Hi Guys
I was reading the instantaneous kills thread and I wondered if anyone has noticed a difference in the taste of the meat relative to the way the animal was shot and subsequently died.

Considering that the aim in killing a deer is to eat it I am wondering what method of killing a deer gives the best tasting meat.

Regards
Deafdog

Any game animal taken when it is not in flight is better tasing. The ideal situation in taking any game animal is while it not aware of the hunter. Once adrenalin enters the aniamls blood stream the meat will taste different. Deer taken on drives seem to taste stronger than those taken while trail watching. Try soaking the meat in cold lightly salted water for a few hours, then dry the meat off and season before cooking. Deer meat being very fat free can be flavor enhanced by a few strips of bacon placed on top of it while cooking. Any game animal meat should be aged before it will give it's best flavor just as you age beef.

A deer standing or walking is the proper way. It doesn't matter if he runs 50yds. What is absolutly critical is that you dress out the animal immediately. Cooling the carcass promtly is the most important thing as the research of the USDA proved. Aging should be done only if you have a proper butchers cooler that will hold the meat (skinned) at the proper temperature and humidity. As far as tenderizing ,freezing is the equivalent of 5 days aging.

It may not matter if the animal runs 50 yds but if he goes for several hours & travels far, the meat is going to be tough & the taste "gamey". I think this is why many people I have talked to don't like antelope meat. Many hunters shoot their lope on the run & then it cont. to run, and they complain about the meat(JMO)? I've benn told it's lactic acid build up in the muscle tissue ? So I try to shoot them unspooked & use enough bullet to completely penetrate from any reasonable angle.

[ 04-01-2003, 00:05: Message edited by: fredj338 ]

I'm not so sure I buy into that train of thought. I alway believed that until last year. I shot a 5 point bull elk at a run (only shot provided) and hit him a bit far back. Yeah, yeah, I know... Anyway, after tracking him for about six-seven hours and at least three miles, I walked up on him in his bed and put him down. I just knew that meat was going to be terrible. Guess what - it has been some of the finest tasting elk I've ever eaten. I attribute this to the fact that I immediately gutted, skinned, quartered, and cooled him. What we couldn't pack out that night hung in trees and cooled even more.

I'm still eating the last of that elk a year and a half later, and it's still damn tasty. I'm gonna venture out on a limb here and say that the manner in which the meat is handled AFTER the animal is dead is just as, if not more, important than the conditions under which it is shot.

There is absolutely no rhyme nor reason to it. You can definately ruin the meat through improper gutting and care but as far as shot placement, emotional state of the animal, its physical exertions... its a crap shoot on what you get in the end product. My dad, brother and I have paid attention to such things on a variety of game (just rearanged the freezer and have white tail, mule deer, pronghorn, elk, sheep, moose, bison, and elk meat in there) and have yet to come to any certain conclusion or relationship to the condition of the animal and shot placement in regard to the taste of the final product. I'll post more on this later but for now I've got to run.

Chuck

I'm on the ambush side of the question. The three antlerless deer my state allowed my to shoot last fall were all unaware of my presence, and were shot at the edge of a cornfield.
I've shot does in previous years that were flushed with their fawns, and they definately tasted gamey. Every buck I've shot was in the rut, so they weren't the best tasting either.
I also think it's adrenalin, not lactic acid, that causes the gamey flavor.

I shoot a lot of animals for meat from my place, and yes I do think it is important that they be killed very quikly as a consequence of the shot, also I find that animals that have had their stomach &/or intestines pierced tend to take on the "shitty" taste, so placement comes into it. If I am meat hunting I'll take head shots when possible.

The other factor is the field prep and buthery processing wich is also vbery important, you must not spill any of the contents of the intestins onto the meat. Bile, urine, half digested stomach contents and intestes on the meat do nothing for the taste.

Another factor I think is that these animals are truly indiviluals. Whilst our beef may grow up in the same conditions, and eat the same stuff all their life, they can all taste pretty similar.

I have noticed a good deal of difference between two animals of the same age and sex taken from the same area.

My 2c.

I agree with the above, along with the fact that all silver skin, sinew, and fat must be removed. Cutting venison with a meat saw, and dragging the marrow through the meat is the quickest and most thorough way to ruin it.

