Best Eating Deer?

[NY Yankee]

In your opinion, which is better for eating, mature doe or mature buck, assuming either would be killed before the rut and have the same food sources?

[J. Cook]

My answers are based only on my own personal experiences...so there's my disclaimer.  Me and my family eat, on average, 4 deer a year.  That's steaks, roasts, and lots of burger.  I've tried to narrow down the answer to this very question for over 25 years of bowhunting.  I label all my bags as to which deer it was so I can be mindful should a bag not turn out great.  I also do 100% of my own butchering from kill to table.   

I HONESTLY believe the age and sex don't matter.  I think the kill matters - i.e. how clean was it?  Did the deer survive for hours under duress?  Etc.  I've killed older rutted up bucks that tasted fantastic, and I've killed 2 year old does that were gamey and not all that good. 

I also 100% believe prep, meat care, and cooking make ALL THE  DIFFERENCE.  Some people can't cook deer to save their lives... No one wants to eat fried or grilled shoe leather.  LOL 

I've had some steaks not turn out great, but then steaks from the very same deer a week later taste great.  That tells me it was something I did when cooking it. 

I steak the loins, tender loins, the hinds (sirloin and top & bottom rounds).  I make roasts of the rump, sometimes the sirloin, neck, and shoulder roasts.  We grind everything else. 

So to sum all that up... my experience tells me there isn't a "best" deer in terms of age or sex.  But rather the circumstances of the kill, the meat care, and the cooking that make the difference. 

[NY Yankee]

Agree, the kill, prep and cooking is all a big part of it.

[Horsehide]

I only have limited experience when it comes to deer meat: all mine have been does killed in Wyoming or Texas. All were recovered and cleaned within an hour of being shot. All were processed in-house, with no meat wasted.
There is a difference in flavor from their diets: sagebrush versus corn. As far as species go, I had Axis meat for the first time this weekend and it is one of my favorite.

[KentuckyWolf]

When I lived in South Dakota you could tell a huge difference between east river and west river deer. Eastern SD deer where corn fed ag-land deer....delicious and mild. Western SD...badlands deer where eating lots of sagebrush and you could tell it. Little more gamey. However, both are good eating when you do your part right.

Proper cleanliness, meat handling and care are more important though.

[ron w]

 Never had any real bad venison !! Don’t over cook it, season to taste ! I prefer to shoot young ones, but that’s just me .

[Bowguy67]

I used to shoot around a dozen deer a year. I lived on it. I’ve eaten every variety of whitetail. Imo more of the prep, especially the cooking matter. One thing guys don’t often analyze is how it was stored in freezer. If freezer burned you can taste that. Also I don’t remove meat from any bone until a couple days pass. This matters as does not overcooking it as already stated. Near 40 years of this I just don’t see much difference. Now anything under stress as in being chased w dogs  a long time does taste different. This goes for farm deer or mountain deer. I see no difference

[Bisch]

IMHO, there is no discernible difference!!!! I eat deer meat all year and can’t ever tell which one I’m eating after I cook it.

Bisch

[M60gunner]

IMO a IL. Whitetail tastes better than a Wyoming Mule deer.

[TIM B]

Fawns....my favorite
Tim B

[GCook]

Fawns....my favorite
Tim B

Easier to pick a spot too!

[Jon Stewart]

Little ones with spots.

[TIM B]

Fawns....my favorite
Tim B

Easier to pick a spot too!

I like big racks but fawns feed the family lol

[GCook]

I've had a couple of 7yo plus deer that were tough.  Chunks of grizzle in the meat and deer that were best for ground, and you could definitely tell they were older deer.  That said with the right seasonings they fed us well.  Our red meat IS venison.  We don't buy ground beef.  Now pork is a staple and chicken but my family lives on venison.   Has for decades.  I like to leave my meat on the bone for days.  A brine soak does wonders.  And as stated, knowing how to season and prepare makes a huge difference. 
For my, and I'm sure many, family it is a part of who we are. 
It's not a hobby, or just something I enjoy.  It's a way of life and an investment in the future of the environment as well as my family.  So learning to be good at cooking it, regardless of age or gender, just came through experience.   Both good and bad.

[tracker12]

I pass on both those deer when I want table fair.  First year deer killed in late DEC early Jan are what I look for when filling the freezer.

[Ron LaClair]

I know a lot of people won't agree with me but weather permitting I like to hang my deer for 7 to 10 days with the hide on. It ages the meat, makes it more tender and taste better.

Some say, get the hide off right away butcher and put it in the freezer. My answer to that is when you buy a beef steak, it's aged. If you can your deer or grind it to burger OK but for good tasting steaks, I like mine aged

[Huntschool]

I have to agree with Ron 110%.  We let our deer hang head down for at least 10 days (refrigerated of course).  I have done this since a child with my Father.  Let lividity drain the blood from all the good meat down into the neck area. (least quality meat in my experience unless you have a good German Aunt that can make great sourbrotten (sp) out of it.

Then the cooking....  On steaks and loins nothing goes any further then an even med rare.  Roasts and such may go a bit further.   

[woodchucker]

I'm with Ron!!!! The longer it hangs, the better it tastes!!

That being said... We have a huge predator problem here in the Northeast.
Any fawn that make it through their 1st year, are honestly few and far between.

Bears take a heavy toll on the new fawns in the Spring, and the coyotes kill almost all the rest.
Anything that makes it through deer season is pretty much coyote bait.

Another thing... Once the bucks run the fawns off during the rut, they're on their own.
Years ago, we had a huge ice storm here in the Northeast. Rain and near 0 temps, turned everything to ice.
I missed hunting the opening day of gun season with my Dad for the 1st time in my life.
I made it up there for the 2nd day. As I was walking up along the edge of a picked corn field, I noticed a brown blob, in the corner of the field. I slowly worked up along the edge, waiting for the deer to stand up. About 40 yards from it, I was starting to believe something was very wrong?? When I got up to the small button buck, it was obvious what had happened.... He was completely FROZEN and encased with ice.
The poor little thing curled up in a ball, to wait out the storm, and died.

The sad thing is... All he had to do, was go about 200yds down the mountainside into the Hemlocks, to escape the storm. But, he was on his own, with no "lead" Doe to follow to safety. From that moment on, I swore to shoot a fawn, before I would shoot an adult doe.

A fawn that dies by my arrow of bullet, certainly has a quicker and less painful death, than at the hands of Mother Nature.... It's the tenderest, sweetest meat!! YMMV

[GCook]

We've lost deer to drought here.  Cold not so much.  Coyotes however are a huge issue and we work very hard on keeping their numbers down. 
The last two years around our place the fawn crop has been good.  This year about half the doe had twins. 
I know the laws in the northeast don't necessarily allow it to be easy to kill predators or feed deer during hard winters.  Here though we supplemental feed year round.  Alfalfa, protein pellets,   corn and rice bran.  We also shoot and leave lay a few pigs during the time when fawns are dropping so the coyotes have easy meals.
The other benefit is it makes the meat taste milder.

[Mojo Rising]

Best eating elk I've had was left to hang with the hide on for 7 days in November!
Weather permitting I do it every time I can. The meat gets aged and there is less lost to drying. It is a dark red when the hide comes off, ready for the wrapping paper!