OpticNerd

Becker, I certainly agree that wide bucks are sure awesome to look at as long as the buck is looking directly at you or away from you. Some of the widest bucks I've seen looked nice and big until they turn their head. Same goes for the very tall narrow bucks they can look huge at certain angles and then as soon as they look directly at you they shrink on ya. I still think the width of a buck or bull should fall under personal preference and not into the score of the rack. As far as moose goes I don't know anything about scoring moose. Gonna have to disagree with you on that one Mr. Blaze and here's why. Let say you have two bucks both of which score 120 inches. Buck #1 has 20 inch main beams, 30 inches of mass and is 20 inches wide. Buck #2 also has 20 inch main beams, 30 inches of mass but is only 10 inches wide instead of 20. So that would give Buck #1 30 inches of tine length to reach a total of 120 while Buck #2 will have 40 inches of tine length to achieve a score of 120 inches giving Buck #2 10 more inches of bone over buck #1. Imagine if you will your hiking up through a saddle when out of the corner of your eye you spot bone sticking up out of the grass. Your hearts racing as you run up to see what you've found. As you get closer you can see that it's a matching set and it just happens to be the antlers from Buck #1. As claim your prize you immediately start running the numbers in your head. 20" beams, 5" G1s, 5" G2s, 5" G3s and 30 inches of mass. Heck yea that's a sweet buck bro! But your days not done yet because as soon as you look up there is another set only 10 yards away and as luck would have it this set belongs to Buck#2. As you pick up the sheds you notice they feel just a bit heavier than the set from Buck #1. Once again your heart racing as you go through the numbers in your head. To your surprise all the measurements are coming up the same; 20" beams, 30" of mass, 5" G3s, 5" G2s...., but what's this! As you come to the G1s you about soil your draws because staring you in the face are two of the damnedest looking 10" eye guards you've ever seen. After 5 minutes of admiring both sets on the ground next to each other you pick up one antler from Buck #1 and then an antler from Buck #2. You hold them up side by side and with it's 10" eye guard buck #2 definitely appears to be the bigger of the two bucks. You also confirm that buck #2 is just a bit heavier than Buck #1 due to the extra bone in the 10" G1. So as you can see there actually can be a difference other than personality between a tall buck and a wide buck that score the same.

I've also given the water displacement idea some thought but just couldn't get use to it. I like to be able to score my animals in the field and I don't see how that would be possible with the water displacement scoring. Good questions. Yes you are correct in saying that my new method isn't really any different than the old method. It was designed to be as such and when you think about it being similar is an advantage really. This will make it much easier for hunters to transition over to this new method. Especially when it comes to field judging animals. The main difference is that a rack will get credit for antler only and not air. For me I'm not interested in scoring for the record books. Never have never will. I mainly score for fun and to compare my kills. I'll have to somewhat disagree with you on getting credit for height while using our current scoring systems. I was having a hard time explaining why this is so I drew a picture. Keep in mind I'm no artist so please excuse my drawing but it should give you a general idea as to why I don't like spread being included in the score of an animals rack and to why I feel height isn't given credit with the current system. For the sake of argument lets say the two bucks in the picture below are exactly the same other than width and height. All the points are the same. All the mass measurement are the same. Everything is the same except width and height. But under our current scoring system the wider buck will score more even though both bucks have the same amount of bone. The reason why I don't agree with the idea that a tall buck will get credit for growing a tall rack because he'll get inches from his long tines is because in the bad drawing below both bucks get the same amount of score for the length of their tines. No where in the score does the tall buck get more inches then the wide buck for growing his rack tall. I feel a lot of tall bucks are tall due to the way the main beam/frame grows and not because of very long tines. This is why I don't think spread should be included in score. In my mind the only thing that should be scored is bone. As some have mentioned earlier I also miss the good ol days when you ask someone what they shot and they'd say a 4x4 or 3x3 but I think it's more the overall attitude of the hunters in general I miss rather then if a guy said he shot a 100 incher instead of just saying he shot a 3x3. It was far less competitive back then or at least it seemed that way.

Thanks Edge and murfy.

Here's a video I was able to put together from this years rut. Hope you guys enjoy it! EDIT: I added a bunch of stills pulled from the video.

