Rutted out deer...

Sausage, or my new favorite, cracked pepper and garlic hamburger jerky made in the dehydrator. :D

I shot an exceptionally stinky old buck a couple of years ago and found out that if I upped the lean pork content from my normal 15% to about 40% and made up spicy sausages like Greek or Cajun it went down pretty easy.
 
It doesn’t have to be a big buck to be gamey the first buck I have ever shot was a little fork horn (Blackwater country 35 years back) ...he was with a herd of does 10-15 or so in antlerless season so that would have been 2nd or 3rd week of October ...passed on the doe’s to take my first buck .......lol...I regretted it the moment I walked up on it ....OMG...did it stink ...you know that heavy tarsal gland stink …and the meat tasted just like that smell…..If I remember correctly …The mother in law cooked the first and only steaks after that the rest was done up in 1/3 deer, pork, beef spicey sausage …. have never shot one that smelled that bad sinse ...
 
moose2hunt said:
It doesn’t have to be a big buck to be gamey the first buck I have ever shot was a little fork horn (Blackwater country 35 years back) ...he was with a herd of does 10-15 or so in antlerless season so that would have been 2nd or 3rd week of October ...passed on the doe’s to take my first buck .......lol...I regretted it the moment I walked up on it ....OMG...did it stink ...you know that heavy tarsal gland stink …and the meat tasted just like that smell…..If I remember correctly …The mother in law cooked the first and only steaks after that the rest was done up in 1/3 deer, pork, beef spicey sausage …. have never shot one that smelled that bad sinse ...
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Yes, I can relate to that, also. I once shot a small buck, about twenty miles N-W of Prince George, in old growth douglas fir, that used to grow there. Little buck was all by himself and when I saw him he was looking at me, about 35 yares away. I hit him in the white spot on his neck and nearly took his head off. It was late October, close to freeze up. I could smell the deer before I got to him. My brother was hunting in the area and he came when he heard the shot. We dressed it out and hung it on a pole between trees, leaving it there for three days before we brought it home. (Ravens were not a concern at that time.)
You couldn't stay in the kitchen when that one was cooking, either.
 
I've never shot a mule deer...are they any different than whitetails regarding odour and taste of the meat in a rutting buck?

I have shot my fair share of rutting whitetails (including one which got into such a thick patch of brush before expiring that I found him by scent) and once my wife started using vinegar they turned out okay on the table. It's not exactly veal, and the smell when the meat starts to sear or brown is not particularly delightful, but they eat fairly well. Not a ringing endorsement, I know...:redface:

How much worse are mulies?
 
Yes, there is a big difference. There are also a lot of other factors that figure in to the quality of wild meat, and I am disregarding all facts about killing and butchering.
I grew up in the bush hinterlands of N-E Saskatchewan and lived on wild meat, mostly elk, to start with, some moose, then later the whitetail deer (jumpers) became plentiful.
Then, as an adult I moved to Central BC and very shortly shot a nice fat, mule deer buck, before the rutting season. I couldn't believe how poor the meat was, compared to the Sask "jumpers". You are in Manitoba, so I presume your game would be similar to Saskatchewan game. With the whitetail deer in Saskatchewan we just loved the rib roasts. No wild taste, whatsoever. The last Sask whitetail we had was a large buck, actually shot in the rutting season, and it was still good meat.
My Dad was a good cattleman and he always said that the best beef came from an animal that had become thin over winter, then in the spring was fed all the chop and good hay it could eat, until it fattened right up, then butcher it. And he was right, this makes for tremendously good meat. I'll give away a secret here, a young cow that has had one calf, then not rebred, but given this thin then fast fattening, is the best beef one could ever hope to have!
I think the same is true of wild meat. In a cold country with long, hard winters and short summers, the game is thin in the spring, then have only a short summer to lay on fat, lots of fat, for the long winter ahead.
The game shot in rather cold areas, like all of northern Canada, including northern BC, is far superior in meat quality, to game shot in warmer climates, like southern BC.
I shot a large bull moose the first week in September in northern BC. The fat was marbled through the meat, especially the back straps, and one could eat that fat, just like you would with choice beef. In fact, it was hard to distinguish from good beef. I have stated before on these threads that I have eaten moose shot in late February in northern BC and it was still excellent meat.
No moose from southern BC is like that.
The elk also, from Saskatchewan and Alberta are far superior to the elk of southern BC. I have had them both and there is no comparison in meat quality.
It's complicated, but without a doubt, geographical location is a great factor in the quality of wild meat.
 
Sorry, H4831, I have to disagree.

What it eats, IMO, has much more to do with how it tastes, and the quality of the meat, than where it ate it.

A Southern buck off a hay field, will taste quite different than a buck shot off the sagebrush. When I was living and hunting the prairie provinces, the ones that had grain fields to eat off tasted better than the ones that were straight bush living. Oats were the best! :)

The whole fat thing is a bit of a red herring too, as the deer do not put it on the way cattle and moose do, integrating it among the muscle fibers. Good thing, too, as it would pretty much make them inedible, if they were marbled through with that greasy, sticks to the roof of your mouth fat.

I figure I have done well, over the years, as I have not shot one too skanky to eat, yet.

Cheers
Trev
 
The deer which we were accustomed to shooting in Ontario cottage country (Bancrroft area) were quite a bit inferior in quality on the table compared to the deer we took around my home when I lived in S.Ontario (Lindsay area). The north-south distance was not that great...we always assumed, without knowing for sure, that the farmland Lindsay deer were better eating because of their diet (corn, soybeans, etc.), whereas the Bancroft deer had very limited access to crops and relied on their natural food sources almost exclusively. Certainly, differences were noted from animal to animal which could be attributed to quickness of kill or treatment of carcass immediately afterward, but the general trend was for the farm deer to be far superior.