Of course the best shot is to thump their noodle as they placidly chew their cud-- HOWEVER, I have taken caribou on the run which is how they live sometimes I swear,and taken them asleep and everything in between. The same goes for moose and the only bad meat we have had was either in the rut so bad they smelled like a piss bath, or caribou that had bellies full of MUSHROOMS! They tasted like liver -- of which we are not to fond, It even ruins the sausage. The cardnal sin I say is not getting the initial heat out of the critter or letting the meat stay wet. Wet meat spoils fast!!I have had meat hang in warm weather --60 -70 daytime and 40 nights for 5 or 6 days and as long as it was dry every thing is tops, but let it stay wet even around 30-40 and your are gonna loose meat! As far as freezing goes it doesnt change the taste but if it hasn't aged before it freezes you have shoe leather. I have taken two winter moose and several caribou in below zero and they froze that day. You almost had to can the stuff to be able to eat it! Tenderizing is a function of enzimes and if the meat is froze before this takes place the process will not happen. Of course if you chased them with a machine untill they are adrinaline pumped all bets are off, but any I have taken with boiler shots that bolted some yardage I found no different taste as compared to whacking them during a snooze.Some critters just are not as good as others! Some of the old farts up here swear that you are to gut the animal and let it lay there overnight, not disturbing it at all for the best meat . Still others jump up and down if you leave the hide on till you butcher. I have found neither to be true IF YOU GET THE INITIAL HEAT OUT within a reasonable time!(That day) Prop the ribs open with sticks and get them off the ground if it is realy warm out. (70's or above)

A friend of mine killed a moose that was already running from other hunters, and this moose was the smelliest I have ever skinned. Most hunters in Alaska will agree that a moose that is full of adrenaline will taste bad. There may be other reasons for the meat tasting gamy, but some of them are as follows: Moose in rut, getting hairs from the belly on the meat, gut shots, and the type of vegetation moose are eating.

There is some information about "taking care of the meat" at the following site:

http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/wildlife/geninfo/hunting/huntak.htm#index

Good day,
Wasilla: You mention caribou that tastes like liver! Can I ask how you cooked it? The reason I ask is with the one I shot about five years ago I had the same taste with some of it and I HATE liver. I usually slice it thin and cook it in butter in a hot cast iron skillet.I also live cooking in cast. One day I tried cooking some liver slowly in a teflon pan and it tasted awfull. I tried it a couple times intentionaly after that with the same results.
Mike

I believe the best tasting meat is when they are dropped without running, cooled quickly, kept clean, and not shot during the rut. Like DesertRam, I have seen exceptions to the rule.

It's been my experience that head shot game doesn't taste as good as those shot in the boilerroom. I believe this is because the animal was not bled out properly, like a heart/lung shot will do. Proper slaughtering of domesticated meat animals includes bleeding, and for that matter it's always best to bleed out fish by slicing a gill or two. Try it on fish, the flavor is so much better when it's bled.

The heart/lung shot bleeds game out, kills quickly and humanely, and provides a more reliable target than the head shot.

BTW, my wife and I both love to eat caribou, and we both dislike liver intensely, for what that's worth.

These replys are standard stuff you read in magazines... After many years in the field, I'm not sure if any of it makes much difference as long as it is cleaned and cooled properly, and I'm not plumb sure about that...I have eaten gut shot animals that were as good as any quick killed heart shot animal, I have eaten brain shot animals that weren't so good...

The real truth of the matter is there are a world of things that add or distract to the taste of wild game. An old "fat buck" can be as good as a spike if he is in very good condition and very old, but it can also work in reverse. In many case a running buck will bleed out better than one that drops on the spot and sometimes he will perhaps taste better than an instant kill...I have seen game hang un-gutted in Africa for hours, that later tasted great..Africans never get excited about getting an animal gutted on the spot..Most of us read all this hoop-la and take it to heart, I know I did for some time, but now I convienced it is more like shooting craps, you rolls da dice and hope you don't crap out....

I cannot recall the last bad piece of meat I had..It seems to me its all good regardless of much of anything...Mostly its the cook with wild game..

I was raised on chicken fried deer meat, biscuits, pinto beans, chili (salsa), and gravy, never saw any reason to change..Neither have my kids.

I have killed them standing without knowing I was there, and killed them on drives. It has made no difference at all. However, I have tasted improperly cared for venison, and it is horrible. I think how you care for the meat makes all the difference. However, the worst meat I ever had was a buck I shot that was in the rut. he didn't know I was there when I killed him, but he smelled REALLY bad, and his meat was fit for chili only!

Never much cared for deer/elk meat until I started to bone them out. It makes a ton of difference. Doesn't matter the age , sex etc. all are great eating. Wish I would discovered that many years ago.

Interesting thread...Does anybody here eat deer taken by hunting with hounds? If the ""how" a deer is taken is important to its taste as is supposed here, I would say that deer teken like this should be real gamey.

Personally, I always subscribed to the idea that taking a deer unwares and dropping it realively cleanly were important factors, but having eaten deer taken far less favourably, i would say it is not that clean cut - excuse the pun..In reality there are probably a whole host of factors and I am sure one of the major ones is how the carcass is delt with in the first few hours after the shot. The meat industry has a fairly scientific approach to handling stock slaughtered for human consummsion even down to subjecting the carcass to mild electric shocks in some cases. As hunters I feel we should be much more knowledgable about carcass handling and how to produce a top quality carcass, of a consistant nature that *SAFE* that is fit to enter the human
food chain...

Pete

[ 05-07-2003, 14:03: Message edited by: Pete E ]