Guidance in judging a Mule deer

mdndeer

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Is there a resource out there that shows different buck and their scores, I always look at the pictures on here and make my guess and would always look for some other sources to help me. I am bring a friend on my hunt that will be helping me scout and I would like him to be able to judge animals better than he does.

Thanks in advance

MDNDEER
 
MM should make a library of good photos with known scores!

Eastman's High Country book has a decent section on this topic, but I think most of what he says there is sort of repeated in this blog post. I don't totally agree with his methods, but they are decent.

http://blog.eastmans.com/what-makes-a-180-mule-deer/

I think the best you can do is play games like the following, what do these two bucks score? Gross and Gross Frame for a non-typical?

Since, you can't see it well, the left antler of the right buck does not have an inline like the right one does.

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MDNdeer, good job on the left one!

Left, 180.5" gross, 29.5" wide

Right, 196.5" gross, 189" gross frame, 7.5" of extras (there are about 2 small 1" tines you can't see, so you can add that to your scores!)

2nd one is definitely deceiving I thought he was 180 until I measured him up...mass and deep forks go a long way on a deer even if they are less than 24" wide. He has over 40" of mass versus the buck on the left that is in the lower 30s.
 
Since I have a 220+ non typical, I would also shoot the one on the left. Would love to have a wide buck like that.
 

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