130 2/8

Thanks guys...Pixman I don't download videos directly to CW.com I copy the youtube url from a video I want to share and then paste it into my post. I'm pretty sure there is a size limit on videos directly downloaded to this site more than likely that limit is going to be fairly small. Might want to check with Amanda to be sure though.

Thanks Randy. It's always good to get comments so I at least know some of you still enjoy watching these videos.

Loved it! Really enjoy watching your videos. Thanks for taking the time to post them up and keep um coming.

Out of the cameras I've used I really like the Canon Elph 300 HS when it comes to videoscoping especially for the price. Majority of the footage from my 2013 rut video was recorded with this camera. Another camera I like are the Sony RX100 series. I've been using a RX100 for almost a year now and I'm really starting to like it. Pretty much all the footage from my 2015 rut video is RX100 footage with the exception of two or three clips. Good luck hope your able to get the results your looking for.

Thanks for the comment Dominant Buck. Without knowing more about your digiscoping setup I really can't give you any specific pointers. I'm far from being a digiscoping expert but for me one of the most important factor in getting quality footage is distance. To get the good stuff I need to be within 300 yards. The closer the better. Doing this should improve the quality of your footage. Another general tip is to upgrade your equipment if at all possible. Get an ED scope if you don't have one. Doesn't necessarily need to be top of the line just as long as it has some type of ED glass. This will help a lot with the color fringing. Also get a compact HD camera that has a zoom below 5x if you don't already have one. From my experience I get the results with cameras that have an optical zoom range between 3-5x. Any other questions feel free to ask.

Can someone please tell where the dislike button is?

Sorry man but your asking the wrong guy when it comes to accurately scoring a buck on the hoof. The 110-120 is just a quick guesstimate and this guess is based on if he wasn't broken. I never got video of him fully intact. I'm pretty sure he's closer to 110 than 120 but who knows for sure. I have a hard time seeing him scoring under 105 but I could be wrong. Maybe someone else will chime in with a more accurate number than I can give. Sorry I couldn't be anymore helpful.

Thanks! Yes he is/was a 5x4 not including eye guards of course. I'm not the best at scoring but I think with all his points intact he would go somewhere between 110-120. Thanks! Yea that buck is one of the most aggressive bucks I've seen in a while. I don't think I've ever seen a buck charge as many bucks as this guy and it wasn't just the bucks he was also mean to the all the does as well.

Wow you guys did good! Definitely have hunting pigs figured out. Congrats thanks for sharing.

Sweet wall! I really like your velvet buck especially his right side. To me that side screams coues. I love antlers that look like that. Congrats!

Thanks Shawn. This might be the last one for awhile because I'm really starting to miss bow hunting in January.

It's official you and Jody are a couple of big buck killin mamajamas! Congrats to you both!

Dang! That coues is crazy big! Congrats man!

Thanks guys! Yes I did use a different camera this year. Good eye man! Instead of using my old trusty Canon I decided to use the Sony RX100 this time around. I liked using the RX100 quite a bit better than the old Canon. I use a custom digiscoping setup. I'm constantly changing or modifying my set up trying to achieve better results. The main components of my current setup consist of an old Vixen scope, an older model Leica 20-60x zoom eyepiece and a Sony RX100 all of which is held together with various modifications and adapters.

Nice bucks! I agree with kazpilot25 that last one looks like a stud.

A little late but I think a 12x and 20x would be a killer combo if your willing to carry two sets of glass. If you plan on using the 12s around your neck you definitely want to try it before you buy it. If you can steadily hand hold the 12s then they would be an awesome around the neck bino. Unfortunately I can't even hand hold 10s steady enough so I prefer 8s as my go to around the neck glass.

Great stuff! On a side note I had a fun time explaining to my 4 year old daughter what KBS was. To her it means Kill Big Stuff. Thanks for taking the time making and sharing the videos. Looking forward to seeing the Mexico video when it's done.

Heck yea! Looks like you had a great January. Thanks for posting!

I'm really liking your pictures as of late. Congrats on a stud buck! Outstanding job all around! Thanks for taking the time to share your success with us.

Congrats on a great buck! Looks like you guys are doing pretty good down there this year. This buck has quite a unique eyeguard layout making it hard to tell if he only has one or two.