Hunting season

[Tanner]

But has anyone eaten a bear? That is all I want to know..

Yep. It's VERY greasy. I like alot of wild game, but bear is not one I care for. I think alot of it has to do w/ their diet. If you get a bear that hasn't eaten much meat, then the flavor isn't as tinted, as one that has.

My other least fav. is pronghorns. Very gamey tasting... and I hate throwing that word around. Although I've discovered that pronghorns, Oryx, and Nilgai make the BEST roll-ups.

[dingleberry]

My other least fav. is pronghorns.

Yeah, generally the smaller the animal, the more gamey it tastes. Pronghorn is the worst, deer is next, then elk, and moose is the best meat. However, diet and activity level also have big effects on taste. I've never tried caribou or any exotics, though.

[Tanner]

See, I don't think deer is gamey at all! But I think alot of it has to do w/ how you cook it. I take the back straps and grill it just like a steak, and you can barely taste the diff. between that and beef. If you wanna get creative, wrap some bacon around it.

Diet def. has alot of effect on it like you said. A friend of mine from Nebraska said our OK white tails taste diff. than the white tails where he's from. I think it's all in his head...haha. He says our have a "twinge" to it. Not sure what that means...lol.

I do know this much... South TX whitetails are a B*tchhhhh to knock down compared to anywhere else. I can take a .25/06 and knock down a white tail here or in KS, even mulie's in NM, and drop them dead in their tracks. I've almost lost 2 big bucks on the king ranch w/ the same cartridge. Had to bring in a dog to find one.... both perfect heart shots too. I don't get it. Coincidentally I now shoot a .270 WBY on just about everything but the biggest of game. due to those last fiasco's.

[Tequilasun]

I agree, deer from other areas taste different. Even from northen mo, where they eat more corn and here, where acorns are their thing.

Mule deer are my least fav, I think it has to do with the sage they eat. That might be something that was seeded un my brain long ago though.

Another huge factor is the skill of the field dressing, getting it cold quickly and what not. However, I've found soaking the cuts in some milk, or butter milk will take most if the gamey out. Oils acentuate the wild taste too. So marinating in olive oil will usually make it taste wilder.

For tougher deer cuts I soak in milk for a couple hours, bread and fry them. Mmmmm good. But I usually font have much left after I make venison chilli a couple of times.

Some of the best "hamburgers" ive ever had were made with elk.

[dingleberry]

I do know this much... South TX whitetails are a B*tchhhhh to knock down compared to anywhere else. I can take a .25/06 and knock down a white tail here or in KS, even mulie's in NM, and drop them dead in their tracks. I've almost lost 2 big bucks on the king ranch w/ the same cartridge. Had to bring in a dog to find one.... both perfect heart shots too. I don't get it. Coincidentally I now shoot a .270 WBY on just about everything but the biggest of game. due to those last fiasco's.

My dad and I popped up on a muley one time, we were on the top of a ridgeline and it was down at the bottom. We each took two shots at it with .30/06's before the thing dropped...it just kept standing there looking around while we took the first three shots. As we walked down to it, we were moaning about our bad marksmanship to miss it three times. When we got to the body, we found that it had three entrance wounds on one side of the chest, and three exit wounds on the opposite side. That meant that SOB was still standing after at least two perfect heart/lung shots before it fell. At least we felt better that only one shot had actually missed.

[Kito]

Elk is one of my fav. to eat. If Mules didn't have horns on them I would never hunt them. I think they taste like chit. The only thing I do with them is make sausage and jerkey. Im going on a Bison hunt sometime in Nov. and that should be amazing meat to eat. Im gonna shoot a yearling and that will make it even better. A yearling still weighs 700-800 lbs. Ive sold half of it already since Im sure we cant eat the entire thing. Bear can be "ok" to eat. My experience is the best thing to do is make sausage and it will taste great, otherwise you will never know what you get until you try it.