collapse

Advertisement


Author Topic: Are blacktails tasty?  (Read 21036 times)

Offline JDHasty

  • Past Sponsor
  • Trade Count: (+2)
  • Old Salt
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jul 2015
  • Posts: 7012
  • Location: Tacoma
  • Groups: NRA Benefactor Member, GOA Life Member, Father of 3 NRA Life Members
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #45 on: October 08, 2016, 07:42:44 PM »
Not a huge deer cuisine fan but BTs ate by far the worst IMO. I also think RM elk are much better table fare than rooseys. The browse I guess.

Really?  My experience has been just the opposite.

Offline brew

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+17)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: May 2010
  • Posts: 1835
  • Location: yelm
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #46 on: October 08, 2016, 08:39:23 PM »
best tasting deer i ever killed was the whitetail i shot 4 years ago with YJ guide service in Davenport.  he was so full of wheat kernels that i should have rolled them out and made a few loaves of bread along with the backstraps...only whitetail i have ever taken ....blacktails are great table fare as long as you take the time and cut away the silver skin (we call it "wang").  if you don't think you want to eat it cut it out and it is delicious...take out the membranes and the wang and you are left with pure meat...don't overcook it and it is delicious...why would you overcook it?  it is all natural, no hormones or antibiotics
beer---it's whats for dinner

Offline cbond3318

  • Political & Covid-19 Topics
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Frontiersman
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2011
  • Posts: 3289
  • Location: Idaho
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #47 on: October 08, 2016, 09:00:56 PM »
I shot a small pie bald BT doe off Whidbey Island years ago that is to this day the best tasting venison I've had. Too bad I only got 30lbs of it.
Just tend your own and live.

Offline blackveltbowhunter

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+9)
  • Frontiersman
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2009
  • Posts: 4109
  • BLAM
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #48 on: October 08, 2016, 09:20:42 PM »
I personally enjoy the heck out of blacktail deer. I have never had a bad deer per se, but I shot a late rut muley buck a couple years back and it was the toughest meat i have personally had. Boot leather tough. I ground the whole thing including backstraps except tenderloins. Even they were tough. Younger buck as well. And well taken care of. 

I have shot several mule deer off alfalfa in early season that were awesome. And have had several orchard blacktails in september that were great as well. But rutting bucks are hit and miss toughness wise for me and some have a more "gamey" flavor, this is between muley and bt. Whitetails i have little personal experience with other than the stuff i have had was awesome.

I notice little difference between elk personally. From  sagebrush, to alpine,  to clearcut, to coast, rutting or not they all seem to taste pretty darn good. 

Offline sled

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Frontiersman
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2010
  • Posts: 3561
  • Location: Lake Stevens
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #49 on: October 08, 2016, 09:59:12 PM »
Yummy!

Offline Damnimissed

  • Political & Covid-19 Topics
  • Trade Count: (+9)
  • Longhunter
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2013
  • Posts: 621
  • Location: Salmon, ID
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #50 on: October 10, 2016, 10:49:10 PM »
Not a huge deer cuisine fan but BTs ate by far the worst IMO. I also think RM elk are much better table fare than rooseys. The browse I guess.

Really?  My experience has been just the opposite.

Me too. I won't even hunt the Eastside.

Offline Eric M

  • WA State Trappers Association
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Sep 2015
  • Posts: 1538
  • Location: somewhere in time
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #51 on: October 11, 2016, 12:27:00 AM »
Excellent meat. take the time to age it. I'd rather eat blacktail than any other meat.

Offline 180-GRAIN

  • Trade Count: (-1)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2008
  • Posts: 1525
  • Location: Fairfield WA
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #52 on: October 11, 2016, 10:09:38 AM »
The only blacktail I have had worth a crap was a spike. All the others have been late bucks that were rutting and they were pretty gamie! I have not found any blacktail burger I could eat yet!

Offline lokidog

  • Trade Count: (+6)
  • Explorer
  • ******
  • Join Date: Mar 2009
  • Posts: 15186
  • Location: Sultan/Wisconsin
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #53 on: October 13, 2016, 06:27:05 PM »
The only blacktail I have had worth a crap was a spike. All the others have been late bucks that were rutting and they were pretty gamie! I have not found any blacktail burger I could eat yet!

You need to switch up to archery or ML, much tastier then.   :)  I've had some modern bucks that were rutty tasting but have had others that were good.

Offline Okanagan

  • Political & Covid-19 Topics
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Longhunter
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2010
  • Posts: 708
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #54 on: October 13, 2016, 07:06:31 PM »
Best deer I've ever eaten (out of many to compare) was a blacktail fork horn from the Olympic Peninsula.  Blacktails from that area have tasted consistently good to me.  Second best was a mule deer 4x4 from Okanogan country that was a year short of being fully mature.  Have had some excellent whitetails as well.

The only really gamey deer I've eaten have been a few really old really big old mule deer.  The toughest deer I've eaten was a fat spike year whitetail, (though he had a mini 3x4 rack on his head) and the flavor was good, just tough. Likely was some cold shortening influencing that one but it was EXTREMELY tough, like an old Mountain goat billy.

