What is the best tasting deer species

[Joe Bishop]

If you could properly age your deer say 30days or until you can see a white mold starting to grow it's ready to cut and wrap. An old Italian sold me on this technique, even sagie deer becomes edible. Most of us don't have a cold locker to do so. Now I just shoot elk. When the relatives come over from Ireland I feed them elk and they say it's the best grass feed beef they have ever eaten.

 

[Schroedernd]

After living in AK for 12 years I was a firm believer nothing tasted better then moose. Then I moved to OR and had elk, and I gotta say I prefer elk. My order is Elk, Moose, blacktail, whitetail, muley....

 

[Carey Farmer]

Whitetail deer that have been eating my neighbor's soybeans.

 

[Wanashoot]

not all in deer family but my picks so far. Elk, Nilgai, Axis, Moose, Pronghorn, Whitetail, Mule Deer.

 

[ghem930]

We hunt a lot in South Texas and make it a point to shoot AXIS. We have shot everything from Kudu to Orix, Blackbuck, Sika to name a few. For us AXIS and Nilgi free range is hands down the best venison. An SCI record book Axis buck normally tastes better than a whitetail doe IMO. On the other hand, my two sons and I went on a hunt about 8 years ago and shot 3 monster White tail bucks (160 BC+). The meat was really unfit for human consumption... Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little but no comparison to Axis. Just about all the African Plains game is delicious as well.

 

[txaggie1]

We hunt a lot in South Texas and make it a point to shoot AXIS. We have shot everything from Kudu to Orix, Blackbuck, Sika to name a few. For us AXIS and Nilgi free range is hands down the best venison. An SCI record book Axis buck normally tastes better than a whitetail doe IMO. On the other hand, my two sons and I went on a hunt about 8 years ago and shot 3 monster White tail bucks (160 BC+). The meat was really unfit for human consumption... Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little but no comparison to Axis. Just about all the African Plains game is delicious as well.

In rock springs when they said we could shoot the axis deer I would throw rocks at whitetail coming to the feeder! Lol axis meat is hard to beat!

 

[HappyGVM]

My family's favorite is moose. It's up their with top shelf beef. Elk is second & if it's just deer Axis is top notch. I've shot Axis both in HI & TX and they were both very mild.

 

[Rick79]

Barren ground Caribou is hands down the best I have ever had. It was pre-rut, they were just coming out of the velvet when we were up there. The only thing I didn't like about it was a bear claimed it before we flew out.

I will hopefully get to compare it to Elk later this year and moose a few more years down the road.

 

[bscman]

Hank Shaw himself once explained how axis deer was the "crack" of the venison world, then he served some to me.

Yeah, I'll take axis for the win.
But a blacktail from the coastal rain forest area of Washington isn't a bad second.

To the OP, I've never had a "gamey" mule deer, but we also don't hunt muleys in desert/sage country. Diet will always have an affect on meat. Ask anyone who hunts bears in Alaska when the salmon are running!

 

[levers4life]

i let my buddies who don't have a place to hunt come out for whitetail. We only eat axis.

 

[scpaul]

I keep hearing about Axis deer. Are all of these from exotic reservations or has there been a wild population gotten a hold in Texas?

 

[MIBirdhunter]

Elk and then Midwestern whitetail... tasty!!

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Brian and I got a cow moose 8 years ago. It was the first big game animal taken with a Hammer. It was living in the willows and that is what it tasted like. I thought it was terrible. My neighbor liked it. He got most of it.

 

[txaggie1]

I keep hearing about Axis deer. Are all of these from exotic reservations or has there been a wild population gotten a hold in Texas?

Certain areas of Texas they are free range for years - and allot of game ranches in Texas with many having axis add to year round hunting