That's interesting: husband used to make knife hilts/guards, buttons, and carvings out of deer antler as well.
When we lived down south they used to do a yearly deer cull to keep populations down on the base.
Each shooter got to keep a number of deer based on family size. We only got one, but Southern Whitetail Deer get considerably bigger than the ones up North.
The leftover meat went to the messhalls in some cases, but often went to local charities.
They had a processing plant on base that would cut and wrap your meat for free, and store it on a first come/first served basis.
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times we ate beef, and like you, Janet, it was when we just craved a good, grilled beef steak.
I can occasionally get venison up here in the grocery store, but it is from farmed red deer (European sub-species of our elk) that have been feedlotted. I love elk, but I am not all that fond of the farm raised deer.
A bit of fat in beef adds to the taste, but deer tallow is best left aside.