Anyone else for antelope?

[Calif. Hunter]

I'll be honest with you - I don't like venison myself. It has to be soaked in Italian dressing for about a week in order to be edible, as far as I am concerned. (or soaked in soy sauce and made into jerky.) Elk is great. Never had, and probably never will have, bear meat. I've had moose - it was good. I've had buffalo and it's just like beef.

I think a lot of people hear the same bad things about antelope and don't try it or take proper care of the meat. The antelope I've had was pretty bland, actually.

 

[Nut]

I will eat just about anything(

).

I have had caribou,game farm elk,whitetail(more than 1 species),gator,bison and a couple others.

Get me a tag and I would try prairie goat.

 

[Point Creep]

Hounddog, there's nothing like beef in my opinion, but I eat a lot of venison. Elk, lope, mule deer, whitetail, and a little bear. Bear has never tasted bad, it's the thought of it that keeps me from eating much of it.

BY FAR, lope is the best meat.

But sadly enough most antelope are killed on the opening day of rifle season and have been chased for miles in vehicles, then gut shot, and not cared for properly. It's a redneck tradition.. those animals probably tastle like ass.

Shoot one that hasn't been run down and try it. Honestly, all the guys I know that hunt lopes like it better than deer and elk.. and they kill one or more of each every year.

 

[Ithaca 37]

Antelope are great eating. The problem is that they have a large heart, lungs and very efficient vascular system to help them sprint. If you've ever seen an antelope take off from a dead start and go from 0 to 60 in about three seconds you'd know what I mean.

The exceptionally well developed vascular system pumps freshly oxygenated blood through the antelope very quickly, allowing them to sprint and sustain a high speed run very well, probably better than any other North American animal.

The problem is that the great vascular system also pumps the adrenalin throughout the antelope's body very quickly. Adrenalin negatively affects the taste of any meat. So if you shoot an antelope that's been alarmed or if you wound one and it stays alive for much more than a minute the meat is probably gonna be getting worse tasting. The trick to getting the best tasting meat from any animal is to shoot one that is calm and relaxed and kill it instantly. Any animal that is in a stressful state---especially one that has been running for awhile--is gonna taste worse.

The problem is compounded with antelope because they're often hunted in warm or even hot weather. To get the best tasting meat you gotta shoot one like I explained and cool it down real fast. If I was hunting in hot weather I'd take a tub and a lot of water and ice and as soon as I killed one I'd skin him and take the ice outta the cooler and put it in the tub with about twenty gallons of water and throw in the antelope meat and cool it down. That's the best way, unless you can get to a refrigerated cooler real fast.

Contrast that method with the way most guys do it and you'll understand the difference. Most guys chase the antelope around for a while in ninety degree weather and then shoot it in the ass or guts and chase it some more until they get it. Then they gut it and drag it thru the sage brush until it's all full of sage pollen and dust and dirt. Then they drive around with it for a few hours before they skin it, if they bother to skin it at all. What the hell do you expect the meat to taste like?

If you bought a steak and dragged it around a dirt field for a while and then threw it in the back of your truck and drove it around in the heat for a few hours would you expect it to taste great?

Kill a calm, relaxed animal instantly. Cool the meat down to about 35 degrees within a few hours and you'll have the best chance at good tasting meat. The way most guys handle the killing and care of their game meat I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 07-18-2003 23:14: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>