What's your take on the difference in the meat? I processed a muley doe today. First mule deer that I have done. This doe was shot Sunday, skinned and hung in the ranch cooler. Quartered and put on ice Monday. I boned it out today. I cut some backstrap steaks and grilled them tonight. Prepared them just like I have done whitetail for 20 years. Cooked to medium rare. The meat was as tuff as a boot. Flavor was great but could hardly cut it with a knife. Is that normal for a mule deer? Had plans to grind 20 pounds into sausage, 50-50 with pork tomorrow and turn 10 pounds into jerky. I don't think we will be able to chew the jerky if it is as tuff as the backstrap. Your thoughts.

Sounds like the carcass didn't get a chance to come in and out of rigor. How cold was the cooler? Should be around 40 degrees. If it was low to mid 30's. Then the meat needed to hang longer.

Never had a problem with Mule Deer meat. I like whitetail better, but didn't notice much difference in the toughness of it. Had one from the panhandle and one from the Davis Mountains. Both bucks and both tasted good

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That's what I'm thinking too.

I have taken 2 Mule deer in West Texas and around 20 in Colorado. the biggest difference I have noticed (Colorado deer) is a strong flavor of the browse they are on (sage/pinon). I usually will quarter them at camp (depending on outside temps)and by the time I get home, they are good, could be up to a week. Key is keep t clean and 33*-38* or so.

You might try putting a few steaks in the frig "crisper" for 3-4 days under 40* and above freezing and give them a shot and see how they do. May be a long shot, but nothing to loose. Younger deer can take half as long to "cure" as well.
"Riggy" usually (atmospheric conditions dependent) starts in 2-6 hours and will usually break it's cycle within 24 hours. One of the nasty "facts" I learned in Homicide classes for field work LOL

Taste is a product of where they lived, toughness is a product of your processing method. I never hang mine, but I also ice them down for 5-7 days. Leave plug open and keep adding ice daily

I've only killed one mule deer buck in the panhandle and I actually liked it better than any whitetail that I've ever eaten.

Mule deer seem like something you gota have a taste for.. I like it but its more of a stout taste than a WT. And they can have a nice rank to them when your cleaning um

Sage brush mulies yes, ag feild and mountian mulies no

Yeah shot mine in Wyoming fields

Only mulies ive eaten/processed were sage brush mulies. I for sure smelled the sage and was worried about taste, but never tasted any different than white tail to me.

MULIE OVER WHITETAIL ANY DAY!!!!!

Thx. I have the rest of the backstrap in the fridge. Sausage turned out fine.

Just like antelope, just keep them iced and draining. 5 days later sage smell will be gone

Whenever I cook up mulie venison, my wife complains that it has a bad odor. She doesn't complain about the whitetail venison. I like both. I think that sagey, slightly gamey taste of mule deer tastes real good in sausage.

I can't comment on the taste of Mule Deer, but I can say that a fat doe from back where I grew up (eastern Louisiana) won't taste as good as a fat doe from central or south Texas. I can't explain why, but the wife and I agree on it. My point here is that maybe the respective regions where the Muley and WT were taken could matter as much or more than a different taste of different types of deer.

Same here, but for a few hours will run a hose in the cooler, past that it'll soak in ice water for that 5-7.