RE: Is this the same buck ??
I say same deer. Both pictures reveal a trademark left H3 measurement that is abnormally large. For me, that's the smoking gun.
The double-throat patch would be equally convincing, but you just can't see enough of it in the opposite photo, due to the lighting and the body positioning.
The apparent tine length discrepanciesin both photos simply demonstrate a different photograph angle. You could put these two pictures together, however to get a really good score estimate on this guy.
I think the tine lengths, spread and mass measurements jive fairly well through both pictures. Left crab claw. Matching brows, evenly positioned on the beam - both relatively weak for a buck of this size. Again, trademarks.
Granted, it's not easy to differentiate between two clean 5x5's, but if I were scoring both deer - every tine matches. The only real perceived "discrepancies" occur when the tines are tilting either toward or away from the camera - and you feel like you're "guessing" at the length. You only get a true tine length on tines that are perpendicular to the lens.
If that makes any sense at all...