Bad antelope meat

[Clownpuncher]

So I need some help. I shot a doe this weekend in Utah's San Rafeal North area and immediately cleaned and skinned her as soon as i could, maybe 5-10 minutes after she took her last breath. After I skinned her, I immediately put her in a truck box with ice blocks below her, above her, and stuffed in her chest cavity. I then wrapped her in an insulated blanket to keep the ice on her intact. I got home and sent her to the processor but not before I cut the tenderloins out to cook that night.
I cooked up the tenderloins on the grill with a nice bacon, onions, garlic, and thyme conconction to help with the dryness of the game meat. I cooked it to about medium/medium rare. As I bit into it, it was horrible. Horrible as in inedible. I have eaten antelope in the past it was always fantastic but for some reason, this one is awful. My question is, since it didn't get a chance for rigor, could this of made the meat so gamey and nasty? Obviously the rest of it is hanging at the processor and should have full rigor and release but I really don't know why the tenderloins were so bad, and I mean bad!
I shot her with a double lung shot, but one weird thing was, I shot her with a 7mm-08 120 grain at about 200 yards. Bullet went in, no exit wound. I could see the double lung holes but it also looked like the bullet bounced around or fragmented around and went down into the guts and intestines because there was alot of "food" everywhere, like when you accidentally nipped the guts with your gutting knife. It was immediately skinned and drained and then I even rinsed it off a little before I put it in the cooler but I just can't, for the life of me, figure out why the tenderloins were that bad.
Anyone have any input or help on this. It almost makes me cringe thinking I might have to get rid of all this meat.

 

[scubohuntr]

A couple of possibilities here. I have butchered exactly one deer before it went into rigor; never again. The meat shrunk up, dumped a lot of water, and was tough and gamey (yearling whitetail doe in agricultural land- shouldn't have been anything but delicious). I don't ever grill game; it always gets dry and livery for me. I'm all about braising or quick searing in a hot fry pan.

Another possibility is the gut issue. I don't even take the tenderloins or liver from any animal with damage behind the diaphragm. Just don't much care for E. coli. I know, rinsed off. Drop a raw T-bone in a fresh cowpie. How much rinsing will it take before you want to eat it?

On the plus side, if either of these was the problem, the rest of the critter shouldn't have an issue, as it will have had plenty of time to stiffen up by the time the processor gets to it, and nothing else is in contact with the gut cavity.

Was the animal relaxed, or had it been running hard?

 

[Clownpuncher]

I missed on the first shot and it ran about 100 yards then stopped. I shot her and then it ran about 20 yards and died. I just got a call from the processor and it is ready to go so I am going to head down later today to pick it up and see how it is. I talked with a co-worker who told me his wife just shot two does a month ago. One was a perfect shot, dropped instantly, and the other was a little back and ran about 100'. I guess the tenderloin on the second was rank. He kept the loins on ice for a week and almost all of the rankness was gone and the meat was fine. Mine was rank smelling so my dumbass decided if i cooked it, it would be fine. Like you said, i'm hoping that since it has been hanging for a little over a week. it will all be good. I guess I'll find out soon enough. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the response.

 

[DW]

Im with scub, any damage behind the diaphragm I pass on the liver and tenderloins. Bet the rest of her eats fine.

#livelikezac

 

[Clownpuncher]

So I finally got to cook up some of the meat. Had some backstraps the other night and they were great. Apparently everyone was right and if they run at ALL, or get juiced, the tenderloins are worthless. Lesson learned.

 

[DW]

I think it was the gut contaminates. The trick I think is getting them on ice asap as you did. There's generally 2 types of antelope, those that are runnin and those that are thinking about runnin! One of my favorite meats if they're cooled quickly! Glad she eats good!


#livelikezac