Question: “We deer hunt in Uvalde County and have been trying to manage our deer. This year we have seen a 3 1/2 year old buck that would be a main frame 7 point deer if he had brow tines, but he is missing his G1s. The buck has decent beam lengths and the mass is pretty good. Will this whitetail buck ever produce brow tines in the future? The guys on our deer lease are trying to decide if we want cull this buck or leave him until next year. Should we shoot all bucks that have no brow tines to improve the deer herd or should we just wait until they are at least 4 1/2 years old?”
Response: The only way to improve the buck component of your deer herd will be to remove the bucks with unwanted antler characteristics. These deer that hunters refer to as management or cull bucks. Young bucks that have missing brow tines turn into old bucks with missing brow tines. But it gets worse. They breed each fall, spreading the gene for missing brow tines. I’ve seen ranches where most of the bucks had missing brow tines. Don’t go there!!! Continue reading Grow Bigger Bucks: Cull Bucks With Missing Brow Tines (G1)