It's almost time to score. No, I'm not talking about baseball, softball or any other ball sport. I'm talking about whitetails. We're in the last lap of growth for white-tailed bucks. Most will wrap up their growth by the first part of August ... and that's only a couple weeks away.

More importantly, it means time to really get the scouting cameras cranking and spitting out images. I've bumped into a ghost whitetail several times on my property, and have yet to capture him on my scouting cameras. I've set up several cameras, but he's an open-country roamer with a penchant to bed in a different shady hole every day.

So what about the scoring? In the next couple weeks you'll get to see what the Easy-Bake Oven grew in the whitetail bakery. The bucks will be done baking and you can begin rough scoring some of the bucks in the neighborhood.

Do it from afar. If you're lucky enough to have soybeans, green fields or other short food sources to watch, set up several hundred yards away with a spotting scope and watch the bucks without disturbing them. They're living the bachelor lifestyle, and if you don't disturb their routine, you may have a chance to tag one during early season.

This is also a good time to try out the art of digiscoping. That big word is simply the practice of attaching a camera to your spotting scope. Finally, if you're in the market for a new spotting scope, Nikon has a deal for you.

Visit www.nikonpromo.com for information on how to save $100 on a ProStaff spotting scope.

Good luck. And remember that, like a photo adds pounds, velvet adds inches. Don't overinflate those buck scores too much.