Never met an elk I didn’t like.

[buggy]

A few years back I shot a healthy bt buck miday. Boned on site, packed out, and brought it home and processed it immediately. Maybe 3 hours from the shot til I started cutting. It was mostly cooled but some of the bigger chunks were warm inside. It is the only game meat that I did not enjoy. Taste was fine but was very tough. I did some reading and found out that you should not cut your meat "cross grain" until it has cooled completely. I have let my animals cool since then and haven't had any issues.

[Karl Blanchard]

Best deer in my opinion are sitka blacktail from kodiak. Second would be high country mule deer. With that said, I killed an Idaho September high country mule deer AND a Nevada buck at 10,000ft but it was PJ, mahogany sage country. When I got home, I cut the same steak from each buck and cooked medium rare with zero seasoning. Only difference I could tell was in tenderness. The Idaho buck was a bit more tender. It did however sit on ice for 6 days longer than the NV buck.

I hear people talk about nasty sage brush bucks but after eating dozens and dozens of them I've concluded that some people just arent the best cooks😂

[Buckjunkie]

A few years back I shot a healthy bt buck miday. Boned on site, packed out, and brought it home and processed it immediately. Maybe 3 hours from the shot til I started cutting. It was mostly cooled but some of the bigger chunks were warm inside. It is the only game meat that I did not enjoy. Taste was fine but was very tough. I did some reading and found out that you should not cut your meat "cross grain" until it has cooled completely. I have let my animals cool since then and haven't had any issues.

Thanks for sharing. That’s good info. I have been hearing guys say aging doesn’t matter with wild game, but apparent cooling does.

[Eric M]

A few years back I shot a healthy bt buck miday. Boned on site, packed out, and brought it home and processed it immediately. Maybe 3 hours from the shot til I started cutting. It was mostly cooled but some of the bigger chunks were warm inside. It is the only game meat that I did not enjoy. Taste was fine but was very tough. I did some reading and found out that you should not cut your meat "cross grain" until it has cooled completely. I have let my animals cool since then and haven't had any issues.

Thanks for sharing. That’s good info. I have been hearing guys say aging doesn’t matter with wild game, but apparent cooling does.

I think there is a difference between aging and hanging until rigor mortis has passed. Usually just hanging it overnight and it loosens back up. Just my ooinion but I think this makes a difference.