# The great brow tine debate



## Clint Leopold

Ok people, I have a question. What is your opinion on shooting a younger deer with no brow tines? I hunt on around 10,000 acres in Sheffield and we have tons of bucks with either very small or no brow tines at all. We're shooting some of the older ones and have shot some younger ones too, but not sure if taking out the younger ones is the right thing to do. I've researched this topic through and through and can't find any true factual data that supports either way. Curious if there's a certain age you should let them grow to or should they be taken out early, or could nutrition or lack of play a role? Thanks in advance for any input!


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## poco jim

If we see a 2 1\2 yo with no brows, he takes a nap, and we feed protein and corn year around. No excuse to us, when we have better same age deer!


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## T_rout

poco jim said:


> If we see a 2 1\2 yo with no brows, he takes a nap, and we feed protein and corn year around. No excuse to us, when we have better same age deer!


Agree


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## Clint Leopold

poco jim said:


> If we see a 2 1\2 yo with no brows, he takes a nap, and we feed protein and corn year around. No excuse to us, when we have better same age deer!


Thats what we were thinking, we have plenty of same age deer with brow tines and much bigger...then started to second guess ourselves after we shot them.


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## poco jim

Don't!


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## S-3 ranch

*X2*



poco jim said:


> If we see a 2 1\2 yo with no brows, he takes a nap, and we feed protein and corn year around. No excuse to us, when we have better same age deer!


No brows /g1s it is down ! Our bio gives us more mld tages for every one we take out


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## Cynoscion

I believe it depends on what you're calling short brows.

If you go through the record book and only look at south Texas deer, you will see that we just don't produce a lot of bucks with huge brows. It seems to be one of those genetic traits we are just stuck with. It's kind of the same thing as G2's being shorter than G3's. This trait is extremely common in south Texas but not so much in other parts of the country.

In my opinion, if you start culling bucks with say less than 5" of G1, you can get yourself in trouble pretty fast. Some of the highest scoring deer I have ever grown, had brows 4" or shorter.


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## Brute

Get a geneticist to calculate how long it will take to get rid of that gene. Its longer than you or I will be around. 

Only benefit is, if you are already over populated its a few less mouths to feed.

Thats my opinion based on the few sentense you posted. You know you place better than any one on here.


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## 8-count

On our place if they dont have brows and are at least 3 1/2yrs old the are culled.


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## BigBuck

What 8-count said. We are in the hill country.
BB


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## Sgrem

8-count said:


> On our place if they dont have brows and are at least 3 1/2yrs old the are culled.


im no expert but by 3.5 years how much of his genetics have already been spread out there? How are you going to find the does that also spread those genetics.....I know everyone wants to better their genetics but be reasonable with your expectations about what can actually be achieved.


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## Brad Beaulieu

I have a study on that somwhere in my old deer lease records I'll try to dig it out for you. Basicly you won't really be making an impact on the herd as a whole by trying to cull that one genetic trait. What we focused on at our lease in Val Verde co. was good food, age, proper doe-buck ratio. Then genetic culling was last in line. Info we received was if the buck has made a branched antler let him walk. Studies show that if all they are making is a spike then that's likely all they'll make so that type deer got shot at our place. I'll let you know if I can dig out that info and I'll post it.


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## Tx_Biologist

Keep on mind you are mule deer country and could have a significant influence in antler characteristics of some sort of hybridization.


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## Tx_Biologist

That is if you are in pecos county


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## T_rout

Cynoscion said:


> I believe it depends on what you're calling short brows.
> 
> If you go through the record book and only look at south Texas deer, you will see that we just don't produce a lot of bucks with huge brows. It seems to be one of those genetic traits we are just stuck with. It's kind of the same thing as G2's being shorter than G3's. This trait is extremely common in south Texas but not so much in other parts of the country.
> 
> In my opinion, if you start culling bucks with say less than 5" of G1, you can get yourself in trouble pretty fast. Some of the highest scoring deer I have ever grown, had brows 4" or shorter.


No offense, but the OP asked about deer with zero brow tines. It really depends on what you want to grow and what genetics you have. As others have stated, if you wait until they are 3 then you can rest assured that they have spread the, short brow tine, gene. If the short brow tine trait is common then you might not get rid of it. If your seeing a few mature bucks with short or no brows, you might be able to get rid of it. There are tons of scenarios that could happen, it all depends on size of your lease or ranch and what your neighbors are doing. IMO, cull the 2yr olds that have no brows and you should see an improvement. Personally we are trying to grow big deer, 180's-190's regularly, I have never seen a 180"+ deer with less than 4" brows.


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## Cynoscion

Non taken. How about the deer in my avatar. His long brow is 4 4/8". He scored 222 2/8" and is in the book!

Like I stated earlier, south Texas deer, in general do not have what most would consider long brows. Some do, most don't. Average brows for south Texas are much shorter than most other areas known for producing B+C class deer.

We do produce 180" deer regularly with 4" or less worth of brows per side.


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## Cynoscion

Here's another one


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## T_rout

Mulies can get up there in score with little or no brows so I guess Whitetails can too. It's just rare to see a high scoring whitetail with short brows. To answer the question at hand, every inch helps. If you want to grow high scoring deer. Cull towards the traits you want, over time you should get the results you want.


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## 10ERBETTER

Cull all you want. It isn't going to make much of an impact until your numbers are right and they have plenty to eat.


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## Brad Beaulieu

You can not effectively control genetics in a free range environment. Cull all the bucks you want, it will change very little.


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## Haute Pursuit

Cynoscion said:


> Here's another one


I think you are doing something right!


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