East and West difference

sayala · Jan 7, 2005

Why is it that Western hunters do not count the eyeguards and Eastern hunters do. Why is a 4x4 not a 10point in the West or vise versa? I have a buddy from Kansas who has been hunting with me here in AZ. I could never give him an answer as to why. Are the brow tines not a scoreable point to Pope and Young or Boone and Crocket in the West? Who can tell me why?

thanks
Sayala

MrBaitnFish · Jan 7, 2005

Because we only have four fingers. Duh! We don't use our thumbs to help us count, out here in the west.

MrBaitnFish · Jan 7, 2005

And it takes to long to count to ten out here anyways. Our meat would be spoiled by then.

cpugsie · Jan 7, 2005

Pope and young and B&C count the eye gaurds as points. I'm originally from Western New York and we counted everything on both sides. When I came out here to Arizona they just counted a muley with 4 points on each side with brow tines or not a 4 by 4. Just they way they do things out here. Don't know a logical reason and never got one from anyone out here. Here's a link to the B&C website. Read through one of the score sheets for a mule deer. http://www.boone-crockett.org/bgRecords/ScoringYourTrophy.asp?area=bgRecords

polarbear · Jan 7, 2005

Because we dont need to count every nub to feel like it is a good buck. That way the easterners can justify calling a forkie with eye guard nubbins a big 6 piont. Haaahaaaa.. I know some guys that count everything bigger than a tick! Desperate to add a few points to the count.

Eric

sayala · Jan 7, 2005

So that's just the way it's been since the dawn of man then? No real reason as to why it just is because it is. Cool... so I was giving my buddy the right answers the whole time! Alright!! thanks for the info guys!

Sayala

Cowboy · Jan 8, 2005

I believe the reason its done that way is because most western hunting is for muleys. Mature muleys regularly have 2 pairs of forks as prominent points on a side. Brow tines are usually not prominent, and sometimes arent even there. While there obviously are exceptions, the norm is for matching forks. I think if you said 4 pointer you were really just saying a mature buck, which meant a big deer.

Eastern hunters are mostly hunting whitetails. Whitetail antlers have points stemming from a main beam on each side. A mature whitetail could have 3, 4, 5 or more points on either side. Brow tines can be quite prominent. I think by counting all of the points, you gave a better indication of how big or old the buck appeared to be.