Missouri Whitetail meat and Colorado Mule Deer meat. Do they taste different?

[Just Duke]

Missouri Whitetail meat and Colorado Mule Deer meat. Do they taste different?
I have only had the Colorado Mule Deer meat and was wondering if they are different tasting?
TIA,
Duke and Buffalo Barbie :drinks:

[reloader28]

I've heard anything from Missouri has a nasty taste to it. Just kidding.

It all depends on what the animal has been eating. Most people say that any whitetail tastes better than mulies. Thats cause most mulies come from the sagebrush. If you get the animals from the same field, they are going to taste almost identical. If they are both in the sagebrush, they will both taste gamey.

Antalope taste really gamey out in the sage, but if he lives in the alfalfa, hes going to be good eating.

There is a difference between a corn fed deer and a sagebrush mountain deer.

Thats my opinion anyway.

[MT Gianni]

I find most mule deer stronger tasting than most whitetail. It does depend on the feed though many cattlemen will tell you they can recognize some beef breeds by taste and I knew some Argentine's that claimed they could tell the difference between a steer and a cow. As with many things what happens in the first 30 minutes after the shot means the most to me when it comes to taste.

[BlueNorther]

I honestly can't tell the diff between the two here in Alberta. I've killed both species out on the prairies and find them the best eating. The ones I've killed from the mountains tend to be gamier and I'm thinking it's the feed, browsing on willow and aspen. As stated earlier by MT Gianni, what you do with that animal after it's down will determine how it tastes later.

[ammohead]

Most gamey tasting antelope is caused by the first thing a hunter does when he gets to the animal is grab the horns. Ever smell your hands after handling antelope horns...Phewee! Then they commence to dressing and skinning all the while touching the meat with their tainted hands. Carry hand soap or don't touch the meat.

ammohead

[Just Duke]

Btt,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[scrapcan]

My expereince here in Wyoming is that the Whitetail taste different than the mulies. Even in the same area. Their diets are different.

But having said that it might be more than just diet, their could be physiological differences in the meat.

I happen to like the taste of the whitetail beter than mulies in this area.

It also doesn't help that our hunting seasons conincide with the rut either.

[DanWalker]

Most gamey tasting antelope is caused by the first thing a hunter does when he gets to the animal is grab the horns. Ever smell your hands after handling antelope horns...Phewee! Then they commence to dressing and skinning all the while touching the meat with their tainted hands. Carry hand soap or don't touch the meat.

ammohead

Dragging it through the dirt, back to the truck in 60 degree weather, and then driving around for a few more hours while trying to get everyone tagged out before heading back to town(on a dirt road) has a decidedly negative effect on the taste of antelope meat as well.
I prefer antelope over ALL other wild game I've eaten. Kill it cleanly. Then get it gutted, washed out, cleaned up and cooled out QUICKLY, and it is simply phenominal.

[GabbyM]

Plastic bags::

Post handling has a lot to do with it for sure. Back when I was young and hunting allot I had a BIL who was a butcher by trade as his grandfather was. He also grew up in MO and knew what game animals were. Anything he butchered was good if it started out usable.

He did quite a bit of tracking down wounded animals from archery hunters as he also had a pair of dogs for that. Technically that’s dog hunting deer but. In Illinois everything is illegal so after a while you just say to heck with it and get it done. Usually I was at work but a couple tiems I got out there. He would skin the deer, de-bone them and bag the quarters up then we’d carry the quarters back to the car. I never could figure out just how he could make a couple cuts then yank the bones from those hams. He also never showed me even after I asked. It was how he made his living. Later on he divorced his wife and I divorced her sister. Ugh.

Point is to get the meat cooled out as soon as possible. Faster it cools the better it is. Mule deer are often on a diet high in non tasty brush. Even here in Illinois it’s a big deal to put out food plots for the white tails. Right before hunting season they are fed out on field corn but that’s a short term diet. I’ve heard plenty of stories of how mule deer are not as tasty as White tail. Don’t have any proof but my opinion is it’s all in the diet. Acorn feed white tail are not to tasty either. That scrub brush out on the desert is like eating kerosene.
IMO if you took a beef breed off the same land it would not taste all that good either. Hence they send beef to a feed lot to finish.

If you end up with a place in MO look into food plots. Your neighbors may be all set up to plant them already. Of course Mo is going to be white tail but brush fed deer are not prime. There is not a thing wrong with feeding out wild life to help it along to becoming great table fare. After all your neighbors corn field is not planted to feed out your deer hunt.

