A post on THF about judging spread brought up this question about judging a wide deer from pics. Here is what I use as a gauge so to speak. I have found on the deer here that if you measure from the outside of the bucks right burr to the outside of the bucks left burr of harvested bucks to get an average of your deer you can use this to gauge spread. For me I use 5" or less if it is a young buck. On middle aged bucks with average mass I use 5 1/4" and on older or heavier mass bucks I use 5 1/2" as a base measurement. Now all you need is a still camera pic or a trail cam pic of the buck looking straight at you. On your computer you can measure the burr measurement of the buck and then use your math skills to get fairly close his spread. For example, if the buck was younger and you can put 3 of his 5" burr measurement inside his beams for spread then he is close to 15". It has helped me guess much closer on bucks. Try it out on your bucks you have shot and see. Anyone else use anything different, if so it would be nice to know?

I hunt S. Tx. and we've measured the ears from tip to tip on mature deer that were harvested on our lease. Pretty consistently around 18".

Same for the panhandle.

By their ears. Usually ear to ear is around 15 inches, maybe more for South Texas, maybe a bit less for Hill Country.

12-14 inches ear tip to ear tip has been what I have seen in Hill Country.

When I was in South Texas ears ranged from 14" to 18" tip to tip with most being around 17" and in the Hill Country 13" to 17" tip to tip also with most being 15". I have seen 2 bucks standing side by side that both were the same width to me but one had larger ears than the other making him look smaller.

agree, thats generally the rule of thumb

Yup. The first posted idea is way too complicated. Its hard as heck to judge the diff of 4.5-5.5" on a pic or other wise, but outside the ear is easy and even my kid can do it.

True as I only use it for judging bucks in trail cam or still pics. When I am hunting I judge solely by ear spread as you do not have to calculate while hunting. It is a tried and true method.