Wounded deer question...

So, my son shot a small "8" point this past Saturday morning. He was a typical 8 on his left side, the other side had appeared to have dropped. We initially thought it was broken off, but after closer inspection, there wasn't any sign of breakage, looked like a clean "drop". This deer had a noticeable limp from the blind (opposite side of the dropped antler). He wouldn't put that leg down at all, which was our deciding factor to harvest him. He also had a noticeable wound as well, about an inch and a half in diameter. It didn't appear to be too fresh and some what healed. After we got him back to the house and hung up, you could see that that leg was obviously swollen and would not straighten completely. It had a softball size mass that was as hard as bone on the leg around the knee.

We quartered him up that morning and yesterday I processed him, slicing some jerky meat and grinding the rest for chili meat to make sausage out of later. We kept most of the backstrap out for dinner last night. This is the part that confuses me. That backstrap was as tough as I have ever had. Almost inedible. Was this a result of the injury? There was no obvious signs that the deer was fevered or sick as a result of the injury. Other than the limp and small wound, he appeared more or less healthy. The meat had no odor or obvious signs of not being any good. My wife and daughter didn't eat it, and it was all my son and I could do to choke it down.

Curious on your thought....

Just me. But I wouldn't have eaten it. But respect you tried.....

It didn't taste bad, just extremely tough.

Grind it up

It's probably fine. If it had any yellow slime or sign of infection I wouldn't eat it. If it doesn't, and smells fine, grind it up.

It’s at the back end of the rut. Was there any body fat on the buck? I’m thinking the buck was real low on body fat due to the rut and his being injured, and that’s been an indicator on tough and less than juicy meat. If i’m hunting for the freezer, I like to get deer early in the season, when body fat is high.

My wife would suggest that you grind the meat and mix it with pork and pork fat or beef and beef fat.

Have eaten a few deer that had broken legs and didn't notice any difference in the toughness of cuts. I would grind it.

The last one was a doe with a broke front leg, the lower portions of the leg had some yellowish jell/liquid built up around it, but the rest of the deer appeared fine. We gave it a healthy margin while trimming and scrapped the broken leg. I have heard people say deer that die quickly eat better and after 20 years of eating combinations ranging from head shot dead before they hit the ground to gut shot and ran God only knows how far have come to the conclusion that some are just tuffer than others with no correlation on how long it took them to die. I also don't notice a difference in letting it sit in a cooler on ice for a week or so either.

Take smaller bites and always chew twice

Come to think of it, I don't recall much fat at all. That makes more sense than it having to do with the injury. I will make the majority of it into sausage of some sort.



There was no indication of infection or fever. Until I ate it, I wouldn't of doubted that anything was wrong. 90% of it got ground up so I am sure it will be fine. I just didn't know if there was any correlation between the toughness and the injury.

Another possible theory - Was the injured leg up front, maybe he was compensating for the injury some with his hind legs and back muscles? Thereby, strengthening his backside and backend and also toughening it unusually. Could be that in addition to late season kill with little fat on the dude....

Maybe it was the cook....

It was the back right leg.



If my wife had cooked it, I might agree.

I shot what I thought was a lame doe at the end of last season. Turned out to be a buck that had already dropped its antlers. Rear foot was severely messed up to where it wasn't using that leg. Don't remember it being tough, meat tasted fine, think I ground most of it up.

I wondered if the injury and the missing antler were related? I am assuming so.

I have read that they will drop early if they are injured, 1st time I have seen it.

This happened to my Dad many years ago. A doe wounded and harvested by Dad and the meat was so tough we couldn't it.