Benefits of Cooling Antelope

[madtom]

I feel like antelope aren’t tough no matter if I age them or not. Aging absolutely helps elk meat be less tough (in my mind).

 

[brockel]

I’ve shot them in 90 degrees during bow season and cut them up right away and I’ve shot them in 30 degrees and let them hang a week. I guess I’m not good enough to tell the difference

 

[thusby]

I’ve shot them in 90 degrees during bow season and cut them up right away and I’ve shot them in 30 degrees and let them hang a week. I guess I’m not good enough to tell the difference

I’ve been attempting to distinguish one bourbon from another for about 19 years now too.

 

[Mnbogboy]

Certainly a thought provoking thread.

Only remember one antelope that we carted out in the morning, got it hung within two hours, skinned, cooled for 12 hours & butchered. It was just as tender as the ones I skin in the field, debone in the field, get on ice within an hour or how ever long it takes to pack them out. The large chunks of deboned meat are cooled in a small freezer for 6 to 8 hours and then cut up in meal sized servings, vacuum packed and back into the freezer they go.
I certainly would try to cool & age them as some suggest but most times on solo hunts and often a mile or more from camp my only option is to bone them. Even antelope quarters are too heavy for this crippled up old man...lol.
My solo hunt this year will probably have me doing the same, unless the weather is cool/cold.
Antelope is the only "wild game" my wife likes, it is my favorite, round steak cuts with a fork. While only been hunting them for a little over 10 years I'm certainly no expert if I can make them even better I certainly will try.
Good subject....1 month to go!!

 

[1100RemingtonMan]

I have noticed a difference in the taste of some Antelope to better than Prime Rib to rank.
We have always just field dressed and hung in the shade.
I will start cooling them sooner in the future. Thank

 

[Cornell Cowboy]

I've mostly hunted antelope in the Red Desert for nearly 30 years and have killed dozens. I've killed them anywhere from the opening day of archery season (August 15) through early October. I've always just gutted them quickly and loaded them in the back of the pickup--I've never had a cooler with me, the earliest that I've skinned one was late on the night after I've killed it, and I've never had a bad tasting one. I guess I might just be fortunate, but I'm going to stick with what has worked for me for many years.

 

[wyoboypt]

I've mostly hunted antelope in the Red Desert for nearly 30 years and have killed dozens. I've killed them anywhere from the opening day of archery season (August 15) through early October. I've always just gutted them quickly and loaded them in the back of the pickup--I've never had a cooler with me, the earliest that I've skinned one was late on the night after I've killed it, and I've never had a bad tasting one. I guess I might just be fortunate, but I'm going to stick with what has worked for me for many years.

You and me both. And most of mine have been killed in hot weather also.

 

[matechakeric]

I am going to cover this again. Those who disagree, please be respectful in your disagreement because I do have biological evidence available to post to show it. There are benefits to cooling antelope as soon as you can.

The mean body temperature of pronghorn antelope is 42.1 celcus or 106.16 farenheight. Evidence here: https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/56/3/698/848965?redirectedFrom=PDF
There are many other studies online that substantiate this.

When an antelope senses a threat and runs or chasing competitors off, the core temperature rises. In addition to that, antelopes' adrenal glands pump epinephrine, more commonly known as adrenalin into the blood stream and muscles. This gives the antelope a short term burst of energy that allows them to run at high speeds and for longer distances. This also affects the taste of the meat and the burn off of energy causes the body temperature to warm substantially. This is also why I will never shoot a running antelope. My preferred targets are resting antelope in the early morning and later in the afternoon. I will take a bedded antelope in a heartbeat.

Just at a resting situation, the 106.16 temperature of a pronghorn equates to a very high fever for us humanoids. So does antelope quickly have any benefit? I say it does. The warmer the meat is, the quicker it begins to rot. Some people have never experienced meat based food poisoning from antelope they carried arround in the back of their pickup for a couple hours. I have, four time and it aint purty. Randy's episode on dysentery is a mild example of what I went through.

Hints I would suggest to cool antelope if you can't hang it in the shade as soon as possible :

• Gut it asap. If you need an explanation of why, talk to a butcher or biologist.
• Remove the hide. The hide holds in heat and there are glands in the fat under the skin that affect how well the meat will taste. Cover it with a full size game bag to protect it from flies and insects.
• Keep it out of sunlight. No explanation needed.

