I'm betting he though it was not tall enough, good mass can make a nice buck appear shorter than it really is. It just messes with the eye in judging them.
Was he about 15 1/2 inches ?
Nice buck !
It was mainly his prongs that kept me from shooting and like said above his length had us fooled. He did go a little over 15” tall and his prongs were just average. His mass made up for average prongs so he came home with me.