That 124 7/8" buck may be very special to somebody for a variety of reasons but the manmade scoring system says it's not as "worthy" as the 125 0/8" buck.
Regardless, it is what it is and that's the system.
The recent thread on scoring the 8 pointer in the trail cam photo got me thinking that maybe we should do this with a buck that we know the score.
So I'll start it out. Let's see everybody's guess on the score of the buck in my attached photo. Let's keep this fun and non-judgmental. After I get some guesses I'll reveal the actual score. There's one guy who posted on the other thread who knows the score of this buck so he's disqualified from posting ;^)
I invite anybody else to add buck photos to this thread and it would be really cool if we had trail cam photos that we could guess the score of and then kill photos of the same buck and then have the actual score revealed.
All of Novembers deer would get a pass from me. I only shoot big deer! ;-)
Nice double throat patched buck, NF!
I'll see if there are a few more guesses before I reveal the score.
November, those are all great bucks and thanks for posting but the idea of the thread was to post a photo of one buck at a time and have people make guesses at the score, see how we all did and then move on to another buck and try it again.
Some good guesses and Braunschweiger is pretty much right on the money with his guess; I wonder if he got some inside info? :^) This buck grossed about 132” and netted about 128”
As I said before, this was a northwoods buck and when you’re hunting that country you might see a total of 10 deer or less in the entire season and it’s extremely unlikely that you’re going to pass up a 10 yard shot at a 130” class buck that weighs about 260 pounds on the hoof. It’s very hard to pattern deer in that country when you’re hunting natural movement patterns so unless you have a bait pile and you know you have a bigger buck visiting on regular basis it’s unlikely that you’d pass this buck. There may be some guys who wouldn’t give a 130” class buck a second look but that’s not very realistic in the northwoods, at least not for me anyway.
longbeard asked for the story, so here goes... I wish I had a more exciting story about the hunt for this buck but it was actually pretty simple the way it came together. There was a large area of oak ridges where the deer were feeding on acorns. Below the ridges there was a relatively flat area and then a large ravine with several smaller tributary ravines that extended like fingers up from the main ravine into the flats below the ridges. The deer would make their way down from the ridges in the morning and filter down into and between the ravines on the way to their daytime bedding areas. The deer rarely passed through in the same area and it was hard to predict their movements. During my in-season scouting I found a very well used scrape and rub line that ran roughly parallel with the main ravine and more or less perpendicular to the up and down movement pattern that the other deer were using to go from the ridges to the bedding area. I figured that the buck or bucks that were working the scrape/rub line made it perpendicular to the travel pattern of the other deer so they could cross the path of the deer that were coming off the ridge and scent check for does.
I hunted that scrape/rub line several times that fall and saw some deer but never saw the buck that I thought was responsible for most of the scrapes and the big rubs.
The following year things were really slow and I hadn’t seen much of anything. I made a quick mid-day scouting run into this area where the scrape/rub line was the previous fall. It didn’t take long to see that the scrapes were tore up again and one of them that I had marked with GPS was even bigger this year. I saw what I needed to see so I got out of the area without disturbing it any more than necessary. The next morning was cold, clear and dead calm. I went in with my climber and set up not far from the biggest scrape on the downwind side of the scrape/rub line based on the forecast wind direction.
Right at first light I heard the buck working a scrape in the distance. Then a few minutes later I heard him working another scrape and I could tell he was getting closer. He was close enough now that I heard him walking in the frosty leaves and I heard him walk to the biggest scrape. I could hear him working the big scrape and I got glimpses of him but I didn’t have a clear shot from the tree that I picked out in the dark. After working that scrape he headed my direction and as he was passing by at 10 yards he stopped briefly like he sensed something or maybe heard my heart beating. He was quartering slightly toward me and I was already at full draw. After the shot he spun and ran in arc for about 80 yards and went down at the top of one of the tributary ravines about 50 yards away. I didn’t have a lot of time to size him up before the shot and I was pretty amped up because the excitement had built as I heard him scraping and working his way toward me. I knew when I finally got a clear look at him though that he was a mature buck with a big body, a good rack and he was a shooter. He weighed 210# field dressed. I felt like I hunted him for 2 years although I only saw him the one time.
I missed Bowdeer's comments; sounds like I might have missed something good. The reason I made the comment about keeping this thread positive and non-judgmental is because I don’t think a buck has to be 150 or 125 class to be important or to mean something to the hunter. I think it’s pretty sad when a hunter, whether he’s young, old or somewhere in between shoots a buck and somebody else chooses to criticize the buck or the hunter because the buck does not score 125” or 150” or whatever the other guy has set for his own personal minimum or expectation. It would be great if everybody passed every buck under 140” but different hunters have different expectations for their hunt and it’s just not realistic for everybody to have the same standards. It’s a lot easier to have high standards when you hunt large tracts of well managed private land where you know what the potential is and you’re relatively certain that smaller bucks will survive. That’s not the reality for a lot of hunters. When I hunt the northwoods I know that I’ll probably never see a buck that I pass again and there’s a good chance that it will be killed by wolves or a bad winter. Around home, on the smaller tracts of private land that I hunt I know that there’s a very good chance that the neighbors will shoot the bucks that I pass. That’s reality. I still pass them, but I realize that they’re probably not going to live to see another hunting season.
Thanks everybody for playing along.
Any guesses on score?
Bowsters comment was comical. My guess is he was a little jelly! ;-)
I was gonna post a picture but you beat me to it.
Your new picture I would guess right at 124.
