Not being a hard butt here, but as far as the book goes (P&Y)...gross scores dont count. Its the net score, after deductions and drying, is the measure of what the bucks true score is. Been that way forever.
I know personally a guy who is a non trad bow hunter, that took a 10pt deer here in Kansas. It grossed a bit over 200 inches. The deer was massive and one of the biggest deer ive ever seen. With drying time and deductions to equal the true net score, the buck ended up in the upper 170's . At the time, it was #19 biggest archery kills in Kansas, and still remains in the top 25 presently..... Couple things here. It takes a genuine World class deer to finish 180 inches. They have to have it all...width, tine length,10 pt plus, mass, and even with few deductions or a massive amount of bone over sized to make up for deductions.
I realize many on here do not care about the book, or score....but if we are going to involve score, we should at least adhear to the standards of P&Y so we can keep our ducks all in a row. When I talk score, im talking net score, as we all should be to keep confusion down. If half only talk gross, and half only talk net, it gets mighty confusing. In the end, net score is what is written down.