Well it finally happened.

[Bullshot]

The day I can't process an animal myself, is the day I quit hunting. Between field care, temperature control, dirt/grit, ageing and lead, I would never trust someone else to cut corners. And getting someone else's meat? That should be illegal. For people who don't know how, learn. Find someone who will teach you. Offer to help with theirs. For those without time, invest in some coolers and ice. With meat properly stored (not wet) at 32 degrees, you easily have a week or more to chip away at it. Even doing an elk or moose over a week would be no big deal. An antelope or deer takes only a couple hours once you get good at it. Heck, I skinned and butchered my first antelope in a motel room (shhhhhhh!), and I butchered elk quarters one afternoon on a public picnic table at a state park. It can be done well, and quickly. YOUR meat, treated so, is the best!

 

[ImBillT]

CWD is another reason to process your own. While it may never cross over to humans, I’m not interested in a processor cutting my animal in half with a saw and smearing spinal fluid and tissue all over my steaks. Even if I bone it out and have it tested, who is to say that it’s my CWD negative animal that I get back? On a side note, it can take over a month to get results back.

 

[WyoDoug]

I also love the fact I can get my own cuts the way I want them. I cut flatiron steaks off the shoulder blade and those were some of the best steaks ever especially off corn fed deer. Most people I venture would put all that in the grind pile. If you know where the flat irons (also known as top blade steaks), try them out. There is a piece of silverskin that runs down the middle of it so you get two flat irons per shoulder if you remove that silverskin. But once that is removed you end up with pure, tender flat iron which cooks really fast, within minutes.

 

[hank4elk]

I just saw this post & was wondering what was wrong? Me or who I got the last antelope from?
2 bucks last year given to me whole ,took them out of cooler @ outfitter who gave them to me & took them home & butchered them. Separate times,both were dark meat & neither tasted like antelope I have had before. Gave away the meat & those folks thought it was good.
I have never really been an antelope guy. Eaten it & hunted a couple times long ago unsuccessfully.
I like elk & deer meat.
Now I find out that I can get OTC lope tags for my place here in NM. Never bothered with the draw here. Saw a dozen at my tank this morning....
Season is in Aug. & can be hot. Will a lope shot in summer & quickly put away be good meat?

 

[BrentD]

Will a lope shot in summer & quickly put away be good meat?

Absolutely.

 

[WyoDoug]

I just saw this post & was wondering what was wrong? Me or who I got the last antelope from?
2 bucks last year given to me whole ,took them out of cooler @ outfitter who gave them to me & took them home & butchered them. Separate times,both were dark meat & neither tasted like antelope I have had before. Gave away the meat & those folks thought it was good.
I have never really been an antelope guy. Eaten it & hunted a couple times long ago unsuccessfully.
I like elk & deer meat.
Now I find out that I can get OTC lope tags for my place here in NM. Never bothered with the draw here. Saw a dozen at my tank this morning....
Season is in Aug. & can be hot. Will a lope shot in summer & quickly put away be good meat?

I have had strong tasting antelope myself but you don't need to have that strong tasting antelope. My strategy evolved over hunting antelope since I was 16. One of the biggest things to understand is antelope pump a lot of Adrenalin and other enzymes into their blood to help them run and pump oxygen into their blood. This gives antelope a strong taste. A couple rules I go by when hunting antelope that always gives me great tasting meat:

1) Never shoot a running antelope. Meat will be a darker red rather than a pinkish color. Avoid stressed antelope. If they are getting a lot of hunting pressure, I usually go somewhere else where the hunters are not.
2) Avoid hunting during mid part of the day. I hunt from sunrise to about 10 and then again after 6 PM and use the midday part to rest or glass.
3) Remove the hide and gut asap. The hide contains oils and enzymes that begin penetrating into the meat almost immediately after it is shot. It also traps heat. I have a bunch of coolers I take with ice and I put antelope on ice immediately after I gut and clean it, and quarter it.
4) When butchering remove all of the fat and glands. The glands especially give wild meat a stronger gamey taste.

It also has to do with what they eat. If they are eating a lot of wheat, barley or similar feed, the taste will be sweeter. If they are eating mostly sage, they will be stronger.

My preference with antelope is to shoot them in the bed or when they are really relaxed and have not been running much. I watch antelope for a good hour or so before I shoot them most times so I know they are relaxed and not pumped full of adrenalin.

 

[hank4elk]

Cool info guys.
I never shoot a running critter. Large game.
I can watch them come to the tank to drink almost daily before they bed here or next door around 11. They usually wait til the elk leave to come to water.
Can have it in shade near house quick to process.
So I might give it a go.

 

[Redside]

While I don't disagree with not shooting a running antelope and would prefer to shoot one that has been and is in a rested state. I can think of two that I have shot on a second stalk when I was busted on my first stalk and ran at least a mile. They tasted fine. Of course that's only two cases, maybe I got lucky. If I remember right the weather was cooler on those bucks. If I mess a stalk up and have an opportunity to try again I wouldn't hesitate.

If it's warm out I usually do gutless method into a cooler with ice.

I do have a friend who was mentored by an older hunter that used to gut, leave the hide on, stuff body cavity with ice and roll up in a tarp under the topper of the truck. No way I was doing that. He never had an issue with that method but I think I converted my friend to gutless/cooler method because of the simplicity.

 

[ImBillT]

This is not specific to antelope, but I believe animals that are shot through both lungs tend to have less of the iron/mineral flavor often associated with game. Commercially slaughtered animals are usually brained, hung and bled while their heart is still pumping. Allowing the heart to pump most of the blood into the chest cavity by shooting both lungs, but not the heart, achieves a similar result. Head, neck, heart, and gut shots leave a lot more blood in the meat than a double lung.

The other big difference is aging. Insufficientlu aged game is gamier tasting.

 

[matt0550]

I always wonder if I got my own meat back

Ditto! But to be fair, there are FAR more honest, wholesome and reputable meat processors out there than there are bad ones. It's kinda like surgeons or cops - 10% of em screw up, but they all carry a certain amount of the poor reputation for it...a truly unfair standard we created as a society.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Meat processer meat is no go! They dont clean the grinders between single animals! Nasty!
Matt