Thread: What deer is this?

Originally Posted by gilly

Rusa shot n the Wairarapa 2 weeks ago by one of my boys.
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@gilly

Nice. From one of the game parks, or a wild one?

Reds during the roar Worcester sauce was our friend.

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Originally Posted by Yesmate

sika in the mid/southern ruahines

Yep theres a handful in pockets on the mid East side. Have shot a couple off the No mans rd as well.

There’s been the odd one knocked over in the Whirinaki - Waipunga area too.

The weight of the head and neck relative to the body size - def isn't a sika and not sambar so really narrows it down a touch. Also quite short in the length of head although could be the camera angle a bit too!

The favourite deer meat for eating thing is a bit of an interesting one, the best meat is that which is properly prepared and treated I reckon. Had red which was garbage, not well butchered and carried out bone in in rubbish bags and left to sweat. Next with a bit of educmacation old mate gutted and boned it out and left it hanging overnight in 2degC which sorted out the heat and bone issue, much better and a longer drive home... Fallow if done properly and correctly hung just melts in your mouth, but like anything treated wrong its as gamey as. There's a lot to be said about taking the neck out at the base of the skull and letting the thing bleed out at the kill to get rid of a lot of the stuff that causes the gamey taste in the meat, although it's not a shot you take unless things are pretty much perfect.

Originally Posted by Maxx

@gilly

Nice. From one of the game parks, or a wild one?

An escapee we think.

I fried up a bit of Rusa for lunch today - tasted pretty good to me. Not sure I'd pick the difference from a decent bit of red deer steak. My experience with fallow has been mixed - some very mild, one young buck that was unpleasantly gamey. I'd put Red & Rusa equal first place ahead of fallow based on my experience.

I’ve been told before that there’s rusa between Owairaka Valley Rd and Arapuni Rd. Thought it was BS, apparently not.

Originally Posted by PaulNZ

I fried up a bit of Rusa for lunch today - tasted pretty good to me. Not sure I'd pick the difference from a decent bit of red deer steak. My experience with fallow has been mixed - some very mild, one young buck that was unpleasantly gamey. I'd put Red & Rusa equal first place ahead of fallow based on my experience.

Fallow bucks can be rough April to Nov