How To Score A Deer 

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Nice, that's a great Michigan buck!

Same as the video but the last mass measurement would be the thinnest spot between the G3 and G4 on a ten point.

I totally agree,Nets are for fishermen .

100%

I clicked on the comments solely to post something like, "Gross score for the win," but saw you had already set the record straight.

Well… Yes I agree so much that it is the only score I care about and the only one I mention when I tell someone the size of my buck or the buck I’m after. However, I disagree in the sense that Net score absolutely has its place and makes total sense in my opinion. B&C was wise enough to create a Typical category and a Non Typical category. Just because the majority of us hunters only care about gross score (gross gross if you’re talking about non-typicals) doesn’t mean Net score doesn’t have its place.

Thanks!

I was the same, I didn't think you could take the last circumference on an 8 pt. Gives me another 4-5 inches.

It was accurate

I used to be just like you brother. I bought some property and decided to give hunting a try. After many attempts and figuring out what to do and what not to do I finally got one. I am hooked. Mine is only 111-4/8" but it's my first and a trophy for me.

You might have seen a good 150 wet, but they shrink as they dry out.

Since you're just looking for a rough score and not doing this officially, leave the G1 as zero, and measure whatever is left of the G3. It doesn't have to be exact if you just want a rough idea of how big the deer's rack is.

The primary difference is that P&Y is for bow-harvested animals only, while B&C allows for animals harvested with a bow or gun. B&C also has higher minimum requirements to get into their record book. The scoring of the antlers is essentially the same though.

Pope and young is a private deal and can kinda make up their own rules of what can be in their books so the exclude cross bows and some other kinda strange rules on what equipment you use and things like that. This is stuff I have heard over the years but have never looked into it real deeply. Does this sound right Justin.

Pope and young's minimum entry is a 125" overall score boone and Crockett is a 160" over all score

@@yabba5696 lol I’m glad you’re the one that knows what their talking about !!

If you want to get real specific boon Crockett is any weapon, Pope and young is bow And it was created I wanna say in the sixties in the sixties maybe the seventies, The 2 people that's their last names Pope and young they had a huge early bow hunting in the United States Like in the same class as Fred bear type of influence. But they wanted a scoring system that was unique to bow honey so a 140" buck that was killed with a gun at 100yd would not super seed a 139" deer killed at 10 yd with a bow. And that is like a crappy overview of it all, if you really read into it it's pretty neat and you can learn a lot about the history of how bow hunting come about and how we got to where we are today in some ways I wish it was like it was an old days

You measure the greatest distance between the two beams, regardless of where it happens to be. If the beams extend out, then you could be measuring at the tips rather than in the middle. It all depends on how the antlers grew.

@@bowhuntordie I thought the inside spread, while measured at the widest point, still had to be 90 degrees to the skulls center line (wording on the score sheet.) Meaning you cannot arc your tape around to different points of the opposite beam. It must stay, in essence, parallel to the frontal/coronal plane (medical term) of the skull. Am I wrong on this?

You would just count the last measurement twice. So 1st would be between brow tine and base. 2nd is between brow tine and G2. 3rd & 4th are between G2 and the end of the main beam.

You basically do it the same as a regular tine coming off of the main beam. So for a split G2, you measure whichever tine is the "main" one from the base of the tine. And measure the split tine from where it comes off the "main" tine, if that makes sense.

You measure the main tine as usual, then measure the secondary (abnormal) tine from the base of the tine that it splits from to the end.

Nothing really - they are just for statistical purposes.

No such measures as outside spread

@@reddawng43x91 yes actually they do record that number. It don’t go towards the score of the buck but it does get recorded just as Justin said for statistics and for biology and the study of deer.

Pretty rare in the state of Maine

Big bodied deer but just don't have the Agriculture and abundant minerals to find a ton of deer in the 200 range here

The only "spread" measurement you add to the score is the greatest INSIDE spread. You can always measure the outside spread and tip-to-tip length, but those 2 don't count toward the buck's score.

@@bowhuntordie thanks for the feedback

@@jackandtheoutdoors9756 no problem!

As long as there are 2 beams, you will have an inside spread measurement.

Measure just like he did on the 4 point side and measure between the G3 and G4 on the five point side.

Maybe the dumbest thing you ever did was gave it away

He said around 130 ish if he remembered correctly. It has been a few years since he killed it

The beam is considered a point, so this is an 8 point rack.

Every buck, no matter how many points, always has 4 mass measurements on each side.

Even a spike?

That's my only score also

I agree

The tip-to-tip measurement does not account into scoring, but you can certainly measure just to know. As for the 2nd question, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking...circumference measurements are only taken from the main beams of the rack, between each tine. You do not measure the circumference of any tines.

Close! This buck was about 130-132"

I was thinking the same thing. When you are scoring a buck, when you get to the mass measurements, it says if present. There shouldn’t be a 4th mass measurement on an 8 point. And surely not a 3x3.

Like he says in the video, you ALWAYS take 4 mass measurements despite the amount of tines.

When talking about measuring antlers, you actually don't change the fraction. If it was 6 and 6/8ths, you would say that instead of 6.75 or 6 and three quarters.

That's how you measure a buck's antlers. You don't simplify the fractions, always leave it in eighths.

Correct. It's an 8-pointer, but that has nothing to do with how many inches the antlers are.

Or...you can harvest a buck that has a bigger body and more meat. AND also score the antlers! 😂

Yes, I know. But deer antlers are scored in eighths. You don’t simplify the fraction.