Bucks with No Brow Tines...
West Virginia
What is everyones's oppinion on shooting bucks with no brow tines. I am not talking about spikes and fork horns I am talking about 12-15 inch wide 5 points, 7 points and so on. I personally will shoot a larger buck with no brow tines before I would shoot an spike or fork horn. I dont have any proof but I believe the no brow tine trait may be something they pass on. Does anyone know if this true or am I just not giving them a chance to grow. I will attach a picture of the 7 point I killed this year with my bow. He was all busted up but had no signs of any brow tines. He was 15 1/2 inches wide.
James
I believe no G1's are in the gene's not age.
If I had a 3.5 yr old come in bow range and was racked; I would not be checking for brows or not. I would be focusing on the kill spot and preparing for the shot.
Ive been killing bucks for 15 years on my place with either no brows or just one small one. It's in the genes. Wish I could get rid of that gene on my place , but apparently its pretty hard to do. The does must carry it too. Occasionally we get bucks with both brows, but every year we get or see them without.
The bucks I shoot only have brow tines. LOL
I think it's a genetic trait, but I also think that as the buck gets older he may very well develop brow times .
QDMA has been involved in several studies about culling. Outside of a high fence culling has no statistical significance. Even inside a fence culling a buck before he is 4.5 is a mistake. A buck will build his body to its full genetic potential before his antlers reach their full genetic potential.
Also, this year was a tough year on deer, with a very poor mast year last year and a severe winter bucks had to rebuild their bodies a lot before they could devote a lot of protein, calcium, and phosphorous to their antlers. Overall, this past fall wasn't a good year to cull bucks because they typically have smaller antlers in a year like this.
On my place I see deer with decent brows and I see deer like yours with little or no brows. One year I had a pretty big 6 pt. I think he was 2.5 he had about a 14 inch spread and 6 points up top and no brow tines what so ever. I could have shot him during muzzleloading season but decided not to since he had made it that long and I figured he would make it till the next year.
The next year he showed up on cameras and I was able to kill it first day of bow season. He had grown quite a bit, plus he had developed brow tines. They weren't huge but he had them. So I think some of it may be age related, genetic, and how bad the previous winter was, or if it was a drought summer.
Maybe so if conditions were poor that year he might not develop brows, but I've killed some a bunch of 3.5, 4.5 and older bucks on my place that had either one or none. In my case its just a trait I'm apparently stuck with.
Yea I laugh when I watch the shows on the outdoor channel where a guy says he shot a management buck. That is the only buck he could manage to get. That is why I shoot spikes. I like to get them out of the gene pool.
In WV in areas with marginal habitat and/or overpopulation a spike is a normal 1.5 year old. There is no correlation as to whether a spike at 1.5 will max out as an inferior 6 pt. at age 3.5 or be a 130 10 pt. at age 3.5. I don't allow any spikes to be shot on my place.
I have a 3 pt. per side rule on my place instead of 4pt. because we see so many without brow tines.
I've taken it a step further. We haven't shot a buck for 2 years at the farm. LOL
Lifes too short not to shoot bucks! lol
Bet your neighbors are happy Gobbler. Lol
If that's the price for getting more mature bucks then so be it. I'm getting short on wall space anyway.
I wudnt shoot any either if my neighbors didn't. But we have been through this before. They make good jerky. I won't shoot one in Iowa or Idaho next week
I've seen more decent 8-10s this year than I ever have. I've seen several that made it thru buck season.
I know everybody is different but I think I'm at the point where Id rather shoot a good 4-5 year old buck every 3 or 4 years rather than a 2 yr old every year.
I agree with Gobbler. I have access to an awesome farm with plenty of acreage. I have hunted it for 3 years now and only 1 buck has been taken off if it in 3 years. We see plenty of small bucks, but we want mature bucks.
We shoot does when possible. I have killed enough deer and little bucks that I do not want to kill a little buck for the sake of killing a buck; just to throw the antlers away.
I get an extra bow tag so I can shoot a doe early and then look for a mature buck. I get doe tags for rifle and get one that way also.
Let the little bucks go so they can grow.
I want one of those bucks that has six inch brow tines.
A teacher at my school had sheds from a Fayette County buck that to our knowledge nobody ever killed. Giving the deer a 18 inch spread it would have scored 176 4/8ths according to the DNR. Brow tines were only three and four inches. had four other tines over a foot long.
I just poured through my copy of "The Whitetail Chronicles" by Mike Biggs (if you can find a copy that isn't a fortune, buy it as it is very informative). There is a large section in the book where he shows how specific bucks mature and look at various ages. While point counts changed in many of the bucks, the rack shape usually stays fairly consistent. I specifically looked at the brow tines on every buck. From what I saw, brow tines do not proportionately change much in length over their lifespan. So, while an 8-point may grow into a main frame 10-point, a buck with short brows will always have short brows. That is if Mike Biggs' sampling of bucks can be considered a good scientific representation.
