The Truth About Deer Scores

I’ve been asked to do this for several years but I’ve never thought much of it until recently. In 2012, for whatever reason, I thought it would be a great idea to become a certified deer scorer for the Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records. That was right around the time that deer scored started to become a hot topic in the small town hunting world. Before then the best way to see how big a deers rack is was to measure the width and height.

I still remember the first deer I scored. It was at the Buckmasters Expo in Montgomery Alabama and it was a hoss. The Alabama black belt buck ended up grossing over 190” and to pass my exam, I had to get within a set amount of inches (not very many might I add) of Master Scorer Cecil Reddick from Rayville.

I’ve been friends with Cecil since 2010 and I knew a few things about scoring but to sit down and run my hands across an amazing animal like the one I was about to score was intimidating. In the end, as you can probably guess, I passed the test.

Now here’s where my road to scoring differs from most. I went to Montgomery alone and I drove back alone, so there was plenty of time for thought. “What am I gonna do with this? Seems like just a waste of time” was my initial thought. That’s when my mind drifted to memories of my grandfather and the only buck he ever had scored.

In 2005 my Papa killed a hammer of a 7 point that was his largest rack in inches and also the largest bodied deer he’d ever taken. He even called and left me a voice message on my old Motorola flip phone telling me to come see him when I got off work. When he opened the back door of his house that evening, he was in his T-shirt and pajama pants and instructed me to go look in his old shed. The dim light from the outside security light eased in the building when I cracked the door and the bucks head was sitting on a towel. Ole Foots Hicks was unbelievably happy about this deer.

The next day my dad took him to a local sporting goods store so the rack could be scored. The entire family was elated for this moment. Papa sat in the truck while my dad went inside and found someone to score the deer.

The next few minutes ended up shaping the rest of my life….and many others.

The worker was agitated that someone wanted a deer scored and when he went outside and saw the rack, he huffed, “why you want that scored? It ain’t gonna win nothing”.

The air was let out of my Papa like a birthday balloon that had been floating too long. He sank back in the truck and told dad he just wanted to go back home.

I was coming into Meridian, Ms when I made this statement out loud. “I’m gonna score every deer that needs to be measured. And I’m gonna do it with excitement and genuine interest because of my Papa Foots”.

I’ve never turned anybody down who wants a score and I never will. We lost my grandfather the next fall and that moment when the man shot down the last happy hunting moment my grandfather had defined me not only as an official scorer but also as a man.

I go on a little rant in this video at times but it’s for reason. And you’ll hear it. Right, wrong, or indifferent I’ve learned a few truths about deer scoring that I’ll expose to you all.

And I’m certain you’ll be surprised.