NEWSHOOTER

Whack em then measure them

MILLERTIME10

I like your formula Dalejbrass, I have never heard of that before. I will have to start trying that. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Fieldmouse

That was interesting. My method was a little diff. I look at size,width and mass. They all must be huge or I'll shoot the bambi.

silentassassin

It would have to be a heck of an 8pt though to score 136. This deer is going to have to have a 17 inch spread, bases that are close to 5 inches and then hold it's mass pretty well, and it's going to have to have main beam that are in the 23 inch range inorder to score 136. That's not a bad method but the deer has to have a lot more going for it than just the tine length for it to work. I would imaging the formula would work better for a ten than it would an since you also have the additional circumfrence measurement to take up some of the slack it may lose in other areas. I don't think it would be the method for a new hunter to use when money was on the line. JMO Someone with a little more experience could use it very effectively as a tool for judging because you would also be able to take into consideration mass, spread, and main beam length, again JMO.

Dalejbrass

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.

Dalejbrass

This Buck (which is the first deer mentioned in my last post) was harvested last year and scored in the mid 140's (Gross). He is also not WIDE - only 14 1/2" outside, but his left side is awesome. His right side is weak, but full of character, which is why I shot him. If his right side would have matched his right left side, he would have scored much much higher! He has great mass, which carries all the way thru the main beams. His eye guards are on the weak side. Give this guy 6-8" eye guards and a better right side and I would have had 160" deer.

Dalejbrass

Exactly Silentassassin......you cannot forget about mass, eye guards, etc. Your also correct in saying that this method requires some experience. As stated earlier, my friend knew the method but is inexperienced. He miss judged his deer by a good 20-25 inches. If I haven't already said it, let me say it now - the deer has to have decent mass for this method to work properly. 3 1/2 year old and older bucks!!

With that said - the first buck picture post is your 150" eight point that you mentioned would be difficult. Difficult yes - impossible no! But look at the tine length (he's actually a nine-pointer with the G-2 kicker-but you get my point).

silentassassin

didn't see your last post

MILLERTIME10

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Good point, a buddy of mine shot a deer last year with 19 scoreable points and the longest tine was 7 inches. It ended up scoring 167", they guessed it to be 6 1/2 to 71/2 years old and had a ton of mass.