Bank Error In Your Favor
By Buckmasters
As you can imagine, with all the measuring, fractions and addition that go into scoring a buck, we sometimes make mistakes. That’s why we built multiple levels of checks into the process of recording a deer into the record book. While the scorers perform all the math for adding up the inches, as well as determining the percentage of irregularity of a rack, a computer has the final say, double-checking every total.
The BTR scorers are incredibly accurate. Half the time when the computer total doesn’t match the original scoresheet, it’s because I typed in one of the numbers incorrectly.
Of course, we’re all human, so if there are ways to mess something up, we will do so occasionally. When measuring a giant buck, interpreting irregular configurations from typical ones, and then transferring all that information onto paper, we sometimes put a number in the wrong column, or even forget to include a number.
Whether it’s a case of math or omission, experienced scorers have a knack for recognizing something is off when comparing a total with the look of a rack.
That was the case last week for a bruiser buck taken by Toby Biehler in Dickinson County, Kansas. Kenneth Forbus, who has scored the last two Buckmasters Deer of the Year racks in addition to a slew of other Kansas giants, originally measured Toby’s buck a 183 5/8 inches — a monster by any standard.
But something felt off to Kenneth. He stewed about it for several days, finally getting out the scoresheet again and taking another look. It wasn’t long before he discovered a rather significant math error on the buck’s right side. Instead of 70 6/8 inches, the right-side total should have been 96 2/8, bringing Toby’s actual score up to 209 1/8! Thus, a great buck instantly attained legendary status, and the mind of a great scorer was put at ease.
The math mistake would have been picked up by the computer when I put the deer in the record book, but it goes to show how well the BTR scorers know racks, as well as how dedicated they are to getting things right.
Congratulations to Toby on his great deer. We’ll see if we can talk him into telling us the story for a future issue of Buckmasters!