Are blacktails tasty?

[JDHasty]

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.

[brew]

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

[cbond3318]

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.

[blackveltbowhunter]

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. 

[sled]

Yummy!

[Damnimissed]

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.

[Eric M]

Excellent meat. take the time to age it. I'd rather eat blacktail than any other meat.

[180-GRAIN]

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!

[lokidog]

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.

[Okanagan]

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!

 

[7mmfan]

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!

[KP-Skagit]

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.

[huntingbaldguy]

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.

[hollymaster]

Nothing beats a nice young blacktail for table fare. 

[7mmfan]

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.