When sizing up a prospective buck for harvest, do you have a mental checklist and in what priority order? For example, do you weigh B&C score, age, body weight, # of points, spread of rack, uniqueness of rack, possible tastiness of meat, all of these, some of these, none of these, additional ones, etc. and in what order? For me, age class will always take top spot, followed by estimated B&C score, maybe rack spread, followed by deer body weight, etc. The scenario is assuming a very ethical shot opportunity of course. What is your "mental checklist"?

This is harvesting a deer.

First of all, I don’t call it harvest, but to each his own.
I do like DQ and his threads though so I’ll play along.
Basically, I’m just about like what DQ said he looked for. Add in history with the deer.
I also like a big frame rack and not necessarily a lot of points. For instance, I’ve killed a 181 with 19 points but same year our LO killed a 170 10 that was more impressive. My 159 9 pt with 25” spread was more impressive than the 181 also.

Back at you Free, enjoy your insights on hunting. Majority of my experience, 45 years or so is South Texas and I believe yours is NW TX and now OK, correct?

The last 15 of mine has been mostly in the Cross Timbers region which has some similarities to South Texas, mesquite, prickly pear, but also some differences, Oak trees, cedars, more turkey, tons of javelin and hogs down south, for me more hunting pressure in Cross Timbers especially closer to metro mess, larger deer herd down south and overall, larger avg. racks though not as overwhelmingly so 25+ years ago since supplemental feeding has blown up all over TX, etc.etc.

Back to Topic, mental checklists and order priority, what say the THF???

You got the last two stops right but you left out 40 years of prior hunting.
Hill country around home, then 20 years same family lease Trans Pecos, off to bigger deer in STx when Trophy hunting/game management boom hit, then away from the “boring brush” and on to more visibility outa Albanyy, lower Panhandle then Throckmorton. Now my final resting place is SC Okla.
Way off topic but you asked and it is your thread.

Depends where I’m at. On our place maturity is what I’m looking for, past that not a lot matters.

I hunt in AR counties, so spread is the first thing I have to consider. After that I look at gross score, age, points, and uniqueness of rack...in that order. Nothing else really. At this point it is going to be really hard for me to kill something smaller or similar to what I have killed already unless the rack is unique.

Since I hunt on foot on public land and pack everything out on my back I always consider the pack out. Antlers mean nothing to me, the meat is what I'm concerned with and getting the meat out is where I place my focus.

I have always used a quick mental check list that includes a lot. It also depends on where I am hunting, weapon and how much time I have to hunt. These deer all qualified as shooters for me. Score was not that important as it was more of a look I liked. I hunt where I want to hunt ,shoot what I like, and when I like it..... as long as it is legal or falls under the management program or TPWD guidelines.

STx, thanks for posting all those beautiful mounts.
I may change my mind upon a first hand look but I would say my favorite would be the big frame with the huge brows that’s bottom left of first pic. Assuming his right side closely matches-which can’t tell in pic.
Also the 8 that all turns in with nice brows that’s bottom left of last pic.
Amazing collection.

This is for where I hunt, a 150-160 is a rare find I've known of 3 in about 20 years in my immediate area (square mile or so around me)

1. Mature
2. Unique (heavy dark horned 8, 20'' wide pencil horned 10, unusually tall, etc.)

And that's my list, thats what I will take if we cross paths

Legal ?
Clean shot?
How much sausage will they make ?
Bang….
Where will i hang him ?

Thats awesome ! Lots of unique ones !

Whats up with this guy ? Any chance we can get a closer pic of him ?

Oh wow This guys cool too !

Where do you keep the rest of them?

STX, the words, "we are not worthy" comes to mind when viewing those "walls of horns". Very nice...

Freaking sweet!!!!

Whatever I'm in the mood for as long as it's mature. I also don't harvest deer, I kill them. I don't try to hide behind words for my actions.

Thanks but my mule deer pale in comparison to your collection.

Thanks for the extra pics. I think the pedestal deer to his right is 200ish but this one seems more impressive. Right side seems more impressive than left. My dream deer.

He was my dream buck also with those huge browtines....6x7 typical frame with 9" and 11" G1's, G2's and G3's all over 12", 27"+ and 28"+ MB's and 39"+ of mass. The pedestal buck was 198.7" gross.