nickjandrews
Well-Known Member
Depends on if it's during the rut or not. That old myth about cow s being better is just that. Getting the meat cooled quickly is by far the most important thing. As long as it's not during the rut!
Help me judge this AZ bull
- Thread starter Mogollon Hunter
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I killed my 7x7 herd bull during the rut. He ate great. It's all about keeping your hands off the meat while dressing and skinning him and then getting him cooled ASAP. Anyways…. Applies to Antelope as well.
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ajkellerusmc
Well-Known Member
Tagging in from Woods Canyon Lake 4A/4B
Wisconsinvette
Well-Known Member
If you dont want to kill him and he is in 23 let me know. 
Stonyman88
Well-Known Member
Did you post a photo of him?
Stonyman88
Well-Known Member
Sorry, went back a page and saw the monster, what a big pig he sure is. Keep us posted when you ground check him!!!
nickjandrews
Well-Known Member
I think it applies to all game meat, get it skinned and cooled as quickly as possible. Don't cut the bladder, intestines, stomach when gutting, obviously and try to keep it off the dirt. We started carrying those free harbor fright tarps that are like 6x7. Put one down and keep the meat clean. Toughest elk was the first one I killed, because it took us 8 hours to get it to the truck in pieces, and we didn't have ice ready.
On our oryx (gemsbok) hunts on WSMR (and near, my first was actually off range, but still on Oscura bombing range area, last one was in the San Adres Wildlife Refuge) we took a lot of bags of ice to stuff inside the animal as soon as we got it into the truck. Some of those depredation hunts were in very, very warm months, even August. Gotta hail them off govt land before you can skin, but you gut them right where they fall. And oryx are by far the most difficult animal I've gutted. It's like they fight you at every turn and every organ attached to the rib cage, thick diaphragm, and all. A mule deer practically guts itself after that. I read that there are wild self-sustaining herds of scimitar oryx here in TX now...
I've never been drawn for pronghorn, but my Dad killed a couple and they were actually better than mule deer. But I hear people form Wyoming and Montana say they are nasty and will not eat them, maybe from the sagebrush?
Our ranking from worst to best is mulie, pronghorn, elk, oryx. Not much for whitetail in NM except those little tiny Coues deer in the Gila we would see sometimes while hunting elk. But they are moving in, and a couple deer we killed about 10 years ago down by the border west of Deming looked like mulie/WT hybrids.
lancetkenyon
Well-Known Member
Come on! Opening morning and almost 3 hours into the season and no photos yet? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Seriously, I have already heard from 3 guys with bulls on the ground.
Seriously, I have already heard from 3 guys with bulls on the ground.
Cooling #1, #2 KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE MEAT OF ANY RUTTING ANIMAL. Change gloves and constantly wash hands while skinning if need to touch the meat. I know this is hard to do sometimes but it's critical to try and limit touching the meat. I've seen guys touching meat all over the animal as they've been skinning it. Don't!!!!
A properly taken care of Antelope is the Veal of Wildgame IMO.
A properly taken care of Antelope is the Veal of Wildgame IMO.
nickjandrews
Well-Known Member
We've always rifle hunted, so not during rut. But with changing weather patterns and such... And we have started putting in for some ML hunts for better luck, so will keep that in mind about not touching it.
Frank in the Laurels
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I've harvested 100's of big game animals in every season and touched all of them, never had a single issue concerning taste or meat quality...always gutted them immediately and kept the chest and abdomen wide open from -17 to 50 something degrees, but I could never agree with never touching the meat...
ajkellerusmc
Well-Known Member
Skin and debone where the animal falls (Alaskan Method) is how you get the meat temperature to drop as fast as possible. Trying to load up a whole animal or just gutting it is not going to help unless the air temp is below freezing. When an animal dies respiration stops and body temp climbs and bone sours the meat. You have to get the hide open and debone here in the southwest to have that fine sweet meat that you want. I know this from leaving the hide on and spoiling meat doing it the eastern hunters method, my father and uncle did this with whitetails when I was growing up and the meat was awful. When I learned the alaskan method this all changed, I have not had a bad animal since with the exception of a Bull Elk in rut.
Plinker147
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Ok back to Elk hunting not meat care. We are Waiting for pictures ..........impatiently..........
Mogollon Hunter
Well-Known Member
Here's your pictures, sorry I've been holding out on you guys but I didn't want to show this bull until he was down. Been watching him since the day after I started this thread. We were set up to hunt this bull this morning and found him pretty early. He was at the top of the ridge for the first time since I've been watching him, mixing it up with a good 6x. We were happy to wait for him to come back down and into range but before that happened another hunter topped out on the ridge and lucked into a bull of a lifetime at likely less than 100yds. Watched them packing him out during the afternoon and got rained out so we went and intercepted them on the road so we could look at him close up. To my eyes it looks like that bull has to hit 390. It stings to watch someone else kill an animal you've put time into. Tomorrow morning we'll likely go check on that spot again depending on conditions. There were other good bulls in there.
