Browtines

[Lafuria]

Whats the current thoughts on missing brow tines ...will they always be that way?

[GarGuy]

Deer that grow weak or no brows by 3 years old likely will never have much in the way of brows.

[Traildust]

Let em grow!

[Mexico]

Deer that grow weak or no brows by 3 years old likely will never have much in the way of brows.

True, but I've seen a 170 with 1 inch brows.

[GarGuy]

True, but I've seen a 170 with 1 inch brows.

Yeah but that was a mule deer lol. Seriously, I agree but brows are the most duplicated feature year to year

[txtimetravler]

Shoot that sucker in 5-6 years

[SmTx]

I'm not sure.

Past 3 years we've killed bucks with 1 brow. Last year was the worst I saw it with tons of deer missing a brow or brows. Then this year there were only 2 missing.

Did they grow them or are they new deer? idk but it has left me hesitant to just shoot because of 1 missing brow.

[Txnative78]

It's not super scientific, but it seams I see the same deer every year with no brows

[AntlerCollector]

I cull them

[Txnative78]

If i have to choose between a nice mature 7, and a mature 8, the 7 gets it everytime.

[PondPopper]

No brows is a genetic trait.. Bad or good? Your decision..

If you pass them and only shoot bucks with brows it wont take very many years for it to become a dominant antler trait... Seen it first hand.. Non-debatable..

[SaltwaterSlick]

No brows is a genetic trait.. Bad or good? Your decision..

If you pass them and only shoot bucks with brows it wont take very many years for it to become a dominant antler trait... Seen it first hand.. Non-debatable..

It works the other way too... All the folks that say you can't change the genetics of a free-range herd, I do not believe for one minute. The ranch we had for 31 years on the Rio Grande, weak/no brow tines was a strong genetic trait... We needed to take 100 bucks and 150 does off the place for several years early on, and we hammered the no brow tine deer... As the years passed by and the herd became balanced, we'd take 80+ bucks a year and we continued to hammer the no brow tine deer... After about 15-20 years, we seldom saw one and the brow tines were very nice on many of our bucks... We did not shoot mature deer until at least 5 1/2 years old... I know beyond a doubt we improved the genetic traits of the herd we had on that place. We had 10,000 acres of a 56,000 acre ranch and the whole ranch was managed in the same manner... I do not know what the harvest numbers were on the rest of the ranch, but do know the management philosophy...



Our current place is managed very similarly but is in deep south Texas and we don't shoot trophy deer until 7 1/2 years old... Still no brow tine deer get whacked after 3 1/2. It's not a strong trait in this herd, but we don't want it to become one either...

[txtimetravler]

So shooting a 3 1/2 year old with no/weak brow tines is worth a few inches to never see that deer grow to 6+ year old?

[Johnson]

Let deer age to 6+ is the best management tool.

[S-3 Ranch]

Let deer age to 6+ is the best management tool.

Yep
We have weak G-2’s on a ranch on some bucks only options is to pass till 6-8