Deer B would be my first choice , but like everybody else has said ( ether one that came in to my shooting range would be down ) but deer B looks like he has a lot of mass.
As for the tracks , they look like they where left by a big dog.

Both of thoseare very, very nice deer. I'd love to see what they could do with one more year under their belt, so I'd probably let them walk.

On the track, I'm going to say it is some type of cat. The front toes are offset and the animal was moving slowly when it left this track.

B great beams, mass, good tine lengthand mature. My eye has him sitting in the 160 mark area. Spread schmed that is the most over analyzed measurement going and usually the one that is misjudged to boot!

Deer A appears to be either a 5x4 or 4x4 with either a split G2 or matching though a tough angle.Body and feature he looks younger to me, with potential. If a profile or better shot of him I'd be more confident in a score but based on the picturegut issaying 140's.

Good Luck

Deer B ...like ive always said ..."Mass makes class and its badddddd to the bone" !

dd

Deer B, I love the thickness of those antlers!

I don't think that there's any mountain lions in IL, but my guess is a panther, there used to be panthers in huge abundance in that area once upon a time.

Yes these deer are in Illinois. As I post these deer are proboboly no further than 4-8 miles from my seat. What's killing me is that we're fixing to head off to my little niece's birthday party 2nd birthday party. But hey - her little smile can charm old Uncle Matt just as well as either one of those deer. Our bow season runsfor a while yet, but today it's her day.

Well Matt, the way I see it is, you take one, I'll take the other

Good luck man, nice looking deer.

It's definately NOT a dog. no claw marks. look at the left digit of the paw print and notice the defined edge on the surface of the snow. absolutely no clue as to a claw. you will see claw marks on dog prints. Any measure on the intergroup size or spread of the track?
Other indicators to me are the size of the track from your description and the lack of a concave arch on the base of the pad. Also since they are pretty aged it's tough to tell but you can make out a double-lobe on the top of the central pad - that indicates a cat family creature.

I'm going with cougar for sure.

B!!!! I like mass.

I have seen a few cat tracks in my life while in Colorado. I believe it to be a rather big kitty kat!

Lets look at the fact it's in IL. Not a cougar. I'm not a track expert, but doesn't look like a cat track their toes are different. Their toes are in line and make kind of a rainbow.