Most deer are good, a few not so good, but overall I'd give the edge for flavor to a youngish blacktail from the Olympic Peninsula.  Our mileage re taste does vary!

As mentioned by others, much of flavor depends on where the deer lives and what he has been eating, plus unknown factors of his health, and the factors of the shot, temps, time, and individual methods of meat care which we cannot equate via internet.  But deer are good and I like 'em!

 
« Last Edit: October 13, 2016, 10:31:30 PM by Okanagan »

Offline 7mmfan

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+7)
  • Old Salt
  • ******
  • Join Date: Nov 2008
  • Posts: 5499
  • Location: Marysville
    • https://www.facebook.com/rory.oconnor.9480
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #55 on: December 15, 2016, 08:34:09 AM »
Thought I'd revisit this. I killed another blacktail this year, and once again, one of the best eating deer I've killed. Much better than the mule deer I've killed hunting the timber/sage in Eastern Wa. My wife voiced to me a couple years ago after the last mule deer that she very much preferred elk (which I agree with) but after the last 2 blacktail, she's back on board with deer. We had some steaks over salad last night and she asked if they were tenderloin, as she thought we had already eaten the tenderloins. Nope, just delicious hind quarter steaks!
I hunt, therefore I am.... I fish, therefore I lie.

Offline KP-Skagit

  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Longhunter
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2015
  • Posts: 533
  • Location: Skagit Valley
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #56 on: December 15, 2016, 09:15:04 AM »
The single greatest meat, not just wild game, I have ever eaten was a spike I shot last year on the last day of general modern. It was in a patch of woods that had been thinned 5 years earlier and a 2 yard shot to the base of the skull is just about the cleanest kill you could think of. I had the deer cut and wrapped the next day. By the beginning of December I didn't have a scrap of meat left from it. It was that good.

The single worst deer I have ever eaten was a 3x2 taken a couple miles from where the spike was 8 years earlier. Identical shot but from 10 yards but in late season and he was rutty.

How cool is it that when you are eating wild game you have such knowledge of an animal you can theorize why it tastes the way it did? Not like beef from the grocery store.

Offline huntingbaldguy

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Longhunter
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2014
  • Posts: 532
  • Location: Kitsap
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #57 on: December 15, 2016, 09:28:30 AM »
My wife talks about gamey flavor sometimes.  I just think it's flavor that beef doesn't have so people are inclined to call it gamey.  I love blacktail.

Offline hollymaster

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+2)
  • Sourdough
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2012
  • Posts: 1122
  • Location: Enumclaw
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #58 on: December 15, 2016, 09:46:01 AM »
Nothing beats a nice young blacktail for table fare.  :drool:

Offline 7mmfan

  • Non-Hunting Topics
  • Trade Count: (+7)
  • Old Salt
  • ******
  • Join Date: Nov 2008
  • Posts: 5499
  • Location: Marysville
    • https://www.facebook.com/rory.oconnor.9480
Re: Are blacktails tasty?
« Reply #59 on: December 15, 2016, 09:46:43 AM »
We actually had some New York steaks the other night for the first time in years and we both agreed they did not taste as good as the blacktail we've been eating the last couple years.
I hunt, therefore I am.... I fish, therefore I lie.

 


* Advertisement

* Recent Topics

Looking for Solid 22 LR input by Rat44
[Today at 12:26:36 AM]


Lynx kittens confirmed in the Kettle Range by dwils233
[Today at 12:04:14 AM]


Archery elk gear, 2025. by spin05
[Today at 12:03:42 AM]


How To Get Your $0.00 Tax Stamp - Black Hammer Arms by dreadi
[Yesterday at 11:33:25 PM]


AUCTION: SE Idaho DIY Deer or Deer/Elk Hunt by Rainier10
[Yesterday at 10:19:01 PM]


Seeking recommendations on a new scope by Klickitatsteelie
[Yesterday at 09:23:56 PM]


2025 Canning by Twispriver
[Yesterday at 09:15:12 PM]


2025 Montana alternate list by Edminsterquality
[Yesterday at 08:47:06 PM]


WSTA 2025 Summer Rendezvous Agenda by Trapper John
[Yesterday at 08:00:27 PM]


First attempt at polish sausages by Stein
[Yesterday at 07:58:22 PM]


Fullsized Truck Opinion: HiMiNew vs LoMiOlder by MADMAX
[Yesterday at 07:57:22 PM]


Sockeye Numbers by Southpole
[Yesterday at 07:44:30 PM]


Best all around muzzy (updated) by jjhunter
[Yesterday at 07:44:26 PM]


38% increase in fishing and hunting licenses by Sitka_Blacktail
[Yesterday at 07:02:41 PM]


50 inch SXS and Tracks? by 92xj
[Yesterday at 05:34:03 PM]


3 days for Kings by MADMAX
[Yesterday at 05:06:49 PM]


Full moon and last week of September by pd
[Yesterday at 04:51:23 PM]


Hunting bears in the thick stuff by ghosthunter
[Yesterday at 04:33:46 PM]


GMU 247 Entiat bear hunting by Ridgerunner
[Yesterday at 11:56:01 AM]

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2025, SimplePortal