Massive Virgina Whitetail

He’s a friend of a friend. A guy came by and stretched the tape for him today. He said it grossed 170 B&C


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I would expect it to score more than that my family has multiple 150s and 160s on wall and that thing looks to dwarf them...
 
Spread is a single component of score. It's not like the thing has 14" tines. Beam length is likely impressive on it tho.

And a 170 does dwarf a 150.

Mass is so much more important than most people think as well. Honestly I initially thought this deer carried more mass than he does. The group of guys I all hunt with had him guessed to gross in the low 180s from the initial picture. My friend convinced him to get it scored, he didn’t really care what it scored.

There was a trail camera picture he shared that’s much more telling. Not taking anything away from the buck, because he’s an impressive specimen. Just saying that trail camera picture makes him look a lot more like a 170.


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Is he a tiny dude? I've seen some pictures that make deer look huge with some tiny people holding the horns. It seems like it should be so much bigger than 170".
 
Long arm. He sits right behind the deer would much more realistic perspective.

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Mass is so much more important than most people think as well. Honestly I initially thought this deer carried more mass than he does. The group of guys I all hunt with had him guessed to gross in the low 180s from the initial picture. My friend convinced him to get it scored, he didn’t really care what it scored.

There was a trail camera picture he shared that’s much more telling. Not taking anything away from the buck, because he’s an impressive specimen. Just saying that trail camera picture makes him look a lot more like a 170.


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I think mass should be weighed heavier on score personally, tho it's hard to really figure a good way to do it. Mass accounts for only 8 measurements, and an inch bigger on the 3rd mass measurement is a deer that is carrying a whole lot more mass, so say an inch extra on all mass measurements, we'll that's only an extra 8 inches, tho it adds up to 25% give or take more mass circumference.

I think mass can hide overall size in pictures well tho. Generally around here 30" of mass is a good 10, like upper 30's and 40's. Conversely, a good 8 is likely to still have 25 or 26. Above average brow tines will gain you more than above average mass I feel like.

And like you, I'm not at all trying to take away from the deer, it's a stud. Bigger than anything I have shot by a good bit, about as big a white tail as anything I have ever put a tape on in VA. Just trying to be realistic about it.
 
That is a hell of a buck, i assumed the body must be tiny because it looks outrageously big.

As far as the mass discussion goes - would be cool if there was a standard volume displacement method available to measure antlers because that would tell a totally different story.
 
I think mass should be weighed heavier on score personally, tho it's hard to really figure a good way to do it. Mass accounts for only 8 measurements, and an inch bigger on the 3rd mass measurement is a deer that is carrying a whole lot more mass, so say an inch extra on all mass measurements, we'll that's only an extra 8 inches, tho it adds up to 25% give or take more mass circumference.

I think mass can hide overall size in pictures well tho. Generally around here 30" of mass is a good 10, like upper 30's and 40's. Conversely, a good 8 is likely to still have 25 or 26. Above average brow tines will gain you more than above average mass I feel like.

And like you, I'm not at all trying to take away from the deer, it's a stud. Bigger than anything I have shot by a good bit, about as big a white tail as anything I have ever put a tape on in VA. Just trying to be realistic about it.

You’re spot on. As far as typicals go, he’s as big as they come from this part of the world. An old timer I know has a 182” ten point on the wall, I know because I stretched the tape. It’s unbelievable how big that deer is compared to other deer from this part of the world. One of my best friends has a 185” gross non typical that was hit by a car. That deer is also very impressive, but it’s just no comparison how impressive a typical of that caliber is.

I’ve got a couple bucks on the wall that gross non-typical in the 160s. They’re nowhere near as impressive as this buck. Not even close.

Typicals of that caliber just don’t happen much around here. Hell of a deer.


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