proper antelope meat care

[Caseknife]

Carry a meat sack in your pack and if you have sage brush around throw the bag of meat on top while you are processing, lets the air move around and help cool. Definitely keep the hair off, and yes it blows easily in the wind. Get it on ice back at the truck.

 

[wapitibob]

thanks all. I dont like wild game for the most part but shot 1 antelope and loved it. Hoping for the same here. On that hunt it was semi guided so the guy just threw it in the back of his truck an drove it to a processor that day. I can prob get close enuf to get it to my truck on this hunt and 15 minutes back to town, but I dont wanna waste money on a processor either. I will prob get the hide off there, bone it out mainly to save room, and get it on ice. It should be cooler when im there so maybe not quite as big an issue.

When I was a kid our game meat tasted like shiit too; because we took it to a processor.
Separate every muscle and if you dry hang it, fillet off the outer crust on those muscles like you'd fillet the skin off a Bass.

 

[TaperPin]

If anyone is curious if it makes a difference to skin or not for your conditions, to prove it to yourself one year cut out a ham, and compare it to the other with skin left on. If it makes a difference everyone at the table should be able to easily tell. Let us know and overnight you would completely change the way antelope are treated by the locals.

Some goats just taste better or worse regardless of how they are kept. I’ve never been able to tell the difference in taste between parts that hold heat, verses those thin parts that cool quickly.

Why does every time an antelope post come up I can almost smell them. lol

 

[butcherboy]

When I was a kid our game meat tasted like shiit too; because we took it to a processor.
Separate every muscle and if you dry hang it, fillet off the outer crust on those muscles like you'd fillet the skin off a Bass.

 

[wytx]

Carry a meat sack in your pack and if you have sage brush around throw the bag of meat on top while you are processing, lets the air move around and help cool. Definitely keep the hair off, and yes it blows easily in the wind. Get it on ice back at the truck.

This, you would be surprised how fast it will cool laying on top of a sage bush.
We do gutless and skin in the field just so we can leave all the leftovers there.
Ice jugs in the cooler so no meat floating in water.
A game cart is handy for antelope but 2 folks can carry one whole out of the field to the truck.

 

[bnsafe]

aw yes, i can take my game cart. cant imagine i will be very far from the truck with what ive been told. will see (i dont mind walking a long ways, just dont think its gonna be this hunt). my wife has now decided she wants to go and take a couple days after the hunt so the difficulty just increased.
I prob shoulda ask how the best way to eat a tag is lol

 

[Renegade14]

Be really careful about where you touch the animal when you're skinning it. Touch one scent gland, and everything you touch after that will taste like they smell. It's a lot worse than making that mistake on other animals. Take good care of the meat though and they are very good eating.

 

[EdP]

What do you consider "fairly close" with your vehicle? Antelope I have killed DIY were about 1/2 mile from my truck, no shade to be had and about 60F. I immediately field dressed, hoofed it to the truck, and returned with my deer cart and a bag of ice (next time it will be two bags). Within an hour of the shot the antelope was on the cart with the ice bag in the body cavity and I was headed back to the truck. 30 min later I was back at the truck with an antelope well on it's way to being cooled down. Then, with the aid of a hitch mounted hoist, I pulled off the skin, broke it down, and put the pieces in food grade plastic bags on ice in my cooler. Obviously, having 4 or 5 bags of ice in a cooler at the truck is key. Each time the meat was delicious.

 

[HiMtnHntr]

Carry game bags and gutless quarter right on the spot. If it’s cold let the meat hang or lay out on the tailgate over night. I freeze milk jugs of water starting in August. Bring 120 qt cooler, put the meat in there with the jugs. Don’t use bags of ice or your meat will eventually get wet.

Carry trash bags and/or small tarp as areas antelope commonly hit the ground in are dusty or loaded with cactus. Lay the meat out on that while you’re working and use it to line your pack.

We average 3-4 Antelope per year is generally everyone’s favorite at the table.

 

[Caseknife]

Even with the bone in the hams and shoulders, max weight with an antelope will be about 40#s, easy peasy.

 

[bnsafe]

thanks all. im gonna freeze water in jugs, quarter or bone it out real quick and move on. I appreciate the info.

 

[cornstalker]

I treat mine the same as anything else. Skin and quarter or bone asap.
If someone can show me how to keep 100% of the hair off of them, I would appreciate it. At this point, I believe that to be impossible, given the way Pronghorns seem to eject their hollow hair.

One thing I have found over the years. If you throw the quarters in a big cooler on ice and close the lid before they cool most of the way down, they will steam up the cooler. I recommend leaving the lid cracked to get some airflow for a while if it's not super dusty.

 

[EdP]

I learned that to keep meat in plastic bags dry in a cooler with ice, use something in the bottom of the cooler to keep the bags up out of the melt water and keep the melt water drained off. Also, pull the open bag end over the edge of the cooler and close the lid on it to prevent any water getting in as the ice melts.

 

[bnsafe]

maybe i should just load it u and run to the processor. it looks like they charge 150 bucks to process a antelope, and I got 2 tags. I hate to drop 300 bucks on wild game. If I can get it back to MO being boned out theres a processor that will grind it up for around 25 bucks

 

[Mule3006Elk]

6 antelope to date. FWIW: I've never had a bad antelope.
Shoot, field dress asap, get on ice asap.
I usually go home after the harvest. In transport I flip the meat bags every 30-45 minutes which cools each side of the quarter. Helps immensely IMO. I do my own processing.

I don't debone. I like the tension on the meat which helps keep the meat tender.
Off the bone > muscle fibers contracts > don't naturally relax after rigor mortis >
due to origin/insertion of muscles has been disrupted.
On the bone > rigor mortis > resolution of rigor > the muscle attachments (origin, insertion)
which are still intact provide tension which helps the muscle fibers relax and stretch.

There are situations where deboning helps. Extreme heat, can't get meat on ice in a timely fashion, etc.

 

[MuleyFever]

Every pronghorn I've ever had was great. I like pronghorn backstraps more than any elk I've had. I've always made sure to have a cooler with ice and get the meat in there right away.

 

[bnsafe]

the only one ive shot was maybe the worst stinking animal ive ever shot. but the meat was great and i dont like wild game.

 

[wytx]

maybe i should just load it u and run to the processor. it looks like they charge 150 bucks to process a antelope, and I got 2 tags. I hate to drop 300 bucks on wild game. If I can get it back to MO being boned out theres a processor that will grind it up for around 25 bucks

You can bone out 2 antelope in about an hour or so, why pay someone else for that and why grind? Get all the steaks you can and some small roasts, not much left to grind. Even the flat irons are good on pronghorn.

 

[EdP]

Friend asked "where do you take your wild game for processing?"

Me: "To the kitchen."

Start to finish incuding clean-up takes the wife and I 3-4 hours to do a deer. That's from being broken down and on ice in a cooler to cut and wrapped in the freezer. Lots of folks are a good bit faster but those few hours are well spent to know what we have is from the animal I took and we got all of it. A pronghorn doesn't take any longer.

 

[Rich M]

I was left to die on a piece of public - "partner" didn't come back til dark. I shot an antelope 5 minutes after light, quartered it into game bag and hung it in a tree in the shade. Guy literally showed up as the colors in the sunset were fading - I had just cleaned antelope No. 2 and hung it in a tree. Put both bags in the ice water in the cooler. The meat was fine.