Well it finally happened.

cgarner

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For years I've preached about how good and tender antelope meat is. I've written off naysayers by saying that it is all about how the antelope is treated post-harvest and how it is cooked. If you had a bad experience with antelope, then it must have been poorly handled post-harvest or it was cooked wrong. I know nothing is 100% true, and I had my first bad experience in 10 years with antelope meat yesterday. I harvested four last year in Wyoming, all were quartered and cooled soon after harvest. The first two I had processed to save time, as I work full time and recently went back to school for my master's degree. This is the first time I've every not butchered my own antelope. The bad experience came from a package of meat from the processor that was labeled as "chops", I assume this is the backstrap. I grilled the chops as I grill all of my antelope steaks. Only this time they are so tough I can barely chew them. I hope the other packs of meat are not this tough.
 
I've had the same experience with processor packaged beef. A "friend of a friend" told me choice cuts are regularly taken by employees and a days work is often divided among customers regardless of promises made at drop off. Sorry for your bad luck. If thats the only variable that has changed, my guess is it is the cause.
 
cgarner you took your prime pronghorn to a processor? Come on, you know better than that. ;)
 
You know what I find funny about people blaming processors is this. Do you not take it somewhere that you trust or even if you dont know them at least have a good reputation or recommendation. I mean come on. I find it just to be an easy out to blame other people. Maybe the animal was just tough as nails lol who knows
 
I will continue to test the processed meat and if it is all tough, then I will grind it.
 
You know what I find funny about people blaming processors is this. Do you not take it somewhere that you trust or even if you dont know them at least have a good reputation or recommendation. I mean come on. I find it just to be an easy out to blame other people. Maybe the animal was just tough as nails lol who knows
Too many problems and co-incidents over the years to be the anomaly
 
We used to take our meat to a local butcher who would label
and number our harvests so we knew we were getting our own
meat back.Each pckg.had your personal number.
Unfortunately he passed away and the shop shut down.
We now butcher all our own animals.:cool:
 
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Like many on this thread I at one time took a little two point buck to a local processor the meat was clean and cool and it came back rancid!! Lucky for us my little brother and I took meat cutting classes at our local applied tech center and we do it all and haven’t looked back!! Get a good vacuum sealer and a good grinder have the whole family come over and have a meat cutting party!!! We have limited time but many hands make light work!!
 
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I do 90+% of my own processing these days, but I will occasionally use a local processor here if it's warm and I have commitments the next day. I have also simply quartered, double-bagged and thrown into the chest freezer, then thawed it out in a cooler at the end of the season to process.

Of the 3 pronghorn we processed this year, it's all been good except one pound of burger that my BIL got. For whatever reason he said that one pound was terrible, but the rest of the batch has been great. I assume we missed a gland or something that got ground up into that portion of meat, stuff like that does happen occasionally.
 
I don't like processors either, but how do you blame toughness on the butcher?
I think the working assumption is some other hunter drug their antelope along all day in the back of their pick in warm weather and then dropped it off at the same butcher and you got some of that animal rather than your own. I can see it happening early in the season, as the animals where piled up like cordwood in the parking lot of the Lusk processor last season opener - no thanks, we processed ours rather than drop off there.
 
I think the working assumption is some other hunter drug their antelope along all day in the back of their pick in warm weather and then dropped it off at the same butcher and you got some of that animal rather than your own. I can see it happening early in the season, as the animals where piled up like cordwood in the parking lot of the Lusk processor last season opener - no thanks, we processed ours rather than drop off there.

I hear ya, but I don't think that wouldn't make the meat tough. It would taste lousy, but probably be more tender, not less.

My one bad tasting antelope was my first. We handled all of our antelope poorly on that trip. They all tasted terrible, but I don't remember them being tough.
 
I guess we're lucky, no such thing as a processor in this part of the world. You want to eat game you gotta learn how to break it down. That's why i was working on back legs last night until about 10pm. Not enough time in the day!
 
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