Lastly, I will agree when it comes to hunting public land bigwoods. You cannot be too picky on rack size. Reason to set your goal on maturity over rack size. I take my hat off for you mike. I know your not a bragger. But you can put down some great public land whitetails. I know guys here agree with me on that..
Here are a couple more photos of the last buck for perspective. I'll let a few more guys guess and then I'll give the score.
And then Nocturnal can post a pic if he'd like and we can all make our guesses.
BTW, this one is off the property where I live in Polk County so it's not really a northwoods buck.
And for bonus points see if you can guess the weight...
This buck has long main beams and good mass that is carried throughout the rack. Notice how long the beams are from the burr to where the brow tines come off the beams. The buck next to it on the tailgate is the typical 2 1/2 year old that probably scores 100-105 if the left G2 wasn't broken off.
It's interesting to note that most of the guesses were 10 inches or more too low.
One of the crazy things about this buck is that he only weighed 135 pounds and the two bucks on the tailgate weighed within 5 pounds of each other. I know a lot of it is genetics but I also think it helps show the difference between northwoods bucks that put more of their nourishment into their bodies vs. bucks a little farther south that can put more of their nourishment into their racks due to having an easier life.
Bayfield County maya2003.
Your turn Nocturnal...
Anybody else want to jump in with a photo of a buck that you know the score of?
Otherwise I can post another one...
It also goes to show that those magic formulas for estimating score don't always work. Charlie Rehor from Bowsite uses the formula of 100" for a basic mature 10 point then take the length of the G4 multiplied by 10 and add it to the 100". Using that formula the estimate of this buck would be about 115" total.
I feel I disrespected you with such a low guess haha!!
Remember Charlie's formula 100 + (G4x10) = Gross Score.
I was still a long ways off but I was closest :^)
And yes, I put down my score on the last one late in the game, but I was honest--the reveal was too quick!
I'll have to get some of my score sheets when I am at the cabin next and see if I can find some oddities in there for you!
You guys are probably going to be pissed at me because I played a little bit of a dirty trick on you with the last buck. I mentioned Charlie’s formula, which probably led you guys astray and influenced some of the guesses. But my point is that those formulas are not very reliable. Charlie’s formula does not work on RJN’s buck and its way off with this buck.
I’ll admit that this buck fooled me when I shot him. I didn’t have a lot of time to size him up and I didn’t think he was a 140 class buck but I did think he was closer to P&Y class. I shot him on his left side so the left side of his rack was toward me. When I saw the nice row of tines and the long G4 I thought he was bigger than he is. I think what contributed to misjudging him is that he was a small bodied out of state buck weighing in the 130’s and at the time it was one of the few bucks I had shot that wasn’t a big bodied northern Wisconsin buck. So being used to seeing bigger bodied bucks, this one threw me off. If he would have been a 200 pound plus buck and his rack had the same proportionate size to his body he probably would have scored in the 140’s.
He doesn’t score well at all because he has very short main beams, small circumferences and narrow spread. I think the tine lengths are out of proportion compared to the main beam lengths, mass, and spread. Normally you see tine lengths like that on racks with longer main beams, more mass and greater spread. He was a nice 2 ½ year old buck, but not as nice as he looked and he could have been pretty impressive in another year or two.
The actual score of this buck really points out how deceiving photos (and formulas) can be…
i know about ground shrinkage too. Years back I shot a buck that had a beautiful right side and a big split G2. Walked up on him to find out he had a weak left side. A buck I thought by score would go maybe 130 turned out to be maybe 90-95.
Carrying a camera now I get to review my footage. So many times I think I saw a fantastic buck only to see it later on screen and it be a two year old.
November I would give him a little more, but its not 120, I would say 118,,,,, nice buck though,,,,,
this is fun
140 class plus or minus on Mindbender's
There is no H5 measurement. You only get 4 circumference measurements so you need to remove the H5 measurements. And not to nit pick but your differences should add up to 3 3/8" not 2 5/8".
Are you sure about the H1 measurements. I never would have guessed 6", that's pretty massive. You measured the circumference half way between the burr and the browtine, right? I was within a couple eighths on all of the tine lengths but I was low on all of the H measurements. Your H measurements seem a little high or the photo doesn't show the mass...
Probably take away a good 10 inches..
your also right on my deduction error. Kinda sad on my part seeing as math is part of my job!
Sorry guys.. :-/
Thanks mike
FWIW comparing my first guess to your score sheet, I was only off a total of 5/8 on the G1's, 1/8 on G2's, 3/8 on G3's and 3/8 on G4's.
November, maybe you want to post a picture or two of one of your bucks while Nocturnal figures out his score sheet and we'll take a shot at guessing the score of your buck...
Hey mike... I think your right. I need to remeasure a couple spots. My guess he is around 125 give or take. Honestly I thought he would score around what I came up with. I high balled him.. Hes one of my better archery bucks too.
RJN that is one hell of a guess, grossed 130 7/8", netted 122", November forever you are correct it was 5X4, 2nd tine on his R side is considered an abnormal point and not his G2, so he would be a main-frame 8 pointer with a 5 inch kicker on his R side, obviously a deduction. Main beams and spread were decent on this deer, with a spread 1/8" shy of 20 which helped, but too many deductions for a P&Y buck. He dressed out at 210 pounds and aged at 4.5, biggest/oldest whitetail I've personally killed.
November, I'm going to roll with 162 on your first one and 146 on your next one.
NF: The 5x5 I would put at 158"???
