Proper Meat Care for Antelope

[madtom]

This great thread made it to 100 posts! Great work everyone, let’s get to 200.

 

[mtmuley]

200 posts on how to care for an antelope? Didn't need 100. mtmuley

 

[madtom]

200 posts on how to care for an antelope? Didn't need 100. mtmuley

That's what I was trying to imply.

 

[shoots-straight]

Kill lope, Ice jugs, butcher, eat. My addition to get to 200 posts.

 

[cgarner]

Kill it, cool it in whichever manner blows your skirt up, eat it and enjoy.

 

[hillstone]

I seen Randy stress this in his videos yet I see hunters carrying a freshly harvested antelope around in the backs of their pickups. Antelope that has been resting has a high internal body temperature of 101.84 degrees Farenheight. That temperature rises when they are running. Antelope have the ability to raise and lower temperature by raising and lowering the hairs on their bodies. So those temperatures are very damaging to the meat on a carcass being carried in a pickup bed.

Antelope really should be quartered and/or deboned and the meat put in coolers full of ice. You really want to cool antelope immediately. Get the hide off as fast as possible, quarter it out and get it cooled. I use large cookers full of soda bottles that I filled full of water and froze. Place the ice on top of the meat with the drain plug open. Those of you who wondered why your antelope tastes so strong, this is usually why.

The other reason antelope tastes strong is when they are running, a hormone called epinephrine, commonly known as Adrenalin is secreted into antelope blood and helps to increase blood flow and oxygen retention. This is why antelope can run for such long distances. I prefer to shoot a rested antelope. I will never shoot an antelope that has been run hard. Just my preference. I like to ambush antelope in their bed. Some call that not sporty. I call that smart hunting because the meat is relatively cooler and not so much Adrenalin is secreted into the blood.

But most critical thing beginning and novice antelope hunters overlook is cooling the meat as quickly as possible by removing the skin and getting the meat into coolers with ice as quickly as possible. Do that and you have little to no gamey taste as long as you also remove the glands and fat when you do the butchering.

Great info here Doug. Thanks for sharing this information.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Hopefully all you guys will get to put your favorite methods to use this fall.

 

[Keeptrying]

Hopefully all you guys will get to put your favorite methods to use this fall.

Our odds are bad but our apps are in.

 

[Slick307]

A little off topic. Can someone explain why in Texas on every hunt i have been on there and all of them on TV they leave the guts in bring it to the barn then take the guts out and then take the guts back to the field?
I have killed a lot of antelope and have always taken good care of them and never had a problem with meat. Get out guts, Frozen juggs and then in the cool. (Pretty handy to have a walk in cooler)

 

[NEWHunter]

A little off topic. Can someone explain why in Texas on every hunt i have been on there and all of them on TV they leave the guts in bring it to the barn then take the guts out and then take the guts back to the field?
I have killed a lot of antelope and have always taken good care of them and never had a problem with meat. Get out guts, Frozen juggs and then in the cool. (Pretty handy to have a walk in cooler)

Probably because it’s a lot of big private land holdings down there and lots of folks have barns. Easier to drag a smallish whitetail a hundred yards and hang it up and gut it/process it than trying to do it around all the cactus, etc. Glad to hear they’re not throwing the guts in the garbage.

 

[thusby]

A little off topic. Can someone explain why in Texas on every hunt i have been on there and all of them on TV they leave the guts in bring it to the barn then take the guts out and then take the guts back to the field?
I have killed a lot of antelope and have always taken good care of them and never had a problem with meat. Get out guts, Frozen juggs and then in the cool. (Pretty handy to have a walk in cooler)

Same thing in Mississippi at the hunting camps. All I can figure is that they are such small deer that they want them to weigh over a hundred pounds when they get them on the scale.

