Which one to shoot.

Hypothetically speaking would you rather shoot a younger buck, bull, ram, whatever with a respectable set of head gear, that is also good table fare. Or are you more inclined to shoot a big ole narly buck, bull, ram, that is only good for maybe sausage, but has the head gear to brag about. Curious what your opinion is. I have in mind particularly Barbary sheep "Aoudad" in Texas, which I know can taste pretty gamey when old and full of years. Some on the THF will not eat them. Let me know what you guys think.

Big ole narly. I've got axis to eat on my place.

for deer I either shoot a yearling doe, or a buck that I will mount, nothing in the middle. --------- Never hunted sheep.

I'll always eat what I shoot but I'm a horn hunter, the bigger the better.

Meat eater here, can't eat the horns and my house ceiling is to low. Not necessarily young but don't go the old gray haired ones, like me.

It doesn't matter so big nasty. I've been fortunate to have many great hunts and have killed a good share of trophy animals so a few years ago I decided I'd challenge myself to learn more about processing animals in order to glorify them but turning them into something amazing for the table. We have an opportunity to make good organic meat that's good for you and makes the act of hunting come full circle when the game is taken very good care of and processed with care.

That being said I've taken rank boars and old stinky wt does and turned them into great table fare by this process.

1 cup of baking soda and half a cup of salt in lots of ice. You let your quarters soak four days and replace ice as necessary. I like to let the meat sit in the melted ice water with the salt/soda mix one whole day. Then I drain and keep adding ice as necessary. You'll see the meat change color the first day.
After that even the steaks will taste good but my favorite thing to do is ground the meat with grass fed beef fat if I can find it

This^^^^^^

does for meat....mature bucks for trophies

dont eat the sheep !! i tried to every way possible but its nasty every one of those ways . so the horns are what i look for in sheep.

I'll take a pile of does anyday

Depends on how much meat is in the freezer. Food comes first! If I've already shot a doe or two, I'm horn/antler hunting. Otherwise I'm hunting for a legal animal, and no I don't shoot young bucks other than one spike that was aged at 3yrs old

None of the above. I'll take a nice tender doe any day.

Wont eat the sheep. Don't have much urge to hunt stuff I'm not going to try and eat. Heck I eat javalina and I wont clean another Audad ram, that should say something.

meat first.

We've had ONE buck in nearly 40 years of hunting in Mills County that wasn't edible, and that was ~1985 or so. Bigger deer means more meat, and bigger horns are a bonus.

I've heard many conflicting things on Aoudad but have no first-hand knowledge so I can't really say. But, if I'm hunting them, I'm likely looking for the biggest one.

Bigger also means tougher on every deer i have ever had. It will have more meat but for a old fart like myself i will take a doe or small buck any day for eating. Now that said it doesnt mean i wont take a big ol buck if i get the chance.

I'm a collector and want to hunt as many different types of animals as I can. I try to eat what I can, but when out of the country, most of it is eaten by the locals. I've found the deer meat, no matter how old it is, I just grind it up into sausages of some kind. I love sausages, and enjoy grilling them a couple times a week.

My wife enjoys shooting does and hogs, so she does most of our meat hunting. We have hogs on our land, and it's not very hard to take one or two every now and then.

If a big rack doesn't excite you, you should quit.

LOVE BIG RACKS! But will leave that joke alone. For eating younger is better.

You gotta double entendre going on there yourself, big boy.

I will eat any thing I kill if I am hungry enough. For the most part every game animal gets eaten. The exception is hogs because I would need 15 freezers to keep up with thinning them out. The second exception is Aoudad...I would have to be damn hungry to even think about it. If I did it would be low and slow with bacon grease and lots of salt and then gravy, and I am getting a little green around the gills thinking about it!!!!

As far as age on a deer, I have shot plenty of old "sausage bucks" and prepared the steaks the same as I have a yearling doe and they have been plenty good to me! I will never turn my nose up to any venison!!!

I'll have to agree about the Aoudad!!!

Wouldnt kill a deer and not eat it, young or old.

If I had more opportunities to kill big things, I'd kill them, like my 30" aoudad. He tasted AMAZING by the way; y'all just don't know how to cook em

Great responses guys Thanks for the different perspectives, I think preparation has a lot to do with it and how you care for the meat in the hour after a kill. I will try the baking soda salt bath technique, and see how that works. I have a friend that uses an ice water bath with garlic salt and say's that works. As always lots of good information on the THF.

I'm always hunting for a mature animal to harvest. That being said I enjoy eating all deer I kill, doe and bucks.

Auodad I have not eaten yet.....but would at least try it. Hogs mostly get eaten by predators. But I do enjoy the small to medium size on occasion.

If you are shooting an old deer or elk they taste just as good as a younger one in my opinion. The reason they taste bad to most hunters is because hunters leave them on the back of the truck and don't clean as fast because they want to show it off. Just get the meat on ice asap. Now an old aoudad won't matter what you do. They are no bueno.

Big old and narly. Never killed a buck that wasn't good to eat. I'm a fair cook and make about the best jerky I have ever had.

We don't shoot any buck under 4.5 yrs.......Shoot doe for good meat. Everyone who shoots a buck should shoot at least one doe here in Texas.

I believe the taste of any meat starts with field care, keep it clean, dry and cool. Aging meat and allowing the blood to drain and the enzymes to break down will also help, I plan on converting an old fridge into a mini cooler for that down here. I have also found that once I started butchering my own game I can control the outcome. There are several tricks to make that old bull/buck taste tender with a little quality prep time in the kitchen.