Do some deer just taste bad?

[yoderjac]

I quite often don't even gut the deer. the only time I gut them is on an ill placed shot where if hung the guts will come out. If it is in the boiler room, they are ALWAYS not gutted.

1. hang em up upside down
2. peel the hide back to the neck.
3. debone the hind 1/4's
4. peel the back straps out.
5. take off the front shoulders. (Generally junk because of the shot)
6. find the area where the tenderloins are, cut out those small vertebrae/ribs, peel them out. guts are forced down so not much pressure.
7. any past the front shoulders is a waste of time, and even the front shoulders are just peeled out and sent to the grinder.

the stuff I read up there that Jack does is almost comical. I have this whole deer hung and deboned in the matter of an hour. packaged and in the freezer in the next hour. 2 hours at the very most to the point I hung the deer.

funny someone said big bucks go to the grinder. I have never experienced big bucks being bad. Matter of fact the biggest buck I have ever shot 6.5 and was 166 inches was one of the most tender. I also do crop damage permits and the system stated above is how you process 20 deer in a night. When you have a trailer load of deer that you are hauling back, you need to have speed to get through them all. I couldn't even imagine doing that system above from Jack. Wow. I would still be doing it!!

And I have seen young does and old does taste good and taste marginal. I have yet to find an answer on how or why venison is tender or not. I would say the majority is always good??

Some may say.. you need to peel off the neck meat and take the rib meat. to each his own. If I want more venison, I just shoot more deer. simple rule. Hinds and straps are where the money is at. anything else is a waste of time.

To each his own. Some like it fast...I prefer maximum use of what I harvest. Yes, what doesn't get used by me does go back into the cycle of nature, but I like the concept of respecting my harvests by maximizing my use.

I have been amazed at how much "junk" cuts can be used in soup. I use the hip bones and such as soup bones as well. Cuts that are too fatty even to grind can be used in soup because the fat floats and can be ladled off.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[H20fwler]

Agree with what others have posted, field dress them quick, cool them down as soon as possible, if they are hit bad get them skinned quick and trim them up that day.

We have been butchering at home since I was a kid, the only bad or tough venison I've had is if a deer was run hard or had to be left out overnight with the guts in.
We usually cook the inside loins or "catfish" as we call them on the grill as we are skinning and butchering, normally we skin them and cut them up day they are shot or the day after. I bone them out, don't want bone dust in my meat...I am very fussy with my butchering.
Also don't overcook or cook to fast.


I try and get every scrap I can off them when I cut them up, I want them to look like a piranha attack happened.

 

[Chainsaw]

So what's the secret to keeping hair off the meat? That's my biggest issue and a reason mine go to the processor but, I might start doing my own again. Although I have had good luck with all the deer I've put through a processor, years ago I did get one back that was very bad taste and had to throw out.

This will sound funny Buckly but the secret to keeping the hair off the meat is to not cut the hair, just leave it on the hide. This is accomplished simply by cutting the hide from the inside to out rather than from the outside to in. Does that make sense to you?

 

[ruskbuckss]

I was taught that the key is getting the hide off as quickly as possible. This allows the meat to cool faster.I believe that leaving the hide and a poor job trimming fat is where some people get the gamey taste. I have never had a bad tasting deer,(buck or doe). I do know a guy that was given a buck shot during the rut that wasn't taking care of right away and said he couldn't find a marinade strong enough to make it edible.

 

[buckdeer1]

If you get hair on the meat it is usually because you caut from the outside of skin in instead of inside out.if you get some hair on meat easiest way to remove is go over lightly with propane torch

 

[willy]

I process all of our deer myself and have only had one that tasted "gamey" It was dead 20' from where it was shot. I believe 100% the reason it tasted bad was because of the buildup of lactic acid it had from fighting off 7 other bucks for the doe it had locked down for the 6 hours we watched it and whatever else it went through prior to sun up when we first spotted him.

Processing your own animal isn't a lot of work, is fun, and one appreciates it even more when they dine on it knowing they helped make it taste this way. One might mess up cuts and such when they first start but they'll be eating their mistakes and no one else will know. The next one will be easier and so on. One can experiment with seasonings on a small scale without worry of wasting a large amount.

I believe it is unethical to leave meat on the carcass. It will take some time but there is plenty of meat from the shoulders and forearms that can be ground or canned and it is a treat. If you kill an animal one owes it to get all the meat off it one can.

 

[John-W-WI]

If you kill an animal one owes it to get all the meat off it one can.

I'm with you willy. I'm not passing any judgement on anyone else, but if any meat is left behind when I'm done with one it's because I couldn't get it or didn't know how. After the best steaks, we can everything else. So we don't need choice cuts. Canning makes every cut tender.

-John

 

[JFK52]

I utilize every part of every deer. Hides are exchanged at Fleet Farm for a store credit. Only $3 a hide but it adds up. The bones, guts and all else go to an area I refer to as the "graveyard". There the eagles, hawks, other birds and all sorts of varmints take their turn feeding. It is at the extreme end of my property and a perfect out of the way spot to dump the guts, bones etc.
I seldom gut and process more than one or two deer at a time. If I was doing 20 a night I could understand the need to streamline the process.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm with you willy. I'm not passing any judgement on anyone else, but if any meat is left behind when I'm done with one it's because I couldn't get it or didn't know how. After the best steaks, we can everything else. So we don't need choice cuts. Canning makes every cut tender.