I'll be chewing on my first Manitoba deer in a few days...a bang-flop smallish 8-point buck that showed a swollen neck and obvious seeking/chasing behaviour, but had no "rutty" odour to him at the time of the shot. He was skinned/dressed immediately after the kill, and taken in to the cutter the next morning. Our area is a mix of hayfields/grain crops, and a fair bit of bush...it's about halfway between the predominantly agricultural landscape of Lindsay and the the mostly natural bush/forest terrain of Bancroft.

How will he taste? My fingers are crossed.;)
 
I tend to agree as to what trevj has said.
Best to get the deer in the forest than those along the
river where the sagebrush are thick.

Just like harvesting black bears from the orchards verses
from the garbage dump.
 
There is no doubt that what a deer eats, greatly effects the meat. I had that in mind, but didn't go into it, when I ended my last posting this way.

"It's complicated, but without a doubt, geographical location is a great factor in the quality of wild meat."

In the part of Sask I grew up in, there was very little cerial grain grown. We were right on the northern edge of farm land and many of the deer lived in the bush and didn't feed on cultivated land, while those that did, ate mostly alfalfa.
Another complication fo the whole subject, is those people who have only eaten deer from BC, just don't know how good a northern prairie deer can be.
 
Food sources have quite an influence on the flavor of deer, for sure!!

I have shot Whitetails and muleys in a large variety of geographical locations...

In the hills above Sicamous and Salmon Arm, BC.
In the East and west Kootenays of BC,
In the sagebrush hills around Cache Creek, BC, In the Imperial valley in BC.
In the Peace river country of BC,
Northern Saskatchewan farmlands.[St Walburg]
In Northern famlands in Alberta, and in Southern Alberta, as well as the foothills of Alberta.

You can always tell when the deer come off prime farmland, where oats, barley and alfalfa are available.

I shot one Whitetail and one Muley this year, both on Peace River farmland. They are fat, tender, and delicious!!

I have pretty well abandoned hunting deer in areas where they do not taste as good, since eating them is part of the pleasure.

REgards, Eagleye.
 
Eagleye said:
Food sources have quite an influence on the flavor of deer, for sure!!

I have shot Whitetails and muleys in a large variety of geographical locations...

In the hills above Sicamous and Salmon Arm, BC.
In the East and west Kootenays of BC,
In the sagebrush hills around Cache Creek, BC, In the Imperial valley in BC.
In the Peace river country of BC,
Northern Saskatchewan farmlands.[St Walburg]
In Northern famlands in Alberta, and in Southern Alberta, as well as the foothills of Alberta.

You can always tell when the deer come off prime farmland, where oats, barley and alfalfa are available.

I shot one Whitetail and one Muley this year, both on Peace River farmland. They are fat, tender, and delicious!!

I have pretty well abandoned hunting deer in areas where they do not taste as good, since eating them is part of the pleasure.

REgards, Eagleye.
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The cold and long winters enter in here, also.
Peace River area=cold, long winters.
Real good moose up there, also.
 
Eagleye said:
Northern Saskatchewan farmlands.[St Walburg]
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I have shot many a deer - and literally thousands of ducks - in the country around St. Walburg as well as trapping fox, coyotes, muskrats, beaver, and otter. (It was a great time and place to grow up!)

I also picked a million rocks, loaded countless bales, and was driving combines and grain trucks before I was a teenager.
 
I have been deer hunting in Manitoba for about 40 years and have only had one buck that was stinkin, some where a bit gamey and made sausage, but one that was down right stinkin. He was an old buck and chasing a doe when I got him. I am mostly a meat hunter and do most of it with a muzzleloader so I get to hunt them before they really get deep into the rut. The 2 biggest bucks I have taken were with the muzzleloader and they were great eating, one of them weighed 210 lbs hanging in the butcher shop with head and hide off. All my deer hunting is done in farming areas, so they are well fed.
 
'Boo said:
I have shot many a deer - and literally thousands of ducks - in the country around St. Walburg as well as trapping fox, coyotes, muskrats, beaver, and otter. (It was a great time and place to grow up!)

I also picked a million rocks, loaded countless bales, and was driving combines and grain trucks before I was a teenager.
Click to expand...

Interesting area....lots of Whitetail deer when I was there.
Had a close friend there who has since moved away.
His last name was Timmer...you may know of him or his family.
I hunted there in 1969/1970/1971.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
I need to chip in on this thread!

For years I heard about rotten smelling bucks that nobody would touch with a dinner fork, nor a 10 foot pole (where does one get a decent 10 foot pole these days, anyway???)

Even my dear Mom who grew up in South Okanogan remembered the deer her big brother shot. She recalls smelling that deer cooking even before she opened the door of her house. Not a pleasant memory for her....
I was one of those guys who never ever had a bad tasting deer. Always blamed skunky venison on poor handling. I had shot bucks on Vancouver Island , during the rut ..... stinky, yes, at first but the stink passed after a couple days of hangingand the meat was always good!
Well, every time but a few years ago. I shot this nice 3 point rutting buck..... made a nice clean 1 shot kill, dressed out the beast, hung him a couple days. Dang...... STINK..... smelled like SKUNK! I washed the meat with vinegar.... soaked it in milk....
I gotta tell you ........ even our dog refused that meat........ Just reeked ........ So when someone tells me they have a skunk buck, I feel sorry for em, cause seems like nothing will fix that reek.

Hope I never shoot another stinker like that ......... Maybe a guy should make a point of getting out earlier , perhaps in September , before the skunk sets in...... Just in case! b:

Lucky
 
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