After reading recent posts regarding Free Agent’s score, I thought, against my better judgment, I would comment.
Due to velvet damage that occurred a couple of days prior, Free Agent’s rack was cut off on August 31, 2010. He had been resting his rack on the fence to (I am assuming) relieve his tired neck. I had to leave for the Ohio auction a couple of days later, so going out of town with a buck about to have antler infection was not an option. He had no broken tines, only a couple of spots with torn velvet. After stripping his velvet (thank goodness we did), newborn maggots were discovered. We made the right call. Beam length, spread, H1 and various other measurements were taken by me and my nephew Jamie so that we could provide the taxidermist with information so that the most accurate set of replicas could be made. After a couple of hours we were in shock that we scored him at 522 inches and we thought we were being tough on him. We told everybody that the score was VERY unofficial. Anyone that knows me can attest that I try to be conservative on my scores. I couldn’t wait to have him scored by a reputable scorer. I thought a deer like him deserved to be, to erase any doubt and to do him justice.
After some health issues of my own, it was put on the back burner until I recovered. The NADeFA conference seemed to be the logical place to have him scored since 3 of the top 7 master scorers would be in attendance. The night before I entered him in the competition, I was approached by another master scorer. He asked if he could score him that night. I was reluctant to have him scored the night before the competition but the suspense was killing me and the scorer assured me that he would not be offended by having him scored the next day by a panel. After 197 days of drying time, his score was 536 4/8 inches. After being entered into the competition the following day, he was panel scored at 528 3/8 inches. Not wanting to be scrutinized by my peers, I took the lower score as his final score. This will be his final 2 year old score forever. From now on, Free Agent will be advertised as the highest scoring whitetail by NADeFA scorers. He cannot be declared official SCI champion nor can other animals not harvested be record book entries. It seems as though the spread credit was the only issue that we had. The first scorer gave him a spread of 29 4/8 inches and the panel gave him 20 4/8 inches. Jamie and I had given him 20 5/8 inches. His beam length measurements were only 1/8 inch less and the H1 measurements were the same as the ones Jamie and I had taken. The 8 7/8 inch spread difference accounted for all but 6/8 inch difference between the first master scorer and the panel score. I think that was pretty remarkable considering all of the abnormal points.
Even though I love Free Agent, I am a lover of all whitetails…typical, non-typical, big old good ones and good old big ones. I strive to have great animal husbandry skills on my farm. So as for me being the mad scientist who doesn’t care for the welfare of my animals and breeding for animals that can’t hold their head up, I would cut Free Agent’s rack in June if I didn’t think he could handle it. I didn’t produce this animal thinking he would flourish the way he has. I believe he was a gift from God for me and the deer industry as a whole and anyone that would produce a deer like him would surely feel blessed. Look how far this industry has progressed in such a short time. Maybe I should shoot my six soon to be yearling sons of Free Agent and their Sudden Impact mothers before any more controversy happens….NOT!
I hope this answers most of the questions my fellow deer farmers have concerning Free Agent’s score. I tried to do the best I could with the situation I was in and I hope that I have not offended anyone. This is my story and that’s all I have to say about that!
