Does rutting buck meat taste worse?

[RiverRat00]

What do you all think of the above, if it does how do you get rid of taste or how do you prepare it?

[PlanoDano]

I cannot tell the difference, except I find the roast on old bucks tougher. Younger does and spikes are the best to me for cooking roast. It all taste the same in Kielbasa and jerky.

[Bowdark]

Not if you treat it right.

Me, personally I do a 3 day soak in salty ice water on bucks. Then dry age for another 3 days. Then cut it up/process.

[Tbuddyandroby]

YES, send it all to me... I’m kidding...
No, I’ve never noticed or heard of it tasting any different.

[PlanoDano]

Not if you treat it right.

Me, personally I do a 3 day soak in salty ice water on bucks. Then dry age for another 3 days. Then cut it up/process.

I soak also but do the same for all.

[toledo]

I have definitely seen bucks that should be thrown away. Biggest buck ive killed, peak of the rut, you could smell him from 10 yards away. I ground it with 10% beef fat and you couldn't eat it, added 1/4 73% lean beef and you still couldn't eat it.

Until that deer, I wouldn't have believed it but once you experience it, you'll know it.

I know someone that has had the exact same experience with a buck in the hill country.

[cpatterson]

Not if you treat it right.

Me, personally I do a 3 day soak in salty ice water on bucks. Then dry age for another 3 days. Then cut it up/process.

https://m.facebook.com/notes/bourgeois-meat-market/hunters-stop-soaking-your-deer-meat-in-ice-water/1075958399180245/

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[glen]

Yep. It’s like any critter. Elk get it bad. Young bucks are fine but 7 yr old will eat like an old buck

[JonBoy]

I have definitely seen bucks that should be thrown away. Biggest buck ive killed, peak of the rut, you could smell him from 10 yards away. I ground it with 10% beef fat and you couldn't eat it, added 1/4 73% lean beef and you still couldn't eat it.

Until that deer, I wouldn't have believed it but once you experience it, you'll know it.

I know someone that has had the exact same experience with a buck in the hill country.

This!!! I've killed dozens of deer and have only had one that was inedible...he happens to be the buck in my avatar and is the largest bodied buck I've every seen or killed. Rutted up bad and I could smell him long before I came up on him. It permeated all the meat and no amount of soaking in anything could fix it. It was gross...dogs wouldn't really touch it.

[brokeno]

Yep. about 40 years ago my dad said we needed to make sausage. So I drove down out county road and there was an old buck running a doe. I shot him out the truck window and he had been rutting and stunk really like ****. We dressed him and made sausage. The sausage stunk so bad we couldn't eat it. So yes old rutting bucks taste different just like deer taste different according to what they had been eating.

[S-3 Ranch]

Yep. It’s like any critter. Elk get it bad. Young bucks are fine but 7 yr old will eat like an old buck

Yep, older animals taste different unless you water log them in ice chest

[Artos]

I can't tell any difference but mine stay in the cooler for 2-3 weeks.

[Native Texan]

Stinky gamey buck meat is usually a result of contamination during the skinning process. The tarsal glands of a rutting buck are loaded with a potent oily musky secretion and urine, and care must be taken that it never gets on the meat. I've seen guys leave them on the legs and carefully skin and gut the deer, only to spray down the carcass with water and rinse the glands out...and let the contaminated water run down on the meat. Sometimes they get it on their hands or knife and don't wash it off before continuing the job.

[Snowflake Killa]

Like women

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[DWA]

Bad information never water log meat. That is just nasty. Goes against everything that ive ever been shown or taught. It creates a breeding ground nasty bacteria. I will take them and set them on top of ice and let them bleed out for 3 or 4 or 7 days but always keep them out of the water. Then i will dry hang em in a fridge i have. And when you cut it up the only part that has been exposed will be trimmed off. I chaulk that up to an east texas thing. Right up there with riding around with a buck in the bed of the pickup for a week showing it off. Then taking it in to get processed. NATIVECTEXAN has it right about alot coming from people not understanding that the tarsals are nasty business.