Here is part of a post I put up last year:
As long as I’m on the topic of high scoring deer I have to say that SIZE DOES MATTER and Score does also! With all the typical hype going around the industry I like to remind everyone about what I see from the hunters. These are just my own observations from our hunting ranches over the last 20 years or so. It is not set in stone and it is constantly changing. Trends for what hunters want will go one direction and then all of the sudden take on a new direction all together. I have never had any season where all hunters want the same thing. Here are some general rules I have found that hold true from year to year! Think about these next 4 paragraphs when you select what you want to breed with and what you want to grow over the next several years.
Within a price category, most hunters will prefer to take a typical wide buck (8 points) over anything else. They are simply getting the most bang for the buck with that kind of deer. For example if you offer a hunter the choice between hunting a 165 clean 8 point and a 169 14 point for the same price most of them would choose the clean 8 point. But let’s not get carried away with that type of thinking (like the industry has). If we offer the hunter the choice between the 165 clean 8 point and a 195 non-typical for the SAME price, they may say they like typical but they’ll shoot the 195 almost every time. And who wants to grow 8 pointers? While the hunter will get the most bang for his buck, the deer farmer will get the least!
Almost all hunting preserves still charge by score. I don’t know of any that don’t. (We are trying it...let you know how it goes). We bought over 100 stocker bucks this year and paid TWO to FIVE times as much for 300 and 400 inch deer as we did for 200 inch deer. Score is still the MOST important characteristic to a hunter. Here is how I would rank the importance of the characteristics of a rack:
1. Score
2. Score
3. Score
4. Balance (The antlers have to be balanced from side to side)
5. Spread/Height or tine length (This is too close to call and makes up Shock Value)
6. Mass
7. Drop tines
8. Typical points
9. High non-typical points (kickers and points off of typical tines)
10. Low non-typical points (points off the bases and brow tines)
Almost all hunting preserves still pay BY THE SCORE. We will pay premiums for very wide deer or make deductions for very narrow deer but not enough to overcome score. We will pay way more for a 200 inch non-typical than we will for a clean 165 inch 8 pointer. Even if those 8 pointers are rare!
If you have a pen full of ugly 300 inch bucks and a pen full of great looking 200 inch typicals, the 200 inch typicals will sell faster BUT you will still get MORE for the 300 inch bucks! MUCH more.! As a matter of fact, if you have a pen full of 300 inch deer, feel free to give me a call. I’ll gladly take the high scoring ugly deer off your hands! I love the typicals. But when we write the checks, SIZE (SCORE) STILL DOES MATTER!
Whitetails are the number one hunted animal in North America for a reason. They are all different! As a grower I agree that big frames, mass and long beams are what we have to have in our programs. But if all I had to offer were clean typical deer that looked like our poorly managed wild deer herd.....well......lets just say I'd be in trouble! I love my pens to contain variety! It just gets me excited and gives me more options. I always start a hunt by sitting down and asking every hunter what type of deer he or she is looking for. After that initial meeting, if I've done my job well, I know where everyone should be going!
All of us at Whitetail Dreams hope everybody has great Christmas and a great 2012!
