Mule deer venison question. Weird young buck with no fat.

[TimberJunkie]

Hi all,

I was recently hunting in Montana with family and friends and one of the guys harvested a pretty small buck. It had a decent sized 4x4 rack with corkscrewed crooked antlers, maybe a 2 1/2 year old buck. He was small, and had almost zero fat on him. The buck was acting normal and was hanging with a bigger buck and about 10 does.

Between the weird antlers and the meat having no fat, we are leary about the meat being good to eat, it smells fine and has the right texture and color.

What do you guys think? Probably OK. It's all processed and wrapped, but I haven't eaten any yet.

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[ivorytip]

eat up and enjoy! buck I shot this year had absolutely no fat, he had been shot previously to me shooting him.... hole in the leg and in the ear. must've used up his fat storage while trying to heal. but meat was fine, tastes great too. if your meat looks and smells normal I am sure its very safe to eat. he too might have been healing from something that sucked up his fat storage. unless there is something I don't know about id say enjoy some great deer steaks! neat looking buck BTW!

 

[go_deep]

Guess I wouldn't worry about it. Grill it up, and enjoy!

 

[TimberJunkie]

That's the plan. Jerky is marinating. Thanks.

 

[Slugz]

I think its a smart idea to take a good look at it like you did. Internally there is probably something wrong with him. Reasons for abnormal antler growth often are unknown, and highly speculative. Your most likely falls under #2, which would then cause a secondary reaction like no fat/poor body condition. There are three basic probable causes:

1.The defects are coded in genes, and therefore hereditary.
2.Defects are caused by physiological problems as the result of bodily injury, parasitism, disease, malnutrition, or other health-related factors, referred to as “systemic conditions,” that alter normal body functions.
3.Direct injury to the pedicle or growing antler causes deformed antlers. One such abnormality is permanent antler retention by bucks.

All solved by the smell/visual check IMO. Eat up!!! Love the corkscrews!

 

[Jrod]

Backstraps are probably not any good, or tenderloins for that matter. Send em to me and I will do some research and see if they are good to eat.

It is still good. Cooking meat thoroughly isn't going to hurt either. Cool rack for sure. Cheers

 

[missjordan]

I'd eat it! Sure it would be fine


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[CrimsonArrow]

None of the 3 whitetail bucks I've butchered this year had any fat to speak of. I'm sure they'd been cruising a while and bucks can lose as much as 30% of their body weight during a hard, prolonged rut. Absolutely fine to eat.