I do not recommend deboning until after the rigor phase has passed and you can flex the leg muscles freely. If you can cool the carcass down as a whole carcass or even halves that is better than quartering and deboning. If you debone too soon, the meat is going to want to contract and it will be tougher and more grissly than you may want. By cooling as soon as possible, I prefer to do it immediately. That is me. I have a huge cooler I can put a whole carcass in. I remove the hide, put it in a game back, and into the cooler with frozen 1 liter soda bottles on top. I also put some of these jugs in the body cavity. Once I get it home, I hang it in an insulated shed out of the sun.

Now, if I had a late season antelope license where I can hunt in November/December time frame, all I would do is gut and skin the animal and put it into a game bag. The temp then is cold to freezing so cooling is achieved just by skinning and gutting.

Now I realize some will jump on the bandwagon that they do it different. That is cool. This is the way I do it and I am willing to do a side by side taste testing some day to prove it. Once of them challenging is going to happen at my elk hunt. I will post the results. In this case, someone said they won't eat antelope because it is way too gamey. I will prove them wrong just by doing what I suggest here.

thanks for this info. so you definitely would not go gutless method on these guys then?

 

[WyoDoug]

thanks for this info. so you definitely would not go gutless method on these guys then?

First, there is nothing wrong with doing the gutless method. I personally will not do the gutless method because I prefer to recover the heart and liver and you really have to gut the critter to do that. It's also easier for me to pull the tenderloins if I gut the animal. Just a personal preference. I still recommend cooling the antelope as quick as you can especially during the rut and when temps are above 45 degrees or so. Internal body temp on antelope especially when they are running or in the rut is already high, so sooner you cool that down the better off you are. When antelope is running or fighting during the rut, epinephrine (adrenlin) is pumped into the muscles which raises the internal temp some which is a reason I do not shoot running antelope. This is a natural function in antelope which enables them to run fast for long distances. If you do shoot a fighting or running antelope, I recommend getting the hide off and carcass on ice at first opportunity.

 

[shrapnel]

The main reason I would see that cooling an antelope is an issue would be the ambient temperature when the animal was shot. Usually antelope are hunted in warmer weather than deer and elk, but it isn’t any more critical to cool an antelope than a deer or elk.

Cooling is the most important aspect of keeping any animal from spoiling. Cleaning is important as well, sloppy gutting and dirt/debris will ruin meat too.

I would bet there is more meat spoiled in elk when they don’t cool well enough due to their mass and the lack of heat loss in the upper neck/shoulder area. In a nutshell, cooling is important no matter what the game is.

 

[WyoDoug]

The main reason I would see that cooling an antelope is an issue would be the ambient temperature when the animal was shot. Usually antelope are hunted in warmer weather than deer and elk, but it isn’t any more critical to cool an antelope than a deer or elk.

Cooling is the most important aspect of keeping any animal from spoiling. Cleaning is important as well, sloppy gutting and dirt/debris will ruin meat too.

I would bet there is more meat spoiled in elk when they don’t cool well enough due to their mass and the lack of heat loss in the upper neck/shoulder area. In a nutshell, cooling is important no matter what the game is.

There is a huge difference here but you are right in general. Deer and elk are generally hunted in October - December when weather cools significantly as a rule. Ambient temperature during that time ranges between 60 down to below freezing depending on where you hunt. I start hunting antelope in August when the temps still hover around 90 sometimes. It's important first to field dress your kill immediately regardless of what it is because the first part of the animal that starts spoiling is the abdominal area which is why you see bloating with roadkill. Immediately after a kill, the animal actually starts decomposition at the state of autolysis where the body releases chemicals and proteins that begin to break tissue down into simpler components. Next stage is putrefaction where internal bacteria starts working which is where you see bloating. Once it reaches that stage, the bacteria is in the meat and no good. At this stage the bacteria releases cadaverine and putrescine which emits that unmistakable odor of putrefaction.

