Thoughts On Bucks In Trail cam Pics.......

[Lawdwaz]

I had a discussion with my buddy during archery season this year about the size of bucks in my trail cam pics and videos and how big or little they'd be when reduced to bag. 

 

I think that some of the better bucks I get on the trail cams would "score" higher than they appear on the computer screen when I view them.  He thinks that they seem to be bigger on the cams than they'd be "in the dirt".

 

So, for those of you that have killed big bucks that you previously had on cameras, did they grow or shrink when you got your hands on them?

 

 

[G-Man]

Ir pics always shrink in hand, good color photos are usually pretty close.

[chrisw]

They typically shrink in my opinion. What you could swear was a 120" suddenly becomes 100"... I've never really seen one become much bigger than anticipated. Often times we let our excitement get the best of us but that's what its all about! I don't care what score they are anyways. You want scores?, watch football. Its all about the experience! My .02...

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[G-Man]

Ir pics shrink by 20 inches, color in general are about what you think they are + or - 5in or so

Edited December 17, 2015 by G-Man

[Lawdwaz]

 You want scores?, watch football. Its all about the experience! My .02...

 

 

I like scores in racks too.  I have had a few pretty good experiences in my time while hunting but walking up to a 140" buck is right up there.  Not the top but not too shabby.

 

 

You've killed some pretty good bucks I assume?

[chrisw]

I like scores in racks too. I have had a few pretty good experiences in my time while hunting but walking up to a 140" buck is right up there. Not the top but not too shabby.

You've killed some pretty good bucks I assume?

I've killed good bucks for the public land I hunt, you certainly won't see me featured in any hunting magazines with my deer but I'm proud of them. In my opinion if you can get a 3.5 yr old deer on public land you're doing good. Don't get me wrong I like racks as much as the next guy but I think people get too hung up on score, too many TV shows preaching scores. It turns it into a competition and that turns people into poaching, cheating etc... If my 3.5 yr old buck scores 95" that's fine by me, if he tops 120" then I'm thrilled! Age class is important to me, not necessarily inches...

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[Lawdwaz]

I've killed good bucks for the public land I hunt, you certainly won't see me featured in any hunting magazines with my deer but I'm proud of them. In my opinion if you can get a 3.5 yr old deer on public land you're doing good. Don't get me wrong I like racks as much as the next guy but I think people get too hung up on score, too many TV shows preaching scores. It turns it into a competition and that turns people into poaching, cheating etc... If my 3.5 yr old buck scores 95" that's fine by me, if he tops 120" then I'm thrilled! Age class is important to me, not necessarily inches...

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So I'd guess from that that if you shot a 140" buck you wouldn't score it?

 

Kudos to you for sticking to your standards.

 

[Lawdwaz]

 

 

So, for those of you that have killed big bucks that you previously had on cameras, did they grow or shrink when you got your hands on them?

 

Back to the question at hand...............

[chrisw]

So I'd guess from that that if you shot a 140" buck you wouldn't score it?

Kudos to you for sticking to your standards.

I've never had a deer officially scored, no. If I shot a 140" buck its a beautiful buck and knowing the score wouldn't make me any more proud of him than if I didn't know it. The only time scores mean something to me is when someone tells me about a big buck, to some people an 80" is big, others its 130", so its a number that can describe the relative size of a rack without physically seeing it... I'm in no way against scoring bucks, it just doesn't rate very high on my priority list.

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[Lawdwaz]

I never had a buck scored until I SHOT a 140" buck.

[phade]

Night IR images under-value a rack. Pretty consistently.

 

Day images depend on cam angle and deer/rack angle. So, its a mixed bag.

 

[nyslowhand]

I think that some of the better bucks I get on the trail cams would "score" higher than they appear on the computer screen when I view them.  He thinks that they seem to be bigger on the cams than they'd be "in the dirt".

Without taking their body size into consideration, yeah I can see where this over/under guess-timating could happen when trying to field judge from a photo/video! This isn't a phenomenon that's exclusive to scoring from photos, happens from the stand also!!

 

Hypothetically - If you were able to have the exact same rack on a 2-3yo, 150/160# buck, wouldn't it appear much bigger than on a 5-6yo, 190/200# brute?

[landtracdeerhunter]

It depends greatly on the persons personal experience viewing cam pics verses real rack size values. It would be fun to spin off this thread with people posting cam pics of deer they have harvested, had officially measured; to answer your original question.

Edited December 17, 2015 by landtracdeerhunter

[genesee_mohican]

I've found that I'm pretty close at scoring the rack. I've been using cams for a long time, study deer in general and have a good eye for it. I've also scored bucks with the methods used by the offical scorers and am not far off.

[LET EM GROW]

I think IR pics make the antlers look smaller than what they are physically in hand, and color photos being more accurate to size from screen to in hand.. ive got a lot of good examples of this with the buck to the far left on my picture to the left of this post here--

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[Rockspek]

Does anyone have pictures to post comparing?

[WNY Bowhunter]

Here are two bucks that I am mounting to compare:

Buck #1 grossed 147 4/8" (would have been almost 155 had the left side been matched)...

Buck #2 grossed 142 on a 7-pt frame (minus his brows, so 149 or so with them)....

Edited December 17, 2015 by WNY Bowhunter

[fasteddie]

I was going to pull my cameras but I think I will leave them out to see what survived the hunting season .

[Lawdwaz]

Night IR images under-value a rack. Pretty consistently.

 

Day images depend on cam angle and deer/rack angle. So, its a mixed bag.

 

The opinion I was looking for; an agreeable one. 

[Lawdwaz]

I was going to pull my cameras but I think I will leave them out to see what survived the hunting season .

 

Heck yes!

 

 

I had some terrific pics of bucks that made it through the 2014 hunting season, tough winter, spring, summer and this fall only to disappear after the 1st of November.  UGGH!

 

It sure adds another fun as heck thing to do in the winter.

[LET EM GROW]

maybe you guys can help here... always thought this guy was spindly and probably 2.5.. but i finally put out a flash cam this year and he looks a bit nicer than all of the IR pics i get of him... just showing the difference i see between flash/color pics and IR pics.. either way he still got the pass from me atleast til next year..

 

You guys agree with 2.5 yr old?

[WNY Bowhunter]

That's one of those deer that is a tough call to make without having history with him. He looks like he could be a 3.5 in the color pic?

[LET EM GROW]

exactly, here is another pic.. either way. i wasn't sure of his age so he got the slip this year. the color pic makes me think 3.5, but for his sake, i'm sticking with 2.5...

 

I actually have 2 bucks that look like this. both "should be 8's " but no brow tines on either... torn between 2.5 and 3.5 on both

[nyslowhand]

...and to make this whole thing even more confusing or questionable, throw in different habitats or food sources. Anyone that looks at brush lot bucks on their own trail cams might over-estimate the age of one from an agr rich area. Or vise-versa.

[LET EM GROW]

Agreed. Not much AG here though,we have a couple corn and soybean fields within a couple square miles is all.. but we do have a lot of food plots around though.

 

maybe ill go through last years pics and look for some of him, not sure if i have any or not. i like saving pics of every buck i get, even at 1.5, to try and find or make history with the bucks roaming our hills.