lou-lou

Going on a guided hunt to illinois this year, brown county to be exact. Haven't had much experience with judging whitetail bucks racks. Their is a minimum score on the deer that can be harvested or a fine will be imposed. I really don't want to be fined. Is their any method that that I can use to judge a bucks rack. Examples, tine length, mass, spread. Need advice

Washington Hunter

I'm sure that if it is a quality guide service that has required minimum size on harvestable deer they will have a small course to teach you how to judge a shooter in the field before you head out.

AR 34 eight point

Thats a good question I would like to know too!

Rack-attack

Well....whats the min. score

Judging over 110" is a whole lot easier than judging over 150........LOL

HAZCON7

Love to hear how this hunt goes. I've heard from friends that Brown county is some of the best hunting in Illinois. I've also heard that you can't throw a stick in Brown county without hitting an outfitter too though [8D]

MILLERTIME10

It is tough to rough score a deer in the field. It takes a lot of practice and time to do it half-way consistant. I have been working on it the last 5 years or so and I am still not real consistant at it. When I watch hunting videos, I am always trying to guess the score before they show the score on the screen. The main thing, 1st off, is to know your scoring chart, you have to know how to score a deer before you can accurately do it in the field. Go to the Boone & Crocket website and get the score sheet printed out and take some racks you have and start scoring them. Once you get that down then you can start measuring the deer in your head. After a while you can just look at the deer and get a general idea of what he will score. I have improved a lot since I have started, but like I said it takes a lot of time and experience to get only half-way consistant, and some people do it better than others. Hope I helped you out a little, and good luck on your hunt.

JZarr

Like everyone said - judging a buck's rack while it's still on his head and he's walking around can be a tough thing. Sometimes a big-bodied deer's rack will appear smaller than it is, and a small deer's rack will appear bigger than it is. A small rule of thumb I was taught a long time ago that usually holds fairly true is that if a buck's inside spread is out to the tips of his ears you're looking at about 18". Most bucks with an 18" spread, at least 8 points, and somewhat decent mass will score every bit of 110". So I guess unless you have a buck coming in with a tight, massive rack with points sticking out all over the place - try to hold out for one that's about out to his ears. That's pretty much the standard I've always gone by anyways.

Solax

Check out this site. It's a good starter but nothing compares to the real thing.

http://www.bowsite.com/BOWSITE/featu...NG/WHITETAILS/

Dalejbrass

Lou-lou - I understand your dilema......I took a buddy on his first guided hunt for trophy whitetails and he ended up shooting a 109" 9-pointer. Initially, he thought that he had harvested the next state record. After paying the $500.00 fine, he realized he hadn't.

I'm going to give my "general" rule-of-thumb technic that was taught to me and has worked extremely well for me:

First - This rule applies to field scoring a typical 8-point buck.

Guestimate the length of the G-2 & the G-3 on either side and then add them together (The distance between most men's index finger and thumb when extended completely is approximately 8") You will need to practice this step to become fairly accurate because this is the hard part.

Then, multiply that number by 2 (example; left G2 = 10 inches, left G-3 = 8 inches = 18 inches x 2 = 36)

Put a 1 in front of that number (136)

You will have a "fairly" close gross field score.

Now, things to take into consideration; If the rack is spindly, you should subtract upwards of 10-20 points off the total. If the deer's eye guards are very short, you should subtract 5-10 points.

If the bucks rack has good or great mass and good browe tines, you could add up to 10" or so. If he has additional points, he will score higher.

This is not an exact science, but it will get you relatively close within a few seconds.

It is extremely difficult to hunt an area that can or will produce multiple big buck sightings for the first time!!! I did it four years ago and just about went bizerk! Fortunately for me, my cousin is the ranch foreman and I was able to doe hunt this property several times before my buck hunt. The second time on stand I had a 170-175" buck under my stand for 2 hours, 29 minutes and 54 seconds. I'll never forget that!! Like he said - YOU WILL KNOW when it is a shooter. If you second guess him, don't shoot. It's that simple.

The other thing that I would highly recommend is hours of video footage from a company that will post the gross scorings of the buck after the harvest. Practice scoring the deer quickly before the hunter harvest the deer, wait to see the gross score and see how you did. Monster Buck videos are an excellent choice for this. I was able to guess within about a 5" margin every single buck harvested on Monster Bucks 10 with this formula.

Good luck and I hope you shoot a big one!!

bowhuntt

What is the min. score?

I would guess it at like 125 or something in that case make sure the antlers are at the ears or wider, that it has some mass, and has 8 or more points i believe i have heard that white tails hav like 6in ears do you can use their ears to rough guess the length of tines and so forth. also these restrictions are to get you to shoot an older buck. learn how to guess age as well ive seen 2 Y/Os in the 160 but i have also seen spikes that were like 6 so just remember that for QDM to work they need to take older bucks but remember that even if a fine implies you are going on this hunt to enjoy the outdoors and have a great time, just shoot a deer you are cofortable with and that you like. i have some very big deer mounts but my favorites are the ones with unique antler for example i have a 10 point strait up that scores over 160 but i like a younger buck i killed that scored 150 with 19 points they werent long but it has more meaning than some of my bigger deer hope this helps