 

[Big Bore]

A little off topic. Can someone explain why in Texas on every hunt i have been on there and all of them on TV they leave the guts in bring it to the barn then take the guts out and then take the guts back to the field?
I have killed a lot of antelope and have always taken good care of them and never had a problem with meat. Get out guts, Frozen juggs and then in the cool. (Pretty handy to have a walk in cooler)

Many land owners here have designated gut piles and can be for a variety of reasons (predator control, management surveys, etc), but ultimately the reasons don't matter. 97% of Texas is privately owned, so if you want to hunt here and don't already own your own land, you are most likely leasing from someone who does. And since it's their land, it's their rules that trump all else. In my opinion it's also a lot easier to gut a deer while it's hanging vs. on the ground.

 

[Northwoods Labs]

Well I've never killed an antelope, but if I did, here is what I would do...............

 

[CountingCoo]

I have every big game I kill skinned within 30 minutes. Heat is the enemy of game meat and I cant see any good reason to not get an animal broken down sooner rather later. An antelope's hide in particular is extraordinarily good insulation. If you want the best meat possible, then cool the meat as quickly as possible.

 

[seeth07]

and I cant see any good reason to not get an animal broken down sooner rather later.

You should never break down an animal before rigor mortis fully sets in. The blood is still settling down after the heart has stopped pumping and the muscles are contracting. Cutting those muscles free from their attachment points at bones will allow the meat to contract even more. The end result is tough meat.

Unless your in 100 degree arizona, get to your kill asap, gut it, remove the hide and then wait 1 to 2 hours before breaking it down. That is obviously just the best recommendation for quality of meat.

 

[CountingCoo]

You should never break down an animal before rigor mortis fully sets in. The blood is still settling down after the heart has stopped pumping and the muscles are contracting. Cutting those muscles free from their attachment points at bones will allow the meat to contract even more. The end result is tough meat.

Unless your in 100 degree arizona, get to your kill asap, gut it, remove the hide and then wait 1 to 2 hours before breaking it down. That is obviously just the best recommendation for quality of meat.

I'm not going to skin an antelope and then let it lay in the sun for 2 hours before getting it in a cooler. I suppose if I could hang a skinned antelope from a tree in the shade I'd be OK but that is obviously an unlikely option. In 40 years of big game hunting I have been involved in the processing of literally hundreds of big game animals and have never heard anyone claim that quartering an animal too quickly causes meat to get tough. Heat is the number one enemy of game meat, period.

 

[brockel]

You should never break down an animal before rigor mortis fully sets in. The blood is still settling down after the heart has stopped pumping and the muscles are contracting. Cutting those muscles free from their attachment points at bones will allow the meat to contract even more. The end result is tough meat.

Unless your in 100 degree arizona, get to your kill asap, gut it, remove the hide and then wait 1 to 2 hours before breaking it down. That is obviously just the best recommendation for quality of meat.

Deboning yes things will be tough. Quartering will not make meat tough

 

[seeth07]

I'm not going to skin an antelope and then let it lay in the sun for 2 hours before getting it in a cooler.

Ok I guess I wasn't clear enough. Perfect world scenario for optimum meat quality is to do as I directed above. 70 degrees, no shade near by in the sun and obviously cool down of the meat core temp is more important.

When I deer hunt Nebraska and its somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 degrees, I drag my kill to a tree, hoist it up by the neck with a rope, gut it and remove the hide. I sit around, relax, hunt some, glass, etc. 2 hours plus later I break it down in quarters and ribs. I know rigor is mostly complete when the front leg no longer easily lifts upward.

Again...that's a perfect scenario for optimum meat quality. Most backpack hunt scenarios aren't as easy to do that. Along with time, not everyone wants to pack out in the dark!

 

[mtmuley]

I have every big game I kill skinned within 30 minutes. Heat is the enemy of game meat and I cant see any good reason to not get an animal broken down sooner rather later. An antelope's hide in particular is extraordinarily good insulation. If you want the best meat possible, then cool the meat as quickly as possible.

Kill and skin an elk in 30? mtmuley

 

[JLS]

Kill and skin an elk in 30? mtmuley

That’s fast.