Pros on removing hide as soon as you can:

• Cools the meat quicker
• Stops oils and enzymes in the skin and backfat from breaking down the meat and spoiling it (this takes a while so not an immediate priority)
• Less hair contamination

Cons against removing the hide as soon as you can:

• Meat dries out sooner
• Longer meat hangs without the hide, the thicker the layer of dry crusty meat you have to trim off.
• Helps keep insects off the meat

The most critical part is dressing the carcass immediately. Cooling the meat is next and that depends on the ambient temperature a quite a bit. When I am hunting in near freezing weather, I don't remove the hide on deer and antelope. On elk I do because of the muscle mass they have. I ice any antelope or deer I shoot in the fall when ambient temps hang above 60 most of the day. I never hunted elk in the special archery season yet so most of my elk hunting has been in October-November timeframe where icing does not really provide a lot of benefit. Icing to cool your meat is not an absolute critical thing to do, but cooling the meat quickly does pay off in my opinion. If you have access to running water cleaning the body cavity will help cool the meat down on top of cleaning out contaminants and just might be enough to cool the meat sufficiently.

 

[BuzzH]

Old wives tales die hard...probably need mtmuley's 300 RUM to kill them, the old wives tales, not the pronghorn.

 

[thusby]

If its hot out, don't leave the carcass in the sun. Check.

 

[Bob-WY]

I do gutless on pronghorn. Then to get the tenderloins, I slice open the cavity and pick it up and shake it like a big rabbit (won't weigh much without the hide, quarters and back straps! Then get the tenderloins - can't stand liver and you can easily grab the heart this way too!

 

[JustinsDad]

I’m new at Pronghorn. My kid and I each got one this year. We got it dressed quickly (the old fashion way) hung it for a week and cut and wrapped it. I must say it’s absolutely delicious. Love grilling 1” chunks of it on the griddle w a little salt, pepper and garlic. Great meat!

 

[shrapnel]

I’m new at Pronghorn. My kid and I each got one this year. We got it dressed quickly (the old fashion way) hung it for a week and cut and wrapped it. I must say it’s absolutely delicious. Love grilling 1” chunks of it on the griddle w a little salt, pepper and garlic. Great meat!

You mean that you didn’t skin it immediately? How could it be any good if you didn’t skin it immediately?

Old wives tales die hard...probably need mtmuley's 300 RUM to kill them, the old wives tales, not the pronghorn.

 

[madtom]

Old wives tales die hard...probably need mtmuley's 300 RUM to kill them, the old wives tales, not the pronghorn.

We need two rounds of 300 RUM. One for the wives tale and one for this thread.

 

[JustinsDad]

You mean that you didn’t skin it immediately? How could it be any good if you didn’t skin it immediately?

No, I wasn’t clear—my bad. I immediately gutted it, propped the cavity open with a stick to air cool it while we celebrated with a cold one. Carried it back to the truck, threw it in the ice chest w some cold bottles of water and sodas on it and drove back to camp. Then skinned it and hung it in refrigerator for a week. I don’t really like messing with gutless unless it’s a really long pack out. It was pretty cool weather. Here it is airing out.

 

[shrapnel]

No, I wasn’t clear—my bad. I immediately gutted it, propped the cavity open with a stick to air cool it while we celebrated with a cold one. Carried it back to the truck, threw it in the ice chest w some cold bottles of water and sodas on it and drove back to camp. Then skinned it and hung it in refrigerator for a week. I don’t really like messing with gutless unless it’s a really long pack out. It was pretty cool weather. Here it is airing out.View attachment 166731

Sorry, that was tongue in cheek. The urgency to skin antelope is the old wives tale...

 

[WyoDoug]

With regards to skinning, there is no true urgency but there are pros and cons with equal compelling arguments on both sides. I skin and quarter myself and put it all in bags and into coolers when I am hunting in the August timeframe. I do not skin or quarter deer or elk because I shoot those in the October to November time frame until I get home. I do not skin or quarter antelope with type 6 tags if I shoot them after October when it is cool. With antelope I am close to home and hang them up and hose them out. That is sufficient to cool them down so I don't quarter and put them in coolers and I skin right before butchering.

The cons of it I don't like is that skin comes off a whole lot easier if you do it right away rather than after the carcass has cooled. If I skin at the kill site where I got access to a tree, I get the skin started and then tie the hide to my bumper and use my pickup to pull it off in one shot.

With elk and moose, the meat mass is so big that the pros of skinning as soon as you can are very compelling arguments. The conditions under which the animal was killed and what kind of stress the animal was under prior to getting shot plays into how fast the meat spoils if not cooled down. Are people that don't skin wrong? I say no, especially if they hang it in a cool spot out of the sun. But my preference remains with skinning the animals immediately. The cons to what I do is increased dry meat I have to peel off.

But as far as urgency in getting the hide off for antelope, that is perception and personal preference. There are pros and cons with equally compelling arguments on both sides.