The venison from my larger deer this year is clearly lighter (as in not as deep maroon) as in past years. It tastes the same, as far my taste buds remember.

Is this not unusual, or is it some environmental condition?

Just curious.

Not sure but thought part of that is amount of blood it lost. This year archery deer double lunged is lighter than rifle deer that the heart looked like cubed meat. Of course that is just what I have seen this year and other years.

Could be. This one staggered (and bled) for a bit before collapsing.

I would have thought that the cleaning/skinning would have allowed all blood to drain, but maybe there was more “stuck” in the muscle tissues.

Thanks.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it has nothing do with blood loss. Meat gets it's color from Myoglobin. That's what gives beef the red color and higher working muscles like in venison or duck the deep red color. Myoglobin is a protein that carries oxygen to the muscle cells. That pink juice on your plate from a rare piece of meat has no blood in it. It's all Myoglobin.

To try and answer the question it could be an age difference or some genetic factor that made the color lighter. Just like veal is pink and beef is red.

But I'm uneducated and this is just what I was taught by my grandpa. So take it with a grain of salt.

I think possibly diet has something to do with as well as age. I've noticed the deer on our place the meat is much darker on younger deer vs older deer. But our older deer are darker compared to deer on other places I've hunted. We have a ton of native pecan trees and acorn trees and only put corn our during the season. I think them feeding on pecans and acorns make the meat much better than places that feed corn and protein year round. Those deer almost turn into "raised" deer. Just my opionion.

That is a very fair point too.

I know the deer we shot on our last lease in the hill country had a much darker on average meat color than the ones we shoot in south Texas.