, figured the whole thing had to be a loss. Disassembled and got it cooled down. Stayed on ice for next 4 days until home and butchered. Without a doubt the best eating animal we've ever had. Not advocating the method, just passing on the story.

It's not just connective tissue that breaks down. It's the chemical process that begins initially after death that starts rigor. Once that subsides then the muscle and fat will start to change due to enzymatic influence which will give it a different flavor and effect tenderness.

Now, I fully agree that it's a different process in time and intensity than beef, and honestly, if there is a meat that the first hour matters more than the last, it's antelope.