Record book fork horn blacktail

[Okanagan]

My blacktail buck from last Fall makes a special fork horn record book.  Whoda thunk it.

At our annual antler party last month, an official B&C scorer told me that the fork horn I got last Fall looked big enough to easily make a special record category for blacktail fork horns.  Evidently since blacktail antlers are generally small, there is a book category for fork horns. 

He scored it yesterday and it makes the book.  101 2/8 gross, 96 6/8 net.  I think the minimum for the book is 90.  Yay! 

[Hawks Feather]

Congratulations. That is a little extra 'icing' on your Blacktail.

[pitw]

Cool as [L].

[remrogers]

That is an impressive looking buck. Nice and tall. I would not have let him walk away.

[FinsnFur]

Very cool.
Signs of good genes and an healthy herd

[Okanagan]

Thanks for the kind words.

"Fork horn record" has an element of humor to it, and I almost didn't post about it.  But it is kind of interesting.  Some icing on the cake is a good way to put it.

I knew there was a big buck in the area from fresh big horn rubs, and was hoping I would see the one that made those rubs.  But that morning, the last day of season, I would not have passed a spike.  I wanted some meat for the freezer. 

Scoring antlers is always interesting to me.  For anyone not familiar, the score for an antler means how many inches it measured.  They measure everything about the antlers in inches, down to 1/8 inch.  Then they add up all those inches of how long and how big around etc. and that is the total or gross score.

Then for official net score they subtract the differences between each part of the left and right sides.  So if a tine on one side is a different length than the matching one on the other side, they add the lengths of both of them, and subtract any difference in lengths.  So a score of 101 2/8 gross means the measures of this buck's antlers added up to 101 2/8 total inches.  Subtract the differences from one side to the other and this one scores 96 6/8 net, which is the official score that goes in the record book.

This buck is remarkably symmetrical, same size on both sides with very little deduction other than the third tine on one side.  The length of that third tine is all deducted from the overall score of course.  I asked how he could be scored as a fork horn when he has three points on one side.  The scorer said that if it has two points on one side (not counting eye-guards), it counts as a fork horn, and they subtract whatever the extra points measure from the final net score.

 A month earlier this buck had eye-guards over an inch long on each side (seen on a trail camera) and those would have added to his score.  But by the end of deer season he had broken and ground them off.  A tine or projection on the antler has to be at least one inch long to score, whether adding to or subtracting from the final score.