Proper Meat Care for Antelope

[wyoboypt]

I gut mine and throw it in the back whole. Then to the processor by the end of the day or the next morning. I’ve never had a gamey antelope. Steaks are always excellent. Anyone who says you have to skin it immediately blah blah blah etc., doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

For those of you who’ve had bad experiences, you had one that was not gutted cleanly, the meat wasn’t kept clean, it was allowed to heat back up after the meat cooled, or your cook doesn’t know what they’re doing. IMHO.
Again, I’ve never had a gamey antelope.

 

[Dinkshooter]

So to those who don't skin, debone and get on ice or cool immediately/asap.......................... would you go to the store, buy 20lbs of burger wrap it in leather and let it sit in the back of your truck all day long during typical Wyoming lope hunting conditions, then eat it that night?

 

[onpoint]

Yeah I've taken a lotta' antelope blah blah blah.
So I qualify as a qualifier.
In temps ranging high 20's to low 90's, ranging a 100 yds from the truck to 3 miles from the truck - I do it the same every time:
No gut surgically remove the 1/4's leaving hide on/bone in, the backstraps, the loins, any salvageable neck meat. All goes in game bags and get packed out on the pack frame.
At the truck all goes into very large waiting cooled cooler containing a few 1 gallon frozen jugs, leaving space for circulation of cool air.
At camp all gets hung out at night, in MT vast majority of eves during past RIFLE seasons have experienced temps in the mid 40's or so (or lower). Hanging is fine. Few warmer seasons - all kept in cooler.
At final prep and packaging time - never had "bone sour", hair contamination, nasty odored meat, or any other meat ailments.
And as for the shooting the antelope which have "been run"? I guess my experience counters the "running makes 'em taste bad" thing. Having ate wonderful antelope meat from a bucks I have glassed running a couple miles before I pulled the trigger on 'em. As a species, they have evolved running.
Antelope is THE favorite on our table.
That's the way I do it, works everytime, or else I'm lying.
Don't care how others do it nor if they claim to have the "correct" method. Work's for them - great for them.
An interesting aside - in MUCH warmer climates allover the world people handle game meat way grosser than anyone on this forum in way warmer temps and have been doing it those ways for longer than there have been North American modern hunters.
Dogma..................................

 

[sbhooper]

Anybody that likes to use commercial processors, for that little bit of antelope meat, needs to drive by the processor in Lusk, Wyoming, and see all of the deer and antelope thrown out on the ground in piles. Disgusting and filthy. It is your meat, but it is soooo easy to just bone it out in the field and put it on ice. I bone it out, throw it in a pack and it goes right into a cooler, after returning to the truck. Unless you are a road hunter, it is no fun to drag an antelope for a mile to the truck.

 

[NEWHunter]

I shot an antelope- it was excellent.

 

[jtm307]

...buy 20lbs of burger wrap it in leather and let it sit in the back of your truck all day long during typical Wyoming lope hunting conditions, then eat it that night...

I might have to try that.

 

[WyoDoug]

Anybody that likes to use commercial processors, for that little bit of antelope meat, needs to drive by the processor in Lusk, Wyoming, and see all of the deer and antelope thrown out on the ground in piles. Disgusting and filthy. It is your meat, but it is soooo easy to just bone it out in the field and put it on ice. I bone it out, throw it in a pack and it goes right into a cooler, after returning to the truck. Unless you are a road hunter, it is no fun to drag an antelope for a mile to the truck.

I have seen what Crow Creek did to my meat so I now do my own processing and help anyone that doesn’t know how to do their own.

 

[Gr8bawana]

So to those who don't skin, debone and get on ice or cool immediately/asap.......................... would you go to the store, buy 20lbs of burger wrap it in leather and let it sit in the back of your truck all day long during typical Wyoming lope hunting conditions, then eat it that night?

Mmmm...burger tar-tar ish

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I'm kind of surprised people even bother gutting antelope anymore. Quick quartering them is so easy.

 

[Toban204]

I'm kind of surprised people even bother gutting antelope anymore. Quick quartering them is so easy.

I’ve never tried the gutless method, but I’m pretty sure that’s what we’ll do this fall. For people who have done this, how hard is it to get the tenderloins out?

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I’ve never tried the gutless method, but I’m pretty sure that’s what we’ll do this fall. For people who have done this, how hard is it to get the tenderloins out?

It isn't hard. Just go in behind the last rib and carefully cut throught the skin. Watch out for the stomach. A sharp knife is helpful. The tenderloin will be right there. With antelope you can almost just work the tenderloin free with your hand. Once you have one side removed, flip the carcass over and do the same on the other side. I would remove these last.