[insanelupus]

Missouri whitetail is good eating. Especially the younger ones. Anydeer permits are across the counter (buck or doe, your choice) and antlerless/bonus tags are all you want, or were last year. When I've hunted there I hold on to the buck tag and we fill several of the bonus tags.

Western Montana mulies from the mountains taste different than the whitetails which roam the same area, at least to my tastes. That said, the mulie I took to the butcher was the last one I ever let anyone process as I found out when I got it back he let it hang several days first and it took 2 days to get in to him (I told them that when I dropped it off). Not their fault necessarily, but I'll never do it that way again.

As to antelope. I'd heard horror stories of how nasty antelope were. This past fall I shot one, took several rounds, but he went down with the first shot and stayed put, no running around. We gutted him, drug him to the top of the nearest hill so we could get some wind to cool us and I skinned and boned that critter right there. Took it to camp, washed it off and stored it in muslin game bags in the shade for an hour, then on ice in a cooler.

I absolutely love elk, that said, and I hate to admit it, but I'd be willing to say antelope tastes just a little bit better. Both fine table fare in my book. That's the first critter I've boned in the field and I don't think it will be the last.

By the way, the boning was done using a Havalon Piranta knife with replaceable blades. I'll never use anything else for that chore or butchering again. Good stuff.

[insanelupus]

They don't taste as good this way, but at times, I prefer to "shoot" them like this. Especially when they are young fellers which are well on their way to being respectable old fellers!

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_53952.jpg


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j66/insanelupus/IMG_5428deer-1.jpg

[LUCKYDAWG13]

I can tell ya that the deer from the black hills tast like **** next to my illinois corn and bean fead deer

[northmn]

One of the worst deer I ever tried was a young doe that I think upon reflection, was being chased by a buck. No fat on the deer, late season muzzle loading. eat was tougher than leather. Otherwise I prefer two year olds for eating. Like others I clean them as quick as possible and get them cooling. One time I heard about how hanging deer and cooling them with the skin on made them better tasting as the skin lets them cool slower in colder weather. Did that once and never again as I can skin a deer PDQ while warm. Skinning a deer that has been hanging for a couple of days is a task I am not purposely going to submit myself to again.

DP

[19112TAP]

I've ate probably 100+ Missouri deer from yearlings to 7+ year old bucks and it seem to me it is all about the health of the deer and how the meat was handled after the harvest. I've only had a couple of Wyoming Mule deer and the meat was fine tasting but defintly a different taste.

[10x]

I've eaten mule deer and whitetail from the same field. You can not tell the difference with does shot before the rut. Genetically white tail and mule deer are very similar and will cross breed - at least the whitetail buck will breed with a mule deer doe. Cross does are fertile and tend to breed with whitetail bucks.

[dk17hmr]

I can tell you that the Michigan whitetail I hunted, until I moved to Wyoming and started hunting mule deer, was very good if you shot it near a farm field, if you shot it in a swamp it was a different story. The mule deer I shot this year was in the mountains and it has a much different taste than the ones that get shot in the desert around here. So I think it depends on what the critter has been eating before you start eating it.....of course getting the guts out and getting it cooled down quickly doesnt hurt anything.

[selmerfan]

I hunt mule deer in West River SD every fall. I also spent 8 years eating Iowa whitetails. I was raised on venison in South Dakota and I can't tell a difference in the meat. My wife, however, likes the Iowa (or now Minnesota, even West River whitetail) better than the mule deer. It's certainly not inedible, she just thinks it has a stronger taste than the whitetail. And I'm VERY careful about meat handling after the shot. Deer are not chased or harassed, gutted immediately, skinned ASAP and cooled down. My girls can't tell a difference in taste. This isn't CO mule deer, as we're hunting mulies in the prairie where they have access to alfalfa, winter wheat, silage, etc.

[nanuk]

meat is meat.

it all depends one diet.

I have had moose and elk you would have thought it was beef.

as for deer, again diet. a buddy hunts mule deer in the fields down south, all grainfed. Taste better than the forest deer up here.

Another issue is the Rut......

[Shiloh]

Depends what the mulies are eating. Corn and alfalfa fed deer from the plains or planted high country taste better than the ones eating lichens and mountain scrub.

Cant compare the two though I have had good and bad both. depends on the care after the harvest.

Shiloh

[Smoke-um if you got-um]

[QUOTE=northmn;1193332]
I can skin a deer PDQ while warm. Skinning a deer that has been hanging for a couple of days is a task I am not purposely going to submit myself to again.

New hunters should take note of this because it is some of the best advice they will ever get.

Mike

[Just Duke]

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