Andy P. from Tennessee wants to score bucks from his trail cam photos. “I’ve got tons of trail cam pictures of bucks on my property. I have photos of several of the same bucks for two and three years. It’s fun to watch them grow older, but is there any techniques that I can use to score these bucks?”
Dr. Dave Samuel
Actually Andy, there is a computer program (check out buckscore.com) that allows you to determine antler score from trail cam pics. They developed the model by looking at ear width, eye ball width, eye-to-eye width, nose width, etc., and then compared all that to antler size. They’ve developed their model for photos that are straight on, 45-degree angle, and side view.
If you have all three shots (straight on, at 45 degree, sideview) of one buck, using buck score you will be able to come within 2.5 percent of the actual antler score. You can also age your buck and get around three-fourths of them aged to the year. It’s a pretty neat program.
Here’s a link to the website to check it out yourself. http://www.buckscore.com/
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Dr. Dave writes a weekly column for sportsmansguide.com. If you have a question for Dr. Dave, e-mail your question to Dr. Dave in care of Tom Kacheroski, senior editor of www.sportsmansguide.com‘s content at tkachero@sportsmansguide.com. Dr. Dave studied deer for 30 years as a wildlife management professor at West Virginia University. In addition he has been a bowhunter for over 40 years, with deer being his main prey. He’s also an outdoor writer and has been with “Bowhunter” magazine for 31 years.