-John

I'm with both of you guys. I realize that anything I don't use eventually works its way back into the cycle of life so I can't be too critical of those who take shortcuts, but as for me, I feel much better about using all I can. The same goes true when I shoot a deer I don't recover. Although I agonize over it when it happens, I focus mostly on what went wrong so I can correct whatever mistakes I made for the next hunt. I do realize that deer will feed foxes, coyotes, skunks, buzzards, and many more critters. If it wasn't for this, I'd have a hard time archery hunting where you can do everything right and still have losses.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Red Picqua]

I process all of our deer myself and have only had one that tasted "gamey" It was dead 20' from where it was shot. I believe 100% the reason it tasted bad was because of the buildup of lactic acid it had from fighting off 7 other bucks for the doe it had locked down for the 6 hours we watched it and whatever else it went through prior to sun up when we first spotted him.

Processing your own animal isn't a lot of work, is fun, and one appreciates it even more when they dine on it knowing they helped make it taste this way. One might mess up cuts and such when they first start but they'll be eating their mistakes and no one else will know. The next one will be easier and so on. One can experiment with seasonings on a small scale without worry of wasting a large amount.

I believe it is unethical to leave meat on the carcass. It will take some time but there is plenty of meat from the shoulders and forearms that can be ground or canned and it is a treat. If you kill an animal one owes it to get all the meat off it one can.

I am not going to defend what I stated before but clarify my position. I do feel that the word "unethical" is a little strong to use for someone that leaves rib meat and neck meat on a carcass.

1. Rib meat waste of time.
2. Neck meat waste of time.
3. forearm meat. place in a bag for the grinder.
4. Front shoulders generally wasted because of a complete bloody mess because the deer has been shot with a rifle. complete waste of time.

What is left? That is unethical? I don't feel it is. Try and process 20 deer in a nite and tell me if you don't maybe leave the neck and toss the front shoulders because nothing is salvagable. Based upon me being around 1000's of deer shot with a 300 mag, 7mm STW, or 300 Weatherby. Generally the shell of choice is ballistic tips or Nosler Partitions for the group. I personally like the Ballistic tips while two of my friends use Partitions. We debate it for hours, but in a nutshell, the front shoulders are completely wasted on both. And most of the time there is no tracking. 300 Weatherby with a 180 grain ballistic tip and I am "unethical" for not saving front shoulders???

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Was trying to stay out of this one, but cant

1 Rib Meat - Fantastic, cut off the whole side of ribs, slow cook an render all the fat off, then grill at high temps an bbq, would never think about throwing away a set of ribs.
2 Neck meat - fantastic stew meat, especially off does, the meat around the windpipe is easy to strip off an really tender, with little to no fat/stringy stuff
3 Forearm, grinder
4 Learn how to shoot better an dont blow apart the shoulders

First off I wanna know who is realistically killing 20 deer in a night, an I know down south in places like South Carolina you can stack up some deer but 20, come on... even for a party hunt, that's a bit overkill. Maybe the unethical part is killing 20 in a night and deciding that pulling the trigger takes priority over respecting the animal an ensuring proper resource utilization.

Second, 180 grain bullet to drop a doe? No wonder you r blowing the shoulders apart. Cause I know your not dropping 20 hard rutting late season bucks in a night so I think you maybe be overcompensating just a wee bit. Every deer I killed with a riffle dropped just fine with a well placed 22-250 round. Again, maybe the unethical part is in the choice of round an weapon an how it is being utilized while in the field.

Your group kinda reminds me of the waterfowl hunters that go out an shoot 50 geese, then lazily cut out only the breasts an then throw away the best part in the legs/thighs which is about 40% of the overall muscle mass, all because it is to much work, an not worth the time.

 

[yoderjac]

I am not going to defend what I stated before but clarify my position. I do feel that the word "unethical" is a little strong to use for someone that leaves rib meat and neck meat on a carcass.

1. Rib meat waste of time.
2. Neck meat waste of time.
3. forearm meat. place in a bag for the grinder.
4. Front shoulders generally wasted because of a complete bloody mess because the deer has been shot with a rifle. complete waste of time.

What is left? That is unethical? I don't feel it is. Try and process 20 deer in a nite and tell me if you don't maybe leave the neck and toss the front shoulders because nothing is salvagable. Based upon me being around 1000's of deer shot with a 300 mag, 7mm STW, or 300 Weatherby. Generally the shell of choice is ballistic tips or Nosler Partitions for the group. I personally like the Ballistic tips while two of my friends use Partitions. We debate it for hours, but in a nutshell, the front shoulders are completely wasted on both. And most of the time there is no tracking. 300 Weatherby with a 180 grain ballistic tip and I am "unethical" for not saving front shoulders???

I think folks use the word unethical because ethics are a personal sense of what is right and what is wrong. As part of a community of hunters we need to respectfully share our ethical viewpoints with each other while recognizing that others in the community may have a different perspective than ours.

