You've obviously got to take into consideration the body size of the deer you'll be hunting. For example, the deer I shot last year looked more like a 120-125" deer from a distance, but when I realized how big his body was - a slipped an arrow behind his shoulder. He ended up gross scoring in the mid-140's and weighed 250 lbs on the hoaf. He was a horse of a deer. There were a couple of hunters in camp from Texas that passed up several 2 bucks that would have easily exceeded the 155" range simply because they were used to hunting 120-150 lb deer (we know this because both hunters had 15-20 minutes of video footage on each deer - all within bow range). They were really sick when my cousin described each buck to a tee and asked them why they didn't take them. They just slumped down in their chairs and said I really @#%$^ up!!!

There was also a guy that didn't shoot an "older" buck (as he described it) because he said none of his tines appeared to be over 8". Long story short, my cousin killed him 2 weeks later and the deer scored 169". HE HAD 17 scorable points. You don't need tine length when there are LOTS of them. THIS deer had 5 1/2" bases.

REMEMBER - the difference between a buck with an inside spread of 15" and 20" is 5 INCHES. In the scheme of things, width has very little impact on the deers gross score. In other words, don't pass up a buck that appears to be narrow, if he has good tine length, mass, browe tines, etc. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule. I think Rack-Attack shot a buck that appears to be extremely wide for a whitetail. If he is 24" or better wide - shoot him!! You won't see many of those.

With all of this said - if he turns you on, then harvest him and forget about THE score. Scores aren't everything!!! For instance, the buck I am posting grossed at 150". A FRIEND of the taxidermist that I sent him too, decided on his OWN that he give him an official score of 131" (due to deductions, etc.) Take a look at this guy and tell me if I should be concerned about the score. He is hanging proudly on my wall in my office and I revisit the hunt every single day - I could care less and he is not in any book at a measely 131". That would not due him any justice. He was a mature stud of a deer that had fought his ground boldy!!! He was only 15 inches wide. His right G-2 is 14", his left G-2 is 13". his G-3's are 11 & 12" and he has a 7" kicker off the right G-2. He doesn't have much for eye guards (or might have reached the mid 150's and he's not extremely massive. The one thing I remember is seeing his left side from about 80 yards and I knew right then and there that he was mine if given the opportunity! The end of the story. Sorry - I get excited sometimes.