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scoring whitetails:

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loneranger

Well-Known Member
This has probably been posted here already, but has anyone gone to-fieldscorewhitetails.com? Kinda fun to see how you do by your eye. I am always saying I don't care much about the antlers, and I don't. But is kinda fun just the same.
 
I have not. My mind is conditioned at this point every time I see a buck to judge him for age and score. I'd guess the most common mistake occurs on deer from 110-120 inches. Most guys who are not trophy hunters tend to add about 10-15 inches to these deer. The buck fever syndrome. It takes a great deal of practice to judge deer. The other big hiccup occurs on thinking 3.5 year olds are 4.5. The best advice I ever received was when I doubt use the lowest possible score and age. Most guys talk themselves into a shot when they should talk themselves out(if your a trophy hunter).
 
On the topic of aging bucks on the hoof, I took a 3 yr old that had a very large heavy body, a struggle to handle,,,next buck was 6 yrs old. Not nearly as heavy or stout. Possibly, though by 6 yrs old the body is in decline? Age of 3 yr old was confirmed byDNR. You are correct,,I guess,if you are a trophy hunter,and you question,,let em go. Difficult to judge sometimes as you only have seconds to make a call. At least in my stands you only have a few seconds.
 
loneranger said:
On the topic of aging bucks on the hoof, I took a 3 yr old that had a very large heavy body, a struggle to handle,,,next buck was 6 yrs old. Not nearly as heavy or stout. Possibly, though by 6 yrs old the body is in decline? Age of 3 yr old was confirmed byDNR. You are correct,,I guess,if you are a trophy hunter,and you question,,let em go. Difficult to judge sometimes as you only have seconds to make a call. At least in my stands you only have a few seconds.
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Yeah every deer is different like people. Look at it like people, we usually know if someone is in their 20's,30's,40's etc but their are always outliers who look younger or older.

A neighbor killed a 3.5 year old a few years ago that dressed at 206 on Oct 5th. On the flip side a buddy killed a 8.5 year old that dressed at 165 on Nov 2nd.


Trail cams have made life much easier when identifying deer. It's definitely saved a few animals around me. I've also went the other way and passed up deer because I couldn't identify them and was unsure. After getting photos of them they were shooters.


Now all that goes out the window if he's my biggest deer. He will die.
 
Not every older deer grows a big rack and not every older deer has a relatively heavy body. But I don't think most 6 year old bucks would be in decline yet, just probably a lighter weight specimen.

On our farm, we have some bucks that tend to have small bodies and others that are the same age that are just huge. FWIW, I watched a 165" buck walk up nose to nose to a 135" buck this fall...and the 135" buck was probably 20%-30% bigger bodied! Go figure. The radical body size difference was very obvious when they were both broadside to me touching noses.
 
Scoring on the hoof is something I've never been good at. There are so many variables and when the difference between a 140 and 150 ten pointer is an inch an antler, that can be very hard to judge in the field. I would guess I'm like a lot of guys on here where I don't have a lot of opportunities to be picky when it comes to mature deer and what they will score.
 
I hadn't ever visited the site but I just did and it's kind of fun. Some of them I was spot on, some I was 15+ inches off. Non-typicals or broken up deer are so difficult for me. Either way, it's pretty neat.
 
I scored 50 and ended up with a 9" average margin of error haha. Some of those are really deceptive. I struggled with the southern deer.
 
I am not worth a crap at scoring deer by pictures. I am usually within a few inches when guessing one before scoring it!
 
I just got done with 60 deer and was off an average of 7.556. I feel like they must score deer differently in Texas than any other state because those are the deer I was most wrong about. There was a 10 point that's tallest tines were maybe 8" but supposedly scored 168, needless to say I was off by 15" on that one.
 
Outdoor Fanatics said:
I just got done with 60 deer and was off an average of 7.556. I feel like they must score deer differently in Texas than any other state because those are the deer I was most wrong about. There was a 10 point that's tallest tines were maybe 8" but supposedly scored 168, needless to say I was off by 15" on that one.
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Everything is bigger in Texas ;)
 
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