ORIGINAL: GregH
To me the the biggest problem with deductions pertains to sticker points.
Example: You have a nice 5x5 that has matching 4" stickers on each of his g-2's. He is still symetrical. What do they do? Subtract 8" from the gross score when the stickers (abnormal points) were not even counted in the first place!! This makes no sense. I can see the side to side deductions for the scorable points, but to subtract something that wasn't counted in the first place just isn't right. When scoring as a typical, the stickers should be left out, not subtracted.
I agree with your viewpoint Greg, but to the 'experts', the deer with the stickers isn't as textbook 'perfect' as the deer without them! It's all a load of BS to me. I've seen higher scoring 3 y/o deer that don't hold a candle to a lower scoring 5-6y/o deer as far as mass, beadwork and overall good looks. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.