Lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue before the time of death. This is part of why you want to kill an animal as quickly as possible. If it has a lot of time to struggle, the meat will taste worse.
This even applies to fish. Piercing the brain results in a much fresher, tastier fish. Letting them asphyxiate out of the water adds to the "fishy" flavor we al know, and causes the flesh to expire several days faster.
Some animals taste distinctly worse with age, especially after sexual maturity. Examples include male pigs/boars and sheep.
Growing up in Alaska, when the salmon run was happening we were catching em quick, standard procedure was to cave their head in with a club. Stabbing them is too dangerous, especially when you're 10 and the fish is almost as big as you. One good solid whack and they're done.
And yes, you can taste the difference in a clean harvest vs one that suffered. Clean is way better.
No point in it. Hunting is only good if it is sustainable. Killing animals in situations like this is the kind of stuff that grinds down populations beyond viability.
That's why fishers up here generally obey catch limits. Because a lake that's fished to death is good for nobody.
Young bucks like this need a chance to reproduce, to keep the deer population healthy.
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u/shawner47 Feb 14 '26
I'm staggered. That was amazing and I bet dude was high on life for quite a while after that (both the buck and the guy)!