Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What's a "Typical" buck score in your area?

What's a typical buck score in your area? I'm not talking about the BIG MOOSE that Billy Joe's uncle's sister's boyfriend killed 2 years ago but more so what is typically seen and shot by hunters.

For me,

NW Ga. hunting land: 80" to 100" 7's to 9 points
East Ga hunting land: 100" to 120" 8's to 10 points

mine last year was 1"

"typical" 8 to 10 points that probably green score around 115, maybe 120. These are "average, respectable fair chase bucks" around here.

Anything over 130 raises eyebrows, anything over 150 creates envy, anything above 160 becomes local legend.

Around here typical two year old healthy bucks between good basket racks to @70 inches. Three year old 8-10 pointers, around 90-125 or so. Four to five year olds, which we see about five or so a year, score in the 130-145 class or better. I have seen five bucks on our property and adjoining properties that would go better than an honest 150-160 in the last thirteen years. We have good genetics in this state. As with most places our deer just need a good consistant food source to really shine.

I missed a 160+ 14 pointer nontypical with my bow last year. Tried to shoot through a softball sized hole in some mountain laurel at 26 yards, you can guess the rest. These deer are here but hunter interference and just good survival instincts saves a lot of them. If you look back into North American Whitetail, etc, you will see some of our bucks every year. Last October, two deer from my neck of the woods are on the trophy pics section of NAW magazine. Maryland has really come along as a "sleeper" state for good bucks. Particularly, the eastern shore. But they can be found through out the central to southern sections as well. When the State restocked with deer many years ago from overhunting, they brought deer down from Wisconsin. Even today our deer have very large body sizes. average 2-4 year old does go 95-125#'s or more. My 10 point from three years ago was three years old, by aging his teeth, he was only @ 110 inches of antler, but was 225# dressed. I have seen several that were bigger.
So, long story to short. You need to break 130" or so to get anybodies attention. There are enough true 140+ deer taken from around here every year to keep anyone hopeful as they are all wild and free ranging.

Here in SE AL an average good buck runs about 90".
This one went 93" last year.


Really good deer for us start about 105" like this one.

I would say 130 is average in my area.. besides the dumb asses that shoot anything with bone on its head..

Varies depending if you're in the MS Delta or pine woods here. In the pine woods 80-110 is about the norm, a few in the 110-120 range from time to time, and anything over 130 is rare. My family has hunted the pine woods since deer were leagl to hunt and our largest has been upper 120s. Where I hunt in the Delta, we try not to shoot bucks under 120, preferably 130+ unless they have age and inferior racks. We've killed several from 120 to 140 and one in the 150s range. 130-150 is common in the Delta, with several larger taken every year.

I hunt in TX and IA as well and it always amazes me how many bucks you see that would be monsters back home, but considered dinks by the locals in those areas.

Have a good one,

loder

A mature buck on our S. TX lease average approx. 135 gross.

A mature buck on my East Central TX private property . . . . never seen one.
Oldest I have seen (4.5 years) and killed by my young nephew scored about 130 gross.

stumpy

My area mirrors Northern Dave's except for the top end ( we are about 4 hours apart). We do see some 160+ deer here. We have shot 4 and seen a few more over the past 15 years or so. The biggest we have ever seen gave us the slip. Funny part is, we dont see much buck sign anymore. But they are there when it counts. Very few scrapes, very few rubs, very few big tracks. Havent seen a big track yet this year; didnt see one last year either, yet we shot 3 that were 120-135, which is big enough to leave a nice sized track. Most years we get 2-3 that dress out over 200#s.

Usually nothing but lies.

On the iron range in MN, about 3 hours from where northern_dave sits, I'd say an average buck scores 70-100 pts. Big score spread but that is how the bucks are in that area.

Typical 8 2-3y.o. will be about 12-14" spread, short tines, good mass. A 120 will get some ooh's and aaah's.

I shot a 2y.o. 9pt 2 years ago that weighed 176#. You put another year on them and they'll almost always be #200.

Outside the fence...up to 120
Inside...........how much can you afford?

Too many young deer get shot here, so we unfortunately don't have the trophy animals other places have. I'd say a typical buck would be in the 70-80 inch range, between 6 and 8 points. Good bucks start in the 90-100 inch range, with a few bigger ones shot around the area each year that really draw attention. By area, I mean within probably a 10 or 15 mile radius of my house.

Lots of monsters are shot in the Pittsburgh metro area each year. In fact, the state record nontypical was taken there a couple seasons ago, less than 5 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh. It was like 226" I believe.

Here are a few bucks that my buddies have killed. All would be considered good/great deer for this area. The last four pictures were all killed by the same guy, so you can imagine how much we hate him during hunting season!

Seems like in Pa. certain hunters "typically" kill bigger Bucks.
They also often tend to be archery hunters and they pull some hogs out of the woods that definitely are not typical.

Can't give any overall guess, but since antler restrictions went into effect, what used to win the Buck pool 6 or so years ago around here is now good for 4th or 5th place.

Here in Colorado, 175 +.

Ingwe would be lost here as there's no dinks.

In north missouri I would say the average 2.5 year old deer will be 8 to 10 points and be 100 to 120 inches. 3.5 year old deer will be 120 to 140 and a 4.5 year old deer will usually be a hog of 135 to 160. If you can kill a deer 5.5 years old or older they are usually 150 inches plus.

Every year I get to see true 160 to 190 inch deer in back of someones truck. I just wish it was mine. I have hunted north missouri for alot of years and seen some really big deer but I just can't seem to kill one for myself.

Dink

Have no idea, but they're usually nice along the river in N. East La. or Southwest Miss where I hunt.

12" inch spread 2 to 4 points Eastern count.

There's 10 guys on our lease and we're all around 50-60ish.We try not to shoot any thing younger than 4 years old.They're all mostly 8-10 and some 12 pointers shot,average score around 130-155.One of the guys shot 1-2 years ago,it had 15 points and dry scored 163 3/8ths B&C.He won the 2nd place score for our region and low fence.We also shoot cull bucks with no brow tines and deformed racks.We shoot at least 33 does off our place or have doe and spike hunts to keep us in the ratio our biologists for our area says we need to shoot.Skeeter

Average mature 4x4 Coues whitetail buck around here will score between 80-90 gross. Anything over 95 is a trophy. Average mature desert mule deer buck will be a 4x4 around 135-140.