Buckscore software

[SWIABOONER]

I just wanted to let everyone know about a new computer program I just bought. It's called Buckscore. It was developed by Mississippi State University. The program uses algorithms to determine a score of a deer from a picture. It's pretty cheap $10 from there website and it just downloads to your computer. It's an awesome idea, I'm just not real sure how well it works. You input what state the deer is from, age if you know it, and how the deer is orientated in the picture, 0, 90, or 180 degrees. Then you use a pointer to take a base measurement depending on how the deer is facing nostril width, width between eyes, etc. Then after taking the base measurement you measure the mainbeams, tines and mass. I've only had a few minutes to mess around with it but from what little time I have used it I think it is very sensitive to how close the animal is to the camera and knowing the age helps a lot in getting closer measurements. They claim accuracy within 6% with one picture and up to 2.5% with multiple pictures of the same animal. I have scored a few deer that I know the score and some were relatively close and others where off quite a bit. I need to mess with it some more before I give a final grade but I've wasted $10 on dumber stuff. Like I said earlier if it works like advertised it would be an awesome management tool but that is yet to be seen. Here is a link to the website if you're interested http://www.buckscore.com/

 

[iowabucks]

I tried Trophyscore a couple years ago. A very similar program and sounds almost like the same thing. While it is kinda fun to do this i thought the scores were all over the place for me. It didn't ask for the orientation of the deer to the camera, and i can't say that i was doing the intitial measurements (eye size, or between the nostrils) perfectly. I'm sure that has alot to do with the accuracy.

 

[revup]

I wonder how palmation would score on that????
I would think that could throw off the score.

 

[SWIABOONER]

Iowabucks,

I've been messing with it some since I posted. You are right that the initial measurement of ear width, eye width etc. has a lot to do with the outcome of the score. So far my scores have been everywhere, not real impressed so far. I think if you can get a good straight on picture and really zoom in on it you might get better accuracy but I haven't seen it yet. I've got a 400" typical ten running around guess I better get after him he might be on his way down. :grin:

 

[SWIABOONER]

Well I just scored the buck in my avatar. I zoomed in a lot for each measurement trying to be as exact as possible. I came up with a score within 2 inches of the actual score of the animal which is pretty impressive. I'll have to try it some more before I decide if it's useful or not. Zooming in for each measurement may be the key.

 

[SWIABOONER]

Well after messing around with this software for awhile now, I've gotta say I'm fairly happy with it. If you zoom in a lot for each measurement you get some pretty decent results after using it to score a Few of bucks that I know the score on it comes reasonably close to the actually score. 3-12in with a couple being within fractions of an inch. I'm happy I bought it and for $10 don't think it's too bad of an investment.