How to score a whitetail buck

The Boone and Crockett method adds up four things on a whitetail: the inside spread, both main beams, every typical point, and four circumferences on each side. Then it subtracts the difference between the two sides, because a typical score rewards a matched rack. A tape and twenty minutes give you a green score; only an official measurer can score a buck for the record book.

Tape and rules

• Use a flexible steel tape and write every measurement to the nearest eighth of an inch. Eighths keep the adding simple: 4 3/8, not 4.375.
• A projection counts as a point only if it is at least one inch long and longer than it is wide at one inch or more of its length.
• The beam tip counts as a point but is not measured as one.
• Tip-to-tip spread and greatest spread go on the score chart, but neither counts in the score.

Rules quoted from Boone and Crockett's measuring instructions, reprinted with the Club's permission on New Jersey's trophy form.

1. Inside spread

Measure at a right angle to the center line of the skull, at the widest point between the main beams. The spread credit is that number, unless it is longer than the longer main beam: then the credit stops at the beam's length.

2. Main beams (F)

From the lowest outside edge of the burr, over the outer curve, to the most distant point of the main beam. Do both sides.

3. Typical points (G1, G2, G3...)

Normal points grow up off the main beam. G1 is the brow tine, G2 the next one out, and so on toward the tip. Measure each from the nearest edge of the main beam, over the outer curve, to its tip. A clean 10-pointer has G1 to G4 on each side, and the beam tip is the fifth point.

4. Circumferences (H1 to H4)

Four per side, each at the smallest place between two points: H1 between the burr and G1, H2 between G1 and G2, H3 between G2 and G3, H4 between G3 and G4. If the brow tine is missing, take H1 and H2 at the smallest place between the burr and the second point. Circumferences are about a fifth of the example buck's score below, so tape them rather than guess.

5. Abnormal points

Points that are non-typical in shape or location: a drop tine, a sticker off the side of the beam, a point growing off another point. Measure each one and total them per side. On a typical score they are subtracted; on a non-typical score they are added. Typical vs non-typical explains why.

6. Add it up

Add the spread credit, every right-side measurement and every left-side measurement: that is the frame. For each matching pair (both beams, both G2s, both H3s...), take the difference between right and left and total those differences. The net typical score is the frame minus the differences, minus the abnormal points.

A real example

B&C entry 1301986, a typical whitetail: inside spread 20 1/8, main beams 22 4/8 and 24 3/8, G1 to G4 on each side and no abnormal points. Its gross score is 166 2/8. The two sides differ by 5 7/8 in all (the biggest gaps: main beams 1 7/8 apart, brow tines and G3s 1 1/8 apart each), so it nets 160 3/8.

Add it up for you

Open the free score calculator

Score from a trail-camera photo instead: Tinewise, an iPhone app, traces the beams, points and circumferences on the picture, every line drawn where you can check it. Coming soon to the App Store.

More scoring guides

• How to score a mule deer
• How to score a bull elk
• Typical vs non-typical scores

Unofficial. Not affiliated with the Boone and Crockett Club or any record book. Only an official measurer, at least sixty days after the kill, can score a rack for entry.