Originally Posted by
ratherbefishin
Worst tasting deer I ever had should have been the best,I shot a nice fat fork blacktail buck early in the morning on opening day in September,but went back to get my wife to help me drag it back up to the road.The kids were still sleeping so by the time we got them up,fed them breakfast and the went back to get my buck,a couple of hours had passed.
The buck had just started to bloat a bit and I cleaned it and got it back to the truck....by this time it was getting quite warm outside.Seeing some huckleberries,we stopped to pick them and finally got home after lunch,where I hung the deer and then butchered it. That was the worst,strongest tasting buck I ever had,and it should have been prime-had I gutted it right away,kept it cool and got the hide off as soon as possible(which is what I do now)But I was a young guy ,hadn't shot a ot of deer and unlike most of the bucks I shot later in the season when it was cooler didn't realize how important it was to get them bled,cleaned cooled down and get the hide off when it was warm.
funny,one of the best tasting deer we ever had was a big 4 point muley in full rut,shot him up in Savona in November , he stank something awful,but it was cold,snow on the ground,I gutted and hung him in a tree for a couple of days then drove back home to the island,hung him for about 10 days(it was cold) and then butchered him- best venison we ever had...