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What would this buck score?

The antlers don't appreciably shrink. The skull dries and can curl slightly causing a slight narrowing of the spread. Putting it in the freezer delays that skull shrinkage. The advantage some folks are trying to get is minuscule. And it needs to be measured ASAP after removing from the freezer to get the advantage. The idea behind scoring if you're into it, is to have a comparative number to other critters. Kinda stupid to compare apples to oranges.

Anyway, green score the buck, some of us are keenly invested in our guesstimates. LOL
 
kbetts said:
IMO, you shouldn't be able to measure air space. Measure the bone, note the spread. It should be inches of antler only.
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I've always thought this.
I also don't like deductions. If it grew, it should count.
I killed a few that gross in the 130s but deductions put them in the low 120s. But that's okay, I don't enter them anyway.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
I've always thought this.
I also don't like deductions. If it grew, it should count.
I killed a few that gross in the 130s but deductions put them in the low 120s. But that's okay, I don't enter them anyway.
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Yes, I agree. I shot a monster 2 years ago that would “score” low after deductions. I don’t quite get it - the system actually encourages bucks with clean racks to be removed from the gene pool and ones with odd racks to be left to spread their genetics. In theory that will create more oddballs over time. (I realize that some odd racks are that way due to circumstances during velvet and not genetics.) Personally I’m not really interested in official scoring, at this point. Success really should be measured on a personal / regional basis.

most importantly, to the OP:
Congrats to you and your son! That’s a memory you’ll both always treasure!!
 
Ceteris paribus, a wider rack is more impressive to see and we're in a sense measuring what makes a deer impressive.

I'd be interested in a scoring system that just involves dunking the rack in water and measuring displacement. But I also agree with deductions since asymmetry is generally an error in most organisms. A lopsided buck was likely either injured or potentially has other genetic abnormalities, and we know antlers serve as a sexual selection signal for does. If you have two equally massive racks but one is symmetrical and one isn't, the symmetrical one is biologically more desirable in my understanding, so I can see scoring it higher.

Really it'd be cool to have a score that involved standard B&C measurements, displacement, age, and weight. With a modifier based on the subspecies.

Wonder when we'll be able to 23-and-me (or really 70-and-me) the deer we shoot...
 
Nutterbuster said:
Wonder when we'll be able to 23-and-me (or really 70-and-me) the deer we shoot...
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brilliant. This study would be so damn revealing. If everyone in the country who killed a deer was required to submit a tooth, or whatever specimen was required for testing, the data base would quickly be extensive.
 
Jammintree said:
brilliant. This study would be so damn revealing. If everyone in the country who killed a deer was required to submit a tooth, or whatever specimen was required for testing, the data base would quickly be extensive.
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About the same as taking a feather when you check a turkey...at least here in DE. Goes in an envelope of its own.
 
I got this photo in July in Pa. What do you all think he will score?
 

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Asking how much a buck would score from a photo in the wild, is like asking how much a fish would weigh from a photo in the water. o_O
Ya gotta catch the fish, first! ;) Estimates will serve no purpose, if you can't catch the fish.

A fish in the hand is worth a thousand estimates. - Chinese Confucius
 
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