Nontypical scoreing

[charlie 01]

Pope & Young has changed their nontypical scoreing. You now have to have a minimum of 15" of abnormal antler to be scored as a nontyical. Effective Jan. 1, 2011. And it has to have a nontypical score of 155 to be entered in Pope & Young.

[bmstaaf]

So your saying I will never make the pope and young class? Ha ha

[jonny5buck]

Good thing i have never got any of my bucks scored....i have heard to many bad stories of guys getting low scores and deductions...than they seem dejected...i wondered if any of it is worth it ,,,really?...i know i ruffle a lot of feathers ,but hey it's my deer and i will never get one scored...

I have several nice bucks ,and i cherish every flaw and every deer and every hunt...the score is something i was never interested in....i have had guys look at the bucks i have mounted and stand there talking inches and scores ....i just dont get it...seems to take away from the buck and the hunt IMO-

[bmstaaf]

Johnny I could not agree with you more I have never got a buck measured I don't have as many big ones as you but still. It doesn't matter to me if a buck makes a book.

[4khorn]

I score my deer simply because I want to have that information and to try to get better at judging deer in the field. I do it myself so its probably not dead on accurate, and I don't worry about deductions. I don't let the score affect how I feel about the hunt or the deer itself. All of my deer are trophies to me, and I have yet to kill a buck that would make the book anyway. Although that is ultimately my goal. The only thing I don't like about scoring antlers (and my least favorite thing about deer hunting in general) is that many hunters put too much stock in it. To the point where one may be ashamed of the deer they kill. Every harvest should be celebrated. We are not all trophy hunters. Some hunt for food, for the experience, for the relationships. Those are the most important things. Sometimes we forget that.

[jonny5buck]

I better also state for the record ..although i dont do it ..i understand some guys do..to each his own...and i realize Charlie is just passing along the info.----[:D]

[Ohio farms]

So now some 154's are Pope and Young bucks and some are not. What happened to P & Y's strict adherence to tradition and rules that they always talk about? Hmmm.

[charlie 01]

Deer entrees in the"book" will stay as such. The new minimum abnormal antler for nontypicals is only for deer being entered Jan. 1, 2011 and after. In past years they always did have a minimum for nontypicals. Don't know why, but they dropped it altogether for a few years. 
 
 

[Osty]

I think to much emphasis is put on what a buck scores and not what the hunter wants. In 2005 I finally got my first "antlered" buck after almost 20 years of hunting. A nice 11 pointer with some tines that were 8" and 9" on both sides, some of the points bladed, a broken brow tine, a small point that is an inch at the base of the antlers to make it an 11 pointer, a scar on the top of his head. Although I had shot a few does and button bucks. I couldn't have been happier with my first antlered buck even though he was a gross of 145 and about a net 135 after all the deductions. I think he was maybe 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 years old. To me, a real trophy because of all the character. After that I've shot a couple more bucks, 1 1/2 year olds, and I am just as proud of them as I am of the big one.

I don't mind the score keeping because it raises the challenge of hunting. However, some of the downside of scoring is the poaching, trespassing, unethical shots, broken laws, and everything else in between just to say I got a buck that scored this or that. Meat is what I'm after, rack size is secondary.

I can't wait for my kids to grow up and hunt. If they shoot a button buck or a small 6 pointer, oh well. Each deer is a trophy, buck/doe, big/small. That is what I'm going to teach them. I'm not concerned if that 7 pointer should have been an 8 and it's G-2 is broken off and he only scores 115 instead of 120. I'm taking the shot if it's a legal deer.

Good luck hunting.