• Help Support TNDeer:

Best tasting bucks?

In my experience no, or at least not appreciably. The biggest thing I've seen that makes any difference in flavor is how the deer was handled between the moment of death and the moment the meat hits your tongue.

With that said, a deer's diet can have a pretty big influence on flavor, and a deer that dies from sepsis due to gutshot to the point all you see is black veins when you peel the hide taste awful because the same infection making black veins is also in the meat. Otherwise no, I have not noticed a difference in flavor based on rut or adrenaline. I've rarely even noticed old bucks being tough meat like folks often claim. How i cook it determines how tender it is.
 
My Grandpa who taught me hunting always said it makes a difference between dropping one vs one that runs off hundreds of yards. Makes sense to me, but I cannot say for sure from my experience. I can say young vs old is a big difference; and I agree with Ski that diet and getting it field dressed and cooled down as soon as possible makes a big difference.
 
The best tasting bucks are does :)

That said, most of the negative flavors folks talk about are due to poor processing. The more time you take to ensure there is no hair/silver skin/etc. the better the meat tastes. That silver skin is what tastes so "gamey" IMO
 
Does taste the best.
As other people have pointed out, gut shots make all deer taste horrible no matter how fast you recover the deer !

My hunting buddy gut shot a doe on accident once and we were able to track her and put another killing shot in her and even with recovering her quickly, the whole deer was green on the inside. We couldn't wash or cut the green off the meat no matter how hard we tried 🤢
I'm not sure if he ate it, I'll have to ask him how it tasted 🤮
 
I have always heard that when a deer runs for a bit, it has a bunch of adrenaline and other stuff running through their muscles which may affect the taste. I haven't killed one that when farther than 100 yards, and haven't experienced any different taste in those. I do think aging makes a difference, and I have anecdotal evidence of that.
 
.243 Deer said:
Does taste the best.
As other people have pointed out, gut shots make all deer taste horrible no matter how fast you recover the deer !

My hunting buddy gut shot a doe on accident once and we were able to track her and put another killing shot in her and even with recovering her quickly, the whole deer was green on the inside. We couldn't wash or cut the green off the meat no matter how hard we tried 🤢
I'm not sure if he ate it, I'll have to ask him how it tasted 🤮
Click to expand...
That one would've went to the hogs/yotes if it were me. Not enough scrubbing for me to take the chance.
 
Omega said:
I have always heard that when a deer runs for a bit, it has a bunch of adrenaline and other stuff running through their muscles which may affect the taste.
Click to expand...

I've heard the same and a dozen other myths. I think a lot of the things we hear are from folks trying to make sense of why some deer meat tastes good and some doesn't. In my experience if the deer is recovered before decomposition takes hold, and it's handled cleanly and carefully through the butchering process, it'll taste like good clean meat regardless if buck or doe, old or young, killed instantly or ran a mile. Cooking temp and method also play a huge role. But above all else proper handling.
 
Ski said:
In my experience no, or at least not appreciably. The biggest thing I've seen that makes any difference in flavor is how the deer was handled between the moment of death and the moment the meat hits your tongue.

With that said, a deer's diet can have a pretty big influence on flavor, and a deer that dies from sepsis due to gutshot to the point all you see is black veins when you peel the hide taste awful because the same infection making black veins is also in the meat. Otherwise no, I have not noticed a difference in flavor based on rut or adrenaline. I've rarely even noticed old bucks being tough meat like folks often claim. How i cook it determines how tender it is.
Click to expand...
UCStandSitter said:
The best tasting bucks are does :)

That said, most of the negative flavors folks talk about are due to poor processing. The more time you take to ensure there is no hair/silver skin/etc. the better the meat tastes. That silver skin is what tastes so "gamey" IMO
Click to expand...
Other than the differences between meat from a fawn versus meat from an adult deer, no I can't tell a difference. But as others have pointed out, how the carcass is treated and butchered makes ALL the difference. Years ago, we built and installed a walk-in cooler at our hunting camp. Any deer, no matter the sex or age, hung at the appropriate temperature and humidity for around two weeks is going to produce fantastic meat. In addition, how the meat is butchered/packaged makes a huge difference. We "shave" every cut of meat to remove silver skin and tendons before it is ground or packaged as steaks or a roast. That process is a gamechanger for meat quality.
 
Ski said:
I've heard the same and a dozen other myths. I think a lot of the things we hear are from folks trying to make sense of why some deer meat tastes good and some doesn't. In my experience if the deer is recovered before decomposition takes hold, and it's handled cleanly and carefully through the butchering process, it'll taste like good clean meat regardless if buck or doe, old or young, killed instantly or ran a mile. Cooking temp and method also play a huge role. But above all else proper handling.
Click to expand...
I've killed very small doe, and I can say that they were very tender, with no aging required. So I think age does play a part.
 
Besides age the one thing I've noticed is the TN deer taste great compared to Wisconsin deer. Up there they taste very gamy. Especially from the Tamerack swamps. My TN bucks and does have all come from middle TN and all have been good.
 
One difference I have seen when processing/butchering that I think makes a taste difference is whether the deer bled out before death. There is a reason farmers bleed animals out. Lots of blood still in the muscle does produce a taste. Although this runs contrary to what most believe, I've found deer dropped in their tracks often still have a lot of blood in the muscle at butchering. A deer that ran 50 yards and pumped most of their blood out don't have this problem.
 
BSK said:
We "shave" every cut of meat to remove silver skin and tendons before it is ground or packaged as steaks or a roast. That process is a gamechanger for meat quality.
Click to expand...

Same. And 100% correct it makes all the difference. I've been accused of waste because of how carefully I trim. But I'm eating the animal and feeding it to friends & family. I want it to be enjoyed by all. Venison has a distinctive flavor that is enjoyable if it isn't tainted. If somebody describes it as gamey and/or off putting then the butcher failed.
 
.243 Deer said:
I've never gut shot a deer, but if it were my deer and not his, it definitely would've went to the yotes. That meat was nasty 🤢
Click to expand...
Same. I've helped buddies in that spot and they would try to wash out and eat it. Smelled rancid. I'm not tempting the health of me or my fam over some stupid crap covered deer meat. Hate to waste an animal but better them than my fam.
 
Ski said:
Same. And 100% correct it makes all the difference. I've been accused of waste because of how carefully I trim. But I'm eating the animal and feeding it to friends & family. I want it to be enjoyed by all. Venison has a distinctive flavor that is enjoyable if it isn't tainted. If somebody describes it as gamey and/or off putting then the butcher failed.
Click to expand...
This it's all about how it's processed imo.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top