Around my neck of the woods there are not many big deer. As far as judging them by score, no idea here. I go by spread and size of tines now. I let the young ones go and try to shoot decent to nice eights or better. Don't get me wrong, if it is a BIG six or seven, I will take a shot but it better be a nice one with decent tines and a sixteen inch or larger spread would be nice too. Really I am just looking for that nice buck that is better than most average ones around here. We have a QDM in one area I hunt which I like a lot so I can see more of the bucks mature a year or two but in the other area the neighbors and inlaws will shoot anything with leagal antlers while I am passing up most everything.

On my family property, we saw two nice 10 last year during season both with 17-18 inch inside spread. One had a lot more mass than the other and a little more tine length with the longest we figured to be around 9 inches. These are much better than average bucks for our area and I heard of no one who shot one. If they are around again this year, I hope to get a crack at one. I think the attached rub is from one of the big boys and it is the biggest rub I have ever found. Oh am I getting excited!!!!