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Poor Rack Score Estimation

Altiman94

Altiman94

Member
I'm sure all of you have heard this time and time again....."some guy shot a giant down in Southern IA, goes 270"!!"

I was in line at Gander Mtn today picking up some .223 that was on sale. I noticed a fellow hunter talking to someone in line at the checkout stand in front of me mentioning that a friend of a friend had shot a 270" buck here in Iowa and he had been witness to the rack.

I've also grown cynical of other hunters talking about seeing bucks bigger than 130-140". Most of the time I talk 20-30 inches off and that may be the true score of the deer they "saw". I know there's a lot of good deer in Iowa, but not as many true 200" bucks are shot each year as rumored.

Just an observation.
 
Yea kinda like the 14 pointer in the car headlights. :D I pretty much always deduct the 20 to 30 inch excitement factor plus a couple points on the rack. :way:
 
guilty as charged. I don't know how many times i have hunted and seen a buck that at first glance i turn to my camera man and say "SHOOTER".......take another look and he just dropped from 140 to 120. Don't get me wrong....i shot a buck that i didn't think had much over 140 and he was 160's, but that doesn't happen much. My "hand racks" when i talk to people is always 6 inches wider and a foot higher. haha. Takes one hell of a buck to make boone. I live in WI and when i take someone new to iowa to hunt, i always say that if it isn't the biggest buck you have seen.....the deer is prolly 150's. They dont see many big ones here so they get VERY excited when a 130 steps out. A 170 would look super human to them haha.
 
I was going to dinner with the parents a few nights ago and a fork ran across in front of us. Dad said ," That was a big one" I just smiled.
 
ive seen the pic of a guy i know shot a perfect ten pushing 200" this year when he was hunting down south. 270" might be much but the rumor is somewhat true. If you were at gander mountain in cr then the guy who shot this deer was from the cr area, so it makes a some sense
 
I showed a few guys at work a trail cam pic of a 200 incher we had from previous years and the one guy looks at me and says, "yeah, I seen 3 about that size this past weekend". I was like riiiiiiiiiiiiiight....
 
You wouldn't believe all the booners that are running around my area...too bad I haven't seen any:drink1: Suppose to be several 16pointers too.:p My guess is that most people around here see a decent 130ish buck and it's an instant booner. Been there, done that myself.

I have only seen two bucks that would make 130's this year and passed them both up. Turns out the neighbor has trailcam pics of both and they are his target bucks. He couldn't believe I let something in the 150's walk. He was a bit deflated when I told him they were no where near 150, as he had thought. I told him to go for them anyway, if they were his targets.

Trust me, if they were 150 I would've filled my tag:way:

Over-excitement is the root cause for GROUND SHRINKAGE!!!
 
Anytime I hear someone say they saw a "huge buck!" or a 150 or higher, I typically have my doubts. Espically, when the person telling me really doesn't know squat. To some people a 120 8pt is huge.
 
My brother in law started rifle hunting 2 years ago. First year killed a 140 inch 8(on a drive), last year nothing, and 2 days ago informed me that he wasn't killing anything else less than 200 inches!!

I tried to explain what the odds are of that happening, but it was no use. He is completely convinced that there are several deer on the place he hunts that would allow him to do so. And yes my brother in law is a a complete idiot.

What gives people the idea there are 200" deer running everywhere?
 
What gives them the idea? TV shows....Lee and Tiffany, The Drury Brothers, Bow Madness, etc. All of those shows talk about is shooting monster bucks. While most of them manage the land they hunt ( I know the Lakosky's and Drury's do) means they have quite a few nicer bucks than your average public land. To me, a 120" 8 PT is a shooter. I don't see very many large bucks and would be very happy with a 120" 8. I don't need a booner to make me happy.
 
I try to be conservative and I still usually over-shoot a guess by about 10". I finally learned to deduct 10" from my best guess and that has served me pretty well. It's been YEARS since I've seen a 150" from the stand or anywhere around here for that matter. I talked with some Louisiana fellas leasing some ground near our home last year, one said the year before he shot a 170" and never found it during rifle season. I had a very hard time not laughing in his face. Try 140" buddy, and I might believe you.
 
I know a guy that muzzleloaded the same property as me this yr. He travelled from Alberta and spent one month. He saw a 180" pretty much every night in the places I shed hunt, scout, hunt and run cams on yr round. I knew of only one 180 and I killed him.
Weird.
 
I just experienced some of this first hand today. A friend of my boss stopped by work with the skull plate of the deer he shot yesterday. It was a nice 9pt with a couple kickers and good brows. I told him it was one heck a buck and asked "what did he go, upper 150's"? He responded with a laugh and said it grossed 184". I just looked at him and said really. He then told me that all the score came from the brows that it had, which the longer of the 2 was around 6". I wanted to make a bet with him and tape it out, but being a friend of my boss I just kept my mouth shut and congratulated him. Don't get me wrong it was a great deer but 184 was a looooooong stretch. I had enough BS and went back to work, next thing ya know my boss comes back in and says "Sh$# was gettn deep out there. 184 ya right."
 
I used to think that I was good at judging deer and this year I shot a nice two year old thinking it was a three. Came in fast thought it was bigger took the shot then realized it was a younger deer! Really wished I would have studied the deer better! Oh well I never filled my tag last year so guess that is okay this year! Now I'm in waiting room waiting for my daughter to arrive!!
 
Altiman94 said:
What gives them the idea? TV shows....Lee and Tiffany, The Drury Brothers, Bow Madness, etc. All of those shows talk about is shooting monster bucks. While most of them manage the land they hunt ( I know the Lakosky's and Drury's do) means they have quite a few nicer bucks than your average public land. To me, a 120" 8 PT is a shooter. I don't see very many large bucks and would be very happy with a 120" 8. I don't need a booner to make me happy.
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They have alot of land and can feed them what they need to grow, as well as give them the time! Not really the same as Joe Blow is it! Most of us are lucky to have private land to hunt let alone time to plant the optimum food!! Fun to watch! But it's a totaly different animal!!
 
I am definitely one that you are all talking about, a pope and young deer within 100 yards is a 150 incher. It takes untill he gets into range for me to realize that its the same 125 inch 10 point i have passed half a dozen times. hahaha.
 
Folks, that is why they call it GROUND SHRINKAGE!!! LMAO We all have done it and the realistic ones are man enough to admit it!

Happens to the best of them.
 
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