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In order to be able to judge a Whitetail buck's score in the field one must first know the measurements involved in scoring a Whitetail. Both Pope & Young and Boone & Crockett use the same measuring system. The main difference between the two is that P & Y is for archery bucks and has a 125" minimum score and B & C is for firearms and archers and has a 160" minimum score. Those are the listed minimums for a "Typical Rack" or one whose symmetry between antlers is nearly alike.
There are three characteristics
that are judged by these scoring systems:
1. The inside spread or the distance
between the main beams at its widest point.
2. The length of the main beams and
tines. The length of the main beam is measured from the pedicle
to the tip of each antler.
3. The mass(circumference) of the
antlers. Measured by taking measurements between each tine.
The measurements of each antler, ideally,
will have a corresponding measurement from the other beam. Any
differences between the two antlers cause deductions to the final
score. So... essentially one could just measure the shorter of
the corresponding measurements total them up and multiply that
sum by 2 and add the inside spread to get the final
"Typical" score.
Now, how do we accomplish this in a hunting situation? It is relatively simple, but takes practice to become proficient. Hunters to accurately describe a buck to another hunter must use a common set of measurements.... one hunter's nice buck is another's monster buck. So we use these scoring systems to normalize the picture we view in our minds of the buck the hunter is relating to us. In order to do this in the field we must have given lengths that we can relate to in mentally scoring a buck by looking at it. I recommend using several of the Witetail's features to assess the measurements.
1. The length of a typical deer's ear
is 6"
2. The distance between the antlers at
the base is typically around 4".
3. The typical distance between the tips
of a deer's ears is 16".
4. Remember, an antler with a diameter
of 1" has a circumference of 3 1/8"; dia. 1 1/2"=
4 3/4"cir.
From this you can see
that the mass of the bucks antlers is much more important to its
score than the inside spread. The number of points also adds
greatly to the score both by adding point lengths and by adding
the extra circumferences.
From these three known average measurements a
hunter can field judge a whitetail's rack with fair proficiency.
| Inside Spread | Left Beam | Right Beam | Difference |
| 19" | |||
| Main Beam Length | 20" | 20" | 0 |
| G1Tine Length | 4" | 4" | 0 |
| G2Tine Length | 5 1/4" | 6" | 3/4" |
| G3Tine Length | 8" | 8" | 0 |
| G4Tine Length | 6" | 5 1/4" | 3/4" |
| H1Circumference | 4 3/4" | 4 3/4" | 0 |
| H2Circumference | 3 3/4" | 3 3/4" | 0 |
| H3Circumference | 3 1/2" | 3 1/2" | 0 |
| H4Circumference | 3 1/8" | 3 1/8" | 0 |
| H5Circumference | 2 1/2" | 2 1/2" | 0 |
| Sub-Total- | 60 7/8" | 60 7/8" | 1 1/2" |
| Grand Total- | 139 1/4" | 19 |
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