 

[JM77]

So to those who don't skin, debone and get on ice or cool immediately/asap.......................... would you go to the store, buy 20lbs of burger wrap it in leather and let it sit in the back of your truck all day long during typical Wyoming lope hunting conditions, then eat it that night?

Come on Dink, while this is funny, it's not a fair comparison. When you put a gutted antelope in the truck is has started to cool already, but it's not 34 degrees cool to start with.

We never pack them around unskinned for very long(2-3 hours), but make sure the are opened up all the way so they keep aired out good. They get skinned out back in town and we never have anything but great antelope meat. Forty years and I have never skinned, quartered or iced in the field. They are gutted immediately. This notion that an animal immediately begins to spoil unless it's cooled or iced at the kill site is ridiculous. That said, there is nothing wrong with doing that if you so choose.

 

[WyoDoug]

My issue with gutless method is I like both the liver and heart. It's easier to me to pull them out with the guts pulled out.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

My issue with gutless method is I like both the liver and heart. It's easier to me to pull them out with the guts pulled out.

Yeah I suppose if you are an organ eater the gutless method isn't the best approach. I didn't think about that as I rarely, if ever, keep the organs.

 

[sbhooper]

You can easily open the body up and get the organs. No big deal, but the quarters and back straps are removed and out of the way. It is a non-issue, issue. Everybody can do whatever they want, but I can see no reason to haul hide and bones around with me and then get rid of the them later, when all of the that garbage can be left in the field. It takes me very little time to completely de-bone an antelope and put it in a pack.

 

[Straight Arrow]

So to those who don't skin, debone and get on ice or cool immediately/asap.......................... would you go to the store, buy 20lbs of burger wrap it in leather and let it sit in the back of your truck all day long during typical Wyoming lope hunting conditions, then eat it that night?

Great analogy! My older brother, an avid pronghorn hunter, once told me to treat the downed antelope as though you have no tag and the game warden is coming over the hill. Skin, clean, and hide the meat under ice in the cooler immediately. Although I always ensure I have the proper tag, that is the wild game meat treatment I employ. Antelope table fare is now my wife's favorite ... and she grew up in Wyoming where her brothers brought home antelope meat she says was "rotten".

 

[Straight Arrow]

BTW, as I have previously offered on this forum as trivia, the closest species to the pronghorn antelope is the giraffe ... not the goat.

 

[WyoDoug]

You can easily open the body up and get the organs. No big deal, but the quarters and back straps are removed and out of the way. It is a non-issue, issue. Everybody can do whatever they want, but I can see no reason to haul hide and bones around with me and then get rid of the them later, when all of the that garbage can be left in the field. It takes me very little time to completely de-bone an antelope and put it in a pack.

Right on point. It's a personal choice really. Personally, I do not haul home what I know I am throwing away. I quarter and partially debone right at the kill site then finish deboning at camp. This year I plan to use the bones as a bait site for mountain lion that have been spotted in my hunting area.

I also like to keep the ribs which are really great with my favorite rub and bbq. I remove the brisket bone first then cut the ribs off right at the backbone. Another reason I won't do the gutless method. There is a lot of meat on the ribs that many people throw away.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

This year I plan to use the bones as a bate site for mountain lion that have been spotted in my hunting area.

Its illegal to use any part of a game animal as bait in Wyoming, and its illegal to bait mountain lion, just FYI.

 

[WyoDoug]

Its illegal to use any part of a game animal as bait in Wyoming, and its illegal to bait mountain lion, just FYI.

However, it is not illegal to leave the gut pile and bones at the kill site. Nothing in the law says you can't then watch that gut pile to see what feeds on it. You also may want to read your brochure on bear and mountain lion.

First, you are allowed to bait bear with a permit in areas not expressly prohibited with a baiting permit and you have to register the site in advance of hunting.

Second, use of dogs and watching kill sites and observing the tracks around them is one of the best ways to find mountain lion. Common method of tracking down mountain lion is to locate fresh kill sites with tracks and track them down. That is allowed. That might be a gut pile from your deer or elk. There is nothing in the law that says you can't use what the law allowed you to leave behind to hunt mountain lion. Nothing says you can't watch viscera and bones you or others leave at a kill site to see what is feeding on it. According to the game warden I talked to for that area, that is not considered baiting.

Conversely, there are quirks in the law. Nothing says you can't set up on a corn pile you use to feed your cattle with and wait for that nice buck to come in. That corn pile is there for ordinary agricultural use. Nothing says you can't set up on a haystack you have been seeing deer come in on. That I did many times.