I am newby myself since 2006 and every year I have harvested on all my deer and pronghorn tags. I have not hunted a elk yet, but when I get some time I will. I mostly grill the meats obtained from these hunts and my guests who have had bad experinces with the gamey flavor elsewhere always want more when I cook it. I use some cool tools to process my meats from the minute the animal goes down to when I am in my garage or kitchen doing final processing. The tools are manufactured by Colorado based Outdoor Edge http://www.outdooredge.com/default.asp. I love that swing blade for field dressing! You can obtain how to DVDs from Outdoor edge here. http://www.outdooredge.com/game-proc...ideos-s/26.htm . I belive the key to advoiding much of the gamey taste in the animals is the hunters ability to skin, field process and cool the animal as fast as possible. I have been informed that much of the bad taste people may expereince can be from the natural decay of the meats because they were not field processed right away. Now I have had only 4 years of experience hunting but I have gotten better after each harvest as I learn to process the animals better and better. No offense to the butchers out there but I rather do it myself. I know the meat I have is mine and not a mix of other hunters harvest.