Am I the only one who prefers meat from a mature buck? I am not much of a trophy hunter but once in awhile the stars align and I shoot a bigger buck during the rut and I find the meat as good or better than doe or fawn meat. Just cooked up 3 steaks, one table spoon of homemade pork lard in a fry pan, sea salt and pepper, cooked on high heat to medium rare, fantastic! All of my buck meat gets labled as such and I save it for mostly when I cook for myself but when I cook it for others I have yet to hear complaints.

Not me. I've had some I didn't even like the smell of it cooking

Maybe its a handling issue? This one was shot and out of the woods gutted and skun within 2 hours, let him hang for 10 days in the garage then cut into boneless cuts and frozen.

Your gonna get tape worms and die. I think off tasting deer meat has more to do with the stress level at harvest more so than age. JMO.

have had deer meat go both ways. Young, old, buck, doe, some has been very good some I wouldn't eat. All of it more or less handled the same way.

The one thing I have noticed is any deer that is being chased by dogs or has been running through the woods for an extended period of time. They aint much for table fare. Usually tough as leather and have that strong taste/smell to them.

Older bucks are just as good as any other to me.

I prefer medium sized doe aged for 7-10 days. IMO that is the best tasting, most tender venison.

Actually, small yearlings are even better but I like a little more meat for my tag.

Big bucks are tougher and have a stronger flavor.

It's not a huge deal, you can take steps to minimize all that but given my druthers...

This buck was with a doe on the neighbors, the neighbor shot the doe then seen the buck and missed him a few times, he then chased him into the swamp were he ran about 1/4th a mile to my stand, he stopped to look back and a muzzleloader bullet him in the heart, he went 30 yards and toppled over.

He was under some stress when I took him ide say but he is still pretty good. I have heard from others that meat from animals under stress does taste "off". Recently had a angus cow fall through the swamp and die, I got her out before she froze and butchered it, so far the meat ive had off it is completely flavorless, actually pretty gross. That was just a small piece though from a bone out cut.

Ive ate my share. Thats the key. Let it hang. The meat gets a black rind on it as it dries. Seals itself up. When you butcher that rind gets trimmed off. Makes a real good dog feed.

^^^
Yep, what Danny said "let it hang". The longer the better.

I don't know mush about deer, but I much prefer march caribou to a fall, or even late summer buck.

Caribou are premium, Moose and Elk are excellent as well, wish it was more accessible to me, I have to get by on deer for most of my meat. Looking back the only wild game ive had that I have found disgusting is porcupine, we cooked it over a pine fire which probably did not help the already pine tasting meat.

I always bleed mine out, quarter it and hang the quarters for a week. It always taste pretty much the same the only difference is the texture. Young vs. older and tougher.

I have to go along with the stress issue, but that is with most meat. Even beef. JMO

I killed a mature buck during the peak of the rut one time. I cut off the neck for a roast. It smelled worse than a gut pile. I cut this deer up within one hour of killing it on a cold day.

I eat them all and dont tell a difference except for size and some tenderness. They taste the same if you have any idea what your doing. I age mine about 3 weeks in a ice chest.

I gotta agree with ya. Ate a lot of different deer harvested throughout the fall under all levels of stress. Never noticed any trends in flavor or even toughness. Still think the stress theory is baloney.

I've shot scores of blacktail bucks and two whitetail bucks, several of them while in the rut. Never had a bad tasting one.

If you don’t believe stress affects meat you haven’t experienced meat from a stressed animal. Its not a theory, its a well known fact. In the beef cutting industry its called a dark cutter, and its barely worth hamburger.
Just like all animals, each individual deer is different. I’ve killed calm animals that were really poor tasting, and animals you’d think would be stressed that were quite good. I let most hang, but the difference in taste is extremely minimal. I do it because I don’t have time to butcher every day we happen to kill a deer.

The stress issue may be true. A guy hit 2 cows right in front of my house one evening. No one wanted to claim them the cops where out there for about 2 hours before they decided th try and shoot them. Well they sucked pretty bad at hitting a cow in the head at 10 feet took a few shot but they got it. After everyone left I went to butchering on them cut the back straps out and the back hams then neck meat, well I put them in a ice chest just like I do the deer, but I only went 2 weeks with the age. That was the worst meat I have ever eat, the ground meat was tuff and I mean tuff, the steaks went worth eating at all. We eat the ground but was sure glad when it was all gone. Even my daughter was like it all the road kill cow gone yet?
I dont know if it was the fact that they got hit or layed out there suffering for 2 hours or if it was because they were just old poor Indian cows but they were awful.

We trim our steaks clean usually within a day or two of harvest I dont notice a difference in taste just tenderness and a grinder can solve that problem . A hunter shouldnt kill somthing they are not going to eat