vabyrd

Let it hang for at least a day or two, cook it to medium rare. Biggest problem is people butchering the same day and over cooking it.

jrfrmn

I don't get this. Why do some people say deer taste like beef. How can a deer taste like beef. I would not want my deer to taste like beef. Venison, Ostrich, and Bison has 3 percent fat compared to 45 percent for beef of an equal portion. How can it taste like beef. I grew up in the Va mountains. I live in Illinois no and I have never had one taste like beef, but the one that did taste the best was an older buck that was corn fattened, but it still did not taste like beef. Now what does taste like beef is bison meat.

statjunk

I've killed lots of deer. Young and old. I've killed them in Michigan, Tennessee and now Virginia. The only time I've seen meat as red as the meat in the three deer I killed in Virginia was a grandpa buck that my cousin killed in Tennessee. He was a monster and at least 6 years old because my cousin was managing a 2700 acre parcel and had been watching this guy for years.

For the record, I'm a meat hunter and and excellent cook.

There is more to this story than "meats" the eye!

The only thing that I can point to that I did differently is that I butchered all the deer the same day. Though I have done this in the past I don't do it very often. The shocker for me was that the button buck was so red and so tough.

Any other theories?

Tom

VAhuntr

Is it possible that it was a slightlyolder buck that was injured or had it's antlers broken off when they were still in velvet?

statjunk

No way possible at all. Actually it wasn't that much bigger than a dog. I shot it at 134 yards in some light fog. It was the lead deer and we didn't have any meat on the table yet and it looked like the biggest one in the pack. I think it was an issue of relativeness. All the deer in the group were fawns and since this one was just a bit bigger I thought it was a nice sized doe.

So no, no chance it was a injured buck. It was definitely a button.

I'm seriously perplexed by this. Oh and I'm pretty sure that the other does I shot were older. Like 4.5 years. But even so I've taken some rather old does that weren't nearly this tough.

VA,

Do you hunt in areas that are literally all mountains? That is where I was at. West side of the Blue Ridge Mountains around the middle of the state. If you're familiar its in Bath county.

Tom

bigcountry

I know one thing. I grew up eating Eastern Ky, Western VA mountain deer. They live mostly on browse, and laurel. I moved to MD in 1996. And after eating soy bean and corn fed deer for the past 12 years, it woul be hard for me to go back to eating mountain deer. Acorns is actually on the biggest contributor to wild taste IMO.

statjunk

So it appears it's the feed. The bummer for me is I'm a meat hunter and if the deer are going to be this tough I don't think I'll be hunting in that area anymore. I need to see how the burger tastes. Hopefully it's edible. If that doesn't work I will see how the sausage goes. I've got around a 100 lbs of meat in the freezer right now.

BC,

There are bears in that area. Any idea if the bear meat is going to be pretty much the same way or should it be pretty consistent with other areas of the country.

Tom

bigcountry

I am not a bear hunter or bear meat fan. All of it tastes the same to me.

The big thing is to let the meat hang for at least 30 hours, or until rigormortis is gone.

My family makes a bunch of crockpot dishes and stews, so we don't mind tough.

I can tell a difference in the meat from my home area, but what you are describing is pretty odd. Deer do have to stay more lean and active there, but a buttonbuck shouldn't be tough.

I think some of your issues maybe this time of year. Most does and some bucks have a bunch of tough fat on them.