Antelope fun!!

[TinMan]

Well put, Dean2.

[Bayou City Boy]

I have no opinions good or bad concerning what someone might shoot how far away as long as the animal is taken and used. My only concern here was the use of unnecessary words. As said earlier, the posters expressed opinions that were perhaps both valid based on experience or whatever.

However, while smiling about long ago, I do have to say something about the comment that antelope meat is very good. I will agree withe that statement if forage is considered.

For the most part, my early hunting took place while living in Wyoming. Antelope taken where there was good forage such as farm lands and wheat fields, the meat was delicious. Unfortunately in Wyoming where many "antelope roam" on open range sage infested prairie, an antelope taken there often stinks of sage when you walk up to a kill and it doesn't get any better as the goat is gutted as the sage smell permeates the meat too.

My Dad liked to hunt for large tines, and that typically meant "sage goat" lands. Neighborhood cats would't eat the raw meat when it was left for them, and my Mother would only cook the meat outside on a grill to keep the sage smell out of the house. It all made for some chilly early fall evening picnics in the back yard for my Dad and me.

It was tough eating sage infested goat at times, but I was young, growing, and perpetually hungry. So my Dad and I "soldiered on" at times.

Just an old memory..........

-BCB

[Bill K]

Interesting BCB. Over many years and having eaten many Pronghorn, even in the sage/rim rock and flats of my area, if field dressed as soon as possible, after it is on the ground and opened so he can begin cooling and then skinned and cooled further, as soon as you can get it out of the field/hunt area and hopefully a cooler, I have never eaten a bad piece of meat from one.
It is more in how you handle and care for the animal, after it is shot, than anything else.
And that can surely apply to a lot of the big game we hunt or hunted and killed.

As for the odor of sagebrush, it is a fresh, sweet smelling plant and early mornings camping out to sniff that odor is great, along with a cup of campfire coffee.

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by Bill K

Interesting BCB. Over many years and having eaten many Pronghorn, even in the sage/rim rock and flats of my area, if field dressed as soon as possible, after it is on the ground and opened so he can begin cooling and then skinned and cooled further, as soon as you can get it out of the field/hunt area and hopefully a cooler, I have never eaten a bad piece of meat from one.
It is more in how you handle and care for the animal, after it is shot, than anything else.
And that can surely apply to a lot of the big game we hunt or hunted and killed .

As for the odor of sagebrush, it is a fresh, sweet smelling plant and early mornings camping out to sniff that odor is great, along with a cup of campfire coffee.

Oh my.......

With all due respect, Bill, what I bolded from your post maybe makes for nice internet chatter over your fresh cup of coffee, but I can assure you that it was not a factor in what I'm talking about. How the meat was handled after a kill was the same whether the antelope came from a sage patch or from a corn field. Ignorance of how to handle wild game was not an issue for my Dad. He grew up hunting on a ranch in south Texas, so he learned early in life how to quickly take care of freshly killed wild meat.

As I mentioned, you could usually and quickly smell what the meat was likely going to taste like from the prairie, and it was entirely different from the arid farm land taste of the same specie of meat. As I also mentioned in my post, the freshly killed antelope typically smelled of dry sage and the meat usually reflected that smell too. It was largely the only diet the antelope lived on.

Come to NE Wyoming in the fall and I bet you'll notice a different odor between sage that you smell at home and dried sage which a Wyoming "sage goat" dines on most of the year. And for the record, I didn't create the words "sage goat". It had its own meaning to the natives who hunted antelope. And many where I lived back then didn't hunt them because of the same issue. My best friend's dad back then just smiled when he heard of people eating prairie killed antelope.

Nice try for a universal fit, but thanks for the lesson anyway.

-BCB

[kenbro]

Hearing stuff like that is very interesting.
Ken.
PS it’s probably why I don’t eat Canada goose meat.

[Bill K]

I can assure you, that over the past 83 years of my life, I have hunted in most every western state, Alaska and some European areas.
No matter the fresh organic meat killed and cared for was always fine eating.

Do some have a odor on the hides, due to rut, etc. Sure do. But the meat was fine eating and gave good meals.
So I will end this chatter on game handling and just enjoy the fine eating I have each year and continue to enjoy eating fine meals, as thousands of other hunter do each year in every state and country around this great old world of ours. I do hope you can also find some good food and drink and enjoy life more.

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by Bill K

I can assure you, that over the past 83 years of my life, I have hunted in most every western state, Alaska and some European areas.
No matter the fresh organic meat killed and cared for was always fine eating.

Do some have a odor on the hides, due to rut, etc. Sure do. But the meat was fine eating and gave good meals.

So I will end this chatter on game handling and just enjoy the fine eating I have each year and continue to enjoy eating fine meals, as thousands of other hunter do each year in every state and country around this great old world of ours. I do hope you can also find some good food and drink and enjoy life more.

Its very obvious you know absolutely nothing about my life.

I've been blessed in ways that I definitely don't deserve in terms of family and life style. I live where I want to live, family in terms of children and others are very close by, and I'm not obsessed with discussing the politics of where I live that I might find to be less than I might want in a perfect world with anyone who might listen, even though I have been active politically for causes I find important to me. I hunt and shoot when and where I want within reason, and what I just said in this sentence is far from what defines my life in total even though these things too are important to me.

Whether you want to believe what I posted about antelope from my experiences as a youth or anything else about me based on your experiences in life are one of the last things that might ruin my day today.

Enjoy your life today if you can. I know that I will. About 4 hours from now I'll be in a different world south west of me with my wife along for a nice 4-wheeler ride at sunset far from the city suburb where I am now.

-BCB

[Bill K]

Enjoy your life today if you can. I know that I will.

-BCB[/quote]

Thank you BCB. I really will, I am probably the most contented person you would ever meet and don't know it.
I truly enjoy every day and always have, even when some bumps in the road pop up at times. Just another day in paradise.
In fact light snow falling and will just help make the hunting better all around here, which I will also enjoy.

[Kiwishooter]

What an animal eats does flavour the meat, feed sheep mint before you kill them and you can taste the mint, let them get out on the thyme and the meat is disgusting and inedible by most.
Something I learnt from experience...………..Kiwi

[foxhunter]

i find it odd that i can agree with BCB and Bill K, both are fine gentlemen. i like BCB have hunted the wind blown eastern part of Wyoming for Sage goats. they defiantly have a stronger smell that the ones i shot on winter wheat in eastern Colorado.
that said I won't eat antelope because i just don't like it but i will eat it if made into jerky. I gave all my sage goats to a friend of mine and Kevin Weaver a, gunsmith named Norm Thompson. he ate it like candy no matter where it came from, different taste buds for different folks.

Bill i never realized how young you are.