I'm having sort of a little "discussion" with a buddy about this. I usually go by the gross score and he goes by the net. He says that no one ever goes by the gross. I'm not talking about putting a buck into any books. We don't care about that stuff and having your name printed doesn't excite us. But just in general...what do all of you go by?

I usually think gross is a better size representative.

If you're not booking the buck the gross will be the bigger score. If you're talking about book bucks then it would definately be the net score after the drying period.

Gross is what God gave him. Net is a loophole man created to garner bragging rights...

Gross everytime.

Yes, when folks speak of score I want to know how many inches of horn the buck has! It means very little and puts absolutely nothing into perspective when two hunters say that they have both taken 130 class bucks! Now if we know that one is a clean little 8 pointer BUT the other was a 150 class 5x5 frame with split brows and a little sticker on his G2..... that's what I want to know as a 150 class animal, NOT a 130 class, so we REALLY know what everyone is talking about. I personally simply do NOT believe a buck should be so heavily penalized for "character".

I hear gross first then many times the hunter tells me what it nets. I've seen many bucks that "looked" better to me but didn't score well netwise because of deductions.

Having said that...........I still believe Pope & Young and Boone & Crockett are the best.

gross score is all that matters to gauge how big the deer actually is.

but as long as the buck or doe is a trophy to you, to hell with how many inches of antler it may or may not have

Here here to the comments above. Its the bone they grow. Its how we explain to each other what we're really talkin about...gross is the way we go. I could care about the book, wouldn't even enter if i could, i do this for me anyhow.

B

Personally I like the gross score as well.The deer should be awarded every inch he grew,not deducted because the right brow tine was forked or the G2 on the right was 2 inches longer then the left.To me the gross score tells me really how big the animal is.

Now on a side note are there still people measuring by the buckmasters credit system.I havent heard anything about this scoring method for quite some time,It only makes scence to me to score every inch the animal grew without deductions and not measuring air as well.(meaning inside spread)If I have the scoring technique of the buckmasters credit system wrong then I would hope someone would set me straight

Personally I think gross should be the only score. Net is kind of dumb if you ask me. If anything, they can take the ratio of gross/net measurements to come up with a symmetry score. That way you still get the idea of the size of the buck with nothing taken away, and you see the ratio closest to one having the more perfect symmetry.