Is it ethical to just shoot a deer for the heck of it and just let it and let it lay saying "foxes will eat it"? I think most of us would say "of course not". Do we need to use absolutely every part of the deer we shoot to be ethical? I think most of us would say "of course not". Most would say that making every reasonable effort to recover a deer and make good practical use of it is ethical. "Reasonable effort" and "good practical use" are where we each individually need to draw our own ethical lines.

For me personally, the more use I can make of a deer, the better. When I choose to take the life of an animal, it is not a light decision. I personally need convince myself that the total value of the harvest is worth extinguishing the life of an animal. Using all of the deer I can is part of that equation for me.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Was trying to stay out of this one, but cant

1 Rib Meat - Fantastic, cut off the whole side of ribs, slow cook an render all the fat off, then grill at high temps an bbq, would never think about throwing away a set of ribs.
2 Neck meat - fantastic stew meat, especially off does, the meat around the windpipe is easy to strip off an really tender, with little to no fat/stringy stuff
3 Forearm, grinder
4 Learn how to shoot better an not blow apart the shoulders

First off I wanna know who is realistically killing 20 deer in a night, an I know down south in places like South Carolina you can stack up some deer but 20, come on... even for a party hunt, that's a bit overkill. Maybe the unethical part is killing 20 in a night and deciding that pulling the trigger takes priority over resource utilization.

Second, 180 grain bullet to drop a doe? No wonder you r blowing the shoulders apart. Cause I know your not dropping 20 hard rutting late season bucks in a night so I think you maybe be overcompensating just a wee bit. Every deer I killed with a riffle dropped just fine with a well placed 22-250 round. Again, maybe the unethical part is in the choice of round an weapon how it is being utilized while in the field.

You kinda remind of the waterfowl hunter that goes out an shoots 50 geese, then lazily cuts out only the breasts an the throws away the best part in the legs/thighs, all because it to much work, an not worth the time.

Well it was worth your time to go out an kill the animal, so show some respect back for the life you just took.

Just to complicate your argument a bit, I personally like a scapula shot. It does ruin some meat, however, the deer drops in its tracks and a well placed scapula shot ensures recovery. On the other hand, deer shot through the chest are generally killed by hydrostatic shot, but bullets can do funny things going through a chest cavity with no bone contact. On occasion, I've had deer run for quite a distance and live for quite a while. Depending on the shot angle, an exit would, if it occurs can be high. Blood trails can be minimal. Recovery is far from sure.

So, here is an ethical dilemma for you. Do you take a shot that destroys some meat but ensures recovery of the deer (provided the opportunity presents itself) or do you take a shot that destroys little if any meat but risks the deer expiring unrecovered?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Never lost a deer, so don't know that side of the argument.
Knock on wood

Choose not to shoot over a certain distance to ensure proper shot placement.
So I will take a double lung or head shot every time on a doe.

But again, when I am only allotted 1 tag every other year, I make the most of it.

 

[willy]

TrampledbyTurtles,
agree with all you said.

Red,
Some game wardens/officers would call what you do wanton waste. However, ethics aren't written law. Call it what you want. Everyone has their own ethics code they live/operate by. There is much in common with most people's ethics. You can disagree with mine, I can disagree with yours.

 

[yoderjac]

Never lost a deer, so don't know that side of the argument.

Also choose not to shoot over a certain distance to ensure proper shot placement.
So I will take a double lung or head shot every time on a doe.

But again, when I am only allotted 1 tag every other year, I make the most of it.

My point is simply that ethics are not usually black and white. There are various shades of grey. This makes me think twice before coming down too hard on folks who make different ethical choices than I do.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[trampledbyturtles]

My point is simply that ethics are not usually black and white. There are various shades of grey. This makes me think twice before coming down too hard on folks who make different ethical choices than I do.

Thanks,

Jack

Agree

I can see Reds end of the deal. Anyone would get sick of butchering 20 deer in a night an would be more than eager to just pitch a whole shoulder if it had globs of blood clot and slim build up on it. I just would not choose to put myself in that position even if we had the tags to fill.

A snow goose hunter is legally allowed to go out an kill his limit of snows. Only to pull up to his legal residence an throw them all straight into the dumpster. Again, to each his own, just not my bag.

 

[H20fwler]

We usually shoot five or six deer a year mostly with a bow, like I've said we try and get every ounce of meat off because I don't mind doing it, we like venison and the "scrap meat" can be used in lots of ways. We also save heart, liver and tongue...thinking about trying kidneys this year.

 

[yoderjac]

We usually shoot five or six deer a year mostly with a bow, like I've said we try and get every ounce of meat off because I don't mind doing it, we like venison and the "scrap meat" can be used in lots of ways. We also save heart, liver and tongue...thinking about trying kidneys this year.

Great suggestion. I've always liked cow's tongue but never tried deer tongue. I'm already pulling every jawbone for aging, so clipping out the tongue should be a breeze. I think I'll give that a try next deer!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Davewp]

bearded butchers on youtube have a great video, don't even have to gut to risk tainting the meat.