Antler Tape

Where do I order one of those high scoring antler tapes? My tape just does not seem to work as well as those some breeders are using. I see deer listed on the whitetail exchange that are awesome and most are probably scored very accurately but I also see some that definitely have a better tape than I have. Do they sale tapes that start at 100"? All the ones I can find start at 1" or maybe I just need to be taught how to read the tape. Can you choose the starting point on the tape with each measurement or do you have to start at the beginning?

The scoring debate will go on forever. When in question ask the owner...

If everyone one scored B&C method i think you would see the scores drop also i think some people score in velvet i agree alot of deer are scored really bad but i do think that some deer do look smaller in pics

one of the mistakes I see most often is is useing the webbing from a forked time to increase the mass measurement then not adjusting the point of orgin of the tine from the main beam, or choosing the wrong points for th G1, G2, G3, G4 so the mass measurements can be increased

Brett, some people just honestly can't measure things or convert fractions to decimals. Just like some people can't read a map. Just because you are a deer farmer, dosn't mean you can score a rack. There are plenty of people driving that can't read a map.

flp the tape over and use the millimeter side that will help your score

Virgil, I think you hit the nail on the head!!! Been wondering how they did it??

Virgil

I believe I will rescore my sheds with that new side of the tape. Sure will make me feel better. When I scored my yearling buck the old way he only scored 115. I see yearlings posted that are awesome and I believe the score - wish I had one like that. But I see some that look about like mine but score 60-70 inches more!

I guess it's kind of the same thing as Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder......i guess the score is in the eyes of the beholder as well!!!

ddwhitetails said:

I guess it's kind of the same thing as Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder......i guess the score is in the eyes of the beholder as well!!!

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good one

This is Contrail last year. He is estimated at 394 cm at age 1

Alright Roger you caught my attention. Whats he out of ? Let me guess a BJ doe.

Hey Paul,

Well I was just playin' round with the scoring discussion. But since your asking about Contrail I will fill ya in on him.



Contrail is actually a son out of Max Thrust on the top side and his mother Madison is a Tomahawk doe on the bottom side. The picture was him last year at age 1 and he legitimately scored 155" on the nose.



If you like what you see, now imagine his mother Madison bred to Updraft. If you like that, I have a set of twin sisters from 2009 here, and I will also offer any doe fawns from the same breeding this spring. I prefer to sell this springs doe fawns if she has any so I have them priced very reasonable. I won't be around this summer much so Laurie will have her hands full with her job and bottle feeding.

Roger he looks good. Updraft better watch over his shoulder.

Roger

That is really a nice yearling and you can easily see him scoring 155 but not 235 that you see some that size deer posted as. The thing is most of us would be proud to have that deer in our herd and I gain alot more respect for farmers who accurately post scores.

Inches???????????? Uh-oh, I always used millimeters, that way I had really big scores. I think the fairest way to measure antlers would be to use a water displacement method. Take a level vat of water, filled to capacity. Place the antlers in the vat and capture all of the water the antlers displace. The water could then be measured by either weight or volume. I guess one could use cc's instead of ounces (ha-ha)

Deerchaser said:

Roger

That is really a nice yearling and you can easily see him scoring 155 but not 235 that you see some that size deer posted as. The thing is most of us would be proud to have that deer in our herd and I gain alot more respect for farmers who accurately post scores.

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Brett,

I totally know what your saying. I posted what I did with the picture because I thought Virgil's post about flipping the tape over was funny. So I went and got a tape and flipped it over and saw the centimeters scale.

The sad part is a few people stretching the scores way out of line looks bad for all of us. What got me started on the antler tape was when I was showing a friend the deer on whitetailquest - a fantastic web site. You show them a deer like Maxbo or Updraft and they are in awe. Then you start looking at some of the other deer with the scores posted and they laugh. I would say a very high percentage of the scores are accurate. Then you have a few that are a joke.

It makes me wonder what it makes us as a group look like to the general public. It is a shame to see a really nice looking 120 inch yearling scored at 180. Who do they think they are fooling? Sorry for venting.

OK everyone I have said it before and will say it again. Really, what does score matter. What if you found out some buck you loved doesn't score what it was supposed to? Is he not the same buck that he was? Measure the length of the mainbeams, measure the inside spread, measure the first 4 mass circumferences on each beam, measure the length of each tine that is over 1 inch. Add all of these together and that is good enough for me. ---HERE IS THE IMPORTANT THING I AM GOING TO SAY.---FIRST--- IF YOU ARE IN THE DEER BUSINESS IT MIGHT BE SMART TO KNOW HOW TO SCORE THEM.----SECOND----IF YOU CAN'T STAND AND LOOK AT A SET OF ANTLERS AT A SHOW AND NOT GET CLOSE BY DOING ALL THOSE NUMBERS IN YOUR HEAD, THEN HAVE YOUR SMART FRIEND ADD YOUR NUMBERS FOR YOU. ---THIRD---I WOULD SAY YOU ONLY HURT YOURSELF BY CHEATING YOUR SCORES UP, BUT SO FAR THAT HASN'T PROVEN TO BE THE CASE.---FOURTH---IF YOU CAN'T LOOK AT A DEER AND DECIDE IF YOU WANT TO BREED WITH HIM, WITHOUT KNOWING THE SCORE THEN YOU STINK AT KNOWING WHAT TO BREED WITH.---FIFTH---PICTURES LIE. MY CAMERA TAKES CRAPPY PICTURES AND I REALIZE I AM STUPID TO CONTINUE TO USE IT. HOWEVER; SOME CAMERAS TAKE PICTURES THAT MAKE DEER LOOK BIGGER THAN THEY ARE. Just some advice and rambling.

Now I have to laugh and respond to this one with a factual set of events......



Bought some stockers from an individual last year, actually I bought from 6 so there's not any confusion here. The largest from this particular place was a 171" gross perfect 10 pt without anything broken. Hunter harvests him last fall, that same hunter is here for turkey season this spring and is flipping through my latest issue of Tracks when he asks me if this is his deer in this ad..... Well..... I look at the picture and realize it is, so I'm sitting there thinking what do I say? So I tell him it is, because it is the deer he shot last Fall, he then looks at me and says "Well I'm glad we used your tape instead of theirs because they say he scored 200+". He pauses a minute, then says "hmmph, guess I could take this magazine home and tell the guys at the camp my deer scored 200".......



Needless to say I dont leave any deer breeding magazines laying around anymore.... The people were advertising him because he was half brother to a pretty good yearling and I guess in the pedigrees of some of the does they bred last fall... either way he was only a 170 inch 3 yr old, do I call the people and tell them that? or just let it be? It was a good laugh and a prime example of this thread here in actual events.