meat quality of a mature bull moose

[Rufous]

My brother who drew the Huckleberry Range moose tag with me has a friend who has hunted moose in Alaska and his friend said that the meat from a mature bull is so tough that even pressure cooking will not make it edible. Have those of you who have taken mature bulls here in WA found the meat to be terribly tough? What time of the year did you shoot your bulls? What method have you found to be the best way to cook the meat so that it is enjoyable? Thanks so much, Brian.

[tlbradford]

I have eaten several mature bulls from Alaska and the meat was delicious.  Smaller bulls and cows were a little less gamey, but there was little difference.  Moose, in my opinion, is the least gamey of all wildlife.  My favorite is a crockpot roast with lots of garlic, salt, and pepper.  Throw in potatoes, carrots, and a brown gravy for everything and you are good to go.  I have never had the pleasure of eating a shiras though.

[Intruder]

The bull I killed last year was 9 1/2 years old.  It is some of the finest big game I've ever eaten.  The cuts you'd expect to be tough miiight be( )a lil tougher than normal but the premium cuts are great. 

[cohoho]

Haven't had a bad one!  Great meat, great flavor, even the big boys were good???

[NRA4LIFE]

I helped a fried butcher a shiras from WA here in '97.  Don't know how old it was but the rack I think was about 44" wide.  I'm no moose expert but it looked like a pretty decent one.  Meat was as tough as rawhide.  Even the backstraps cooked rare were unedible.  Crockpot and meat grinder took care of him though.  The burger was the best tasting game burger I've ever eaten.

[blessed]

My son and I went on a moose hunt in AK a few yrs ago. He got a 68+inch - old bull. It has been very good eating with a little tenderizing.
 

[Ray]

Moose is tasty. I like it better than deer elk or caribou.

[280ackley]

Moose is tasty. I like it better than deer elk or caribou.

x2

[archery288]

Speaking of Caribou - how does it taste?!

[blessed]

Caribou is very good. It's a dark meet and diferent parts of it taist different from simular to beef to close to liver. We've got 6 and it's very tender . They are a deer size animal so there's not all that much meat there. bringing it home is worth it though! Who are you hunting with in Quebec? What weapon are you going to use?
We went with our bows and had plenty of oppertunity.We went with Safari Nordic. I'm glad we went when we did because the prices have jumped up there! My partner didn't want the last caribou mounted so she got the cape tanned and it makes a great rug . STB

[archery288]

Nice, sounds like it'll be good eatin!!  I am going with Cameron Hanes and we are going with Arctic Adventures.  They are right next to and within the same grounds as Safari Nordik.  And yeah I was looking at the prices and they jumped big time this year compared to the past few!  And it probably wont get any cheaper...

[WDFW-SUX]

Bou meat is awesome I really like it.

All of the hunts up north are going through the roof. I looked at dall and stone hunts and its ridiculous.  Mt goat is even way too much. 

[archery288]

I want to go on a Mt. Goat hunt but at the prices they are charging I think I'll have to save for a few years... haha That's why it would be nice to draw one in our state but oh wait - it's damn near impossible because the draw is so screwed up!

[WDFW-SUX]

Montana and Colorado have the best non res odds and if you want a nanny tag Utah ain't bad either.

[boneaddict]

The meat is awesome.  We just finished one that was aged at 14 years old and about as mature as you get.  It was tasty.  Out of the 4 moose we got, 3 were over 8 years old and tasty.  One was 3.5 and just as tasty.   

[bobcat]

I want to go on a Mt. Goat hunt but at the prices they are charging I think I'll have to save for a few years... haha That's why it would be nice to draw one in our state but oh wait - it's damn near impossible because the draw is so screwed up!

I wouldn't blame that on the draw being screwed up. With just over 9000 people applying for only 18 permits, I'd say that's why it's almost impossible to draw a goat tag. With those numbers, only 1 applicant out of 500 gets a goat tag each year. Yep I'd say you ought to plan on applying in other states if you ever want to hunt goats in your lifetime. The only thing I could see them doing different to increase odds of drawing would be to charge for the tag up front like they used to do. But the draw itself is working just fine.

[archery288]

I wouldn't blame that on the draw being screwed up. With just over 9000 people applying for only 18 permits, I'd say that's why it's almost impossible to draw a goat tag. With those numbers, only 1 applicant out of 500 gets a goat tag each year. Yep I'd say you ought to plan on applying in other states if you ever want to hunt goats.

Yeah it sounds like it...    Guess I'll have to start the out of state tags next year on the goats...

[popeshawnpaul]

I don't know the age of shiras bull, but he was tough.  I made burger and sausage out of most of mine.  The backstraps and tenderloins were ok. 

[PA BEN]

I helped a fried butcher a shiras from WA here in '97.  Don't know how old it was but the rack I think was about 44" wide.  I'm no moose expert but it looked like a pretty decent one.  Meat was as tough as rawhide.  Even the backstraps cooked rare were unedible.  Crockpot and meat grinder took care of him though.  The burger was the best tasting game burger I've ever eaten.

The average bull taken in this State has a 38" rack. 44's are big for a Shiras must have been an old bull.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I've eaten (parts of) 10 Shiras moose, all from Wyoming though.  Flavor is always excellent, the tender ones are as good as it gets.  The tough ones have chewy steaks, but are phenomenal burger.  My 6.5 y.o. bull, killed 9/11/00, was tender enough to steak, though some round steaks were tough.  The toughest was a cow of unknown age, she was too tough to enjoy chewing on.  The tenderest was a 2.5-3.5 y.o., 36" bull killed in October - fork cut tender.

[MountainWalk]

joe, my boss killed a good sized bull, and it was quite good. not all of it was what i would call "tender", but overall, it was very chewable, and didnt require half a glass of water to swallow a bite.

[MountainWalk]

i would take moose over a bou anyday.