Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Deer Hunting => Topic started by: UBA on June 07, 2011, 04:38:35 PM

Title: Field judging whitetail (score)
Post by: UBA on June 07, 2011, 04:38:35 PM: After deciding to head to Idaho this fall for a whitetail hunt, I realized I have no clue on how to judge whitetail. I could care less about the score once the animal is down however when scouting I like to be able to put a score with the buck. When someone tells me they seen a 4 point, I like to know if it was a 140, 160, 180. Just anything to kinda put a size to it. What kinda of things do your look for in determine size? Width, tine length, mass all matter but what's the most important? Maybe someone could post some pics with a score? Maybe one of the whitetail experts could explain how they judge animals because some of you guys have killed some toads.
Title: Re: Field judging whitetail (score)
Post by: huntnnw on June 07, 2011, 06:14:14 PM: When scouting in the summer I REALLY look at the antlers... u have to really see under the velvet what the hard horned will look like come fall..they look waaay bigger in the summer. Ill write down the the tine length I think they have..if mass looks normal then an avg score for that...the beams are the tricky part u can guess a 160 buck by messing up the beam length by 4 inches a side and now its closer to 150. What I look for if the buck is narrow to avg is how far do the beams extend forward...they will look like they go out to there nose if they are 23+ a wide buck is deceiving...usually being short cause the they don't wrap around..what I look for is if the tips of the beams curve back in a long ways adding length.

A 4x4 whitetail to score over 140" is going to be a big framed deer and look quite large... 12" + tines and heavy mass with large beams.. being a 5x5 helps dramatically in the score u get the extra g4 which if its 5" a side u gain 10 " over a 4x4 plus they carry the mass out a bit farther on your last measurement over a 4pt and generally a 5x5 will have greater beam length and if ya see them with 6 on the beam the beams are beginning to get long.

Then there are the bucks that u don't even need to look at or even begin to score because they are HUGE. When scouting and I spot a monster there is no scrutinizing the antlers to try and add up a score to make it inch closer to a score that its not. hope some of this helps
Title: Re: Field judging whitetail (score)
Post by: jackelope on June 07, 2011, 08:46:42 PM: This buck is right about 132" gross for reference.
Not a real giant like some of the bucks that come out of the NE but a really nice buck.
Shank on here killed this buck a couple years ago with a muzzleloader on the Palouse during the general season.
Title: Re: Field judging whitetail (score)
Post by: DBHAWTHORNE on June 07, 2011, 10:37:22 PM: This article outlines the general measurements I usually follow:

http://www.imbmonsterbucks.com/info.php?id=88 (http://www.imbmonsterbucks.com/info.php?id=88)

Here are some various field scoring games:

http://www.fieldscorewhitetails.com/ (http://www.fieldscorewhitetails.com/)

http://bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/deer/shootergame/ (http://bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/deer/shootergame/)

http://bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/FIELDJUDGING/WHITETAILS/ (http://bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/FIELDJUDGING/WHITETAILS/)

If you get some good trail came photos post them on here and I am sure that guys will be more than happy to give estimates.
Title: Re: Field judging whitetail (score)
Post by: huntnnw on June 07, 2011, 10:52:58 PM: heres a buck( on the right) that looked massive in velvet and fooled alot of hunters in the area of how big he was.. he was wide and super tall (G4 was 11"!) and looked quite impressive..but hes beams were very short at 19" and was quite thin..bucks was only 3 1/2 yrs old..this would of been a tank in another year or 2. grossed at 156" buck was to mature and add 5" to beam and some mass with his age and little width,woulda been a 170 typ in the years to come.
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi200.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa139%2Fshanewa300%2FHunting%2Fyard.jpg&hash=ed90d36315656d13b7984e0014b0587e686a7a96)
Title: Re: Field judging whitetail (score)
Post by: huntnnw on June 07, 2011, 10:57:32 PM: heres a clean buck with minimal deductions 128" largest tine being 8" avg thickness
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi200.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa139%2Fshanewa300%2FHunting%2F1.jpg&hash=14f35b82b652754f66874da287687ae439ff41c1)