Very good post ruru. I agree with everything you said. Most of us could care less about deductions when we pull the trigger. Therefore B&C gross scores are all most of us should be interested.

A couple of years our deer camp came up with our own system. We picked out the 3 most desirable traits (decided by us). They were:

1) total inches of antler
2) widest outside spread of the main beams
3) mass

We then weighted each to contribute aprox. 40% total inches, 30% spread, and 30% mass. It was more complicated than B&C so we only used it a couple of years, but the theory behind it was interesting. We especially felt mass is not adequately represented in the B&C. If you had a choice between a MASSIVE 10 pointer whitetail that was 18" wide and a thin racked 10 point rack also 18", which would you take, assuming that total inches was the same? It goes without saying that everyone would take the rack with more mass and yet the B&C score of the first buck, although higher, would not be significantly higher.