Brow Tines?

Throughout the last three years of trail cam pics I have been noticing about 30% or more of the 2 1/2 year old or older bucks on the land I hunt don’t have any brows and no sign that they even want to. I have read that QDMA does not believe culling works on free range whitetails but what the Has anyone ever seen signs of this or have any explanations besides for genetics? Do they need more minerals and nutrition or is it just a curse? Just curious on the thoughts of IDO. Thanks!

My guess would be genetics unfortunately

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My guess would be genetics unfortunately

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X2 I seem to have alot of young bucks with only one brow tine.

With no brow tines it sounds like genetics. We had a problem with short brow tines where we hunted. I started mixing our own blend of minerals and have noticed a huge difference in the last few years. Now we have a number of bucks with brows 6 inches and up, plus split brows, stickers and kickers which we never saw before.

I was also a believer that genetics was to blame for the poor spindly racked bucks in our area It was only when we started to use a quality mineral and also allowed the deer to mature that we realized the true potential of our bucks Of the two I believe that age is the most important followed closely by the minerals Unfortunately with the feeding ban on some of my property I won’t be able to use any mineral this year But on the land not effected by the ban I will continue to provide as much mineral as they can eat

I agree with minerals and age helping them reach their potential. But I don’t think it will help them grow brow tines if their isn’t any now

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I agree with minerals and age helping them reach their potential. But I don’t think it will help them grow brow tines if their isn’t any now

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Yeah I don’t know for sure But my split g-3 added 6 points in one year where he didn’t have any last year and have many 1st rack bucks without brows but the next year I won’t have any 2.5 year old bucks without brow tines maybe they all moved to the neighbors land also have seen many spikes with no brows turn into nice bucks with brows. I Just don’t know for sure what to think

I know where I hunt in Mn, the last couple years the brow tines have been more evident on bucks harvested. The last one was a buck that scored in the 180’s with almost 16″ in brow tines.

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I agree with minerals and age helping them reach their potential.

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X2

Thanks for the wisdom, We have been letting them mature for over ten years and those beautiful brows sometimes never show. I think I am going to hit the minerals early and hard this year and hope for the best. I don’t like the word genetics and try not to use it Hopefully plenty of good food and lots of minerals will help my boys out
Can we make a list of mineral supplements that we believe in? I put out over 200 lbs of the homemade recipe [throughout last season) I read on here and some spots did o.k. but none were hammered. I am looking for results in antler growth, affordable in bulk and nothing trying to sound like cocain Thanks again

I am very confused I just have not seen more than a handful of mature bucks without brow tines in over 30 years Can you show us some pics of these mature bucks without brow tines? That would really suck if the genetics in your area were that bad

All of my trail cam pics are on a labtop at our cabin and I will try to pull some the next time I am there. Mature to me being at least 3.5 or older. We also have a lot of 3.5 year olds that would be lucky to score 110 with an occasional booner coming through but not staying around Lots of food and mineral this year…lots!

Same thing on the land i hunt

todders you want a quality mineral with a 2 to 1 ratio of Calcium to Phosphorous, not more than 25% salt, with vitamins, and I wouldn’t put out anything that does not have selenium.

i agree its all about genetics, you stated that after you started your mineral site that you noticed brow tines or extra stickers, i guess it is possible that he had the genetics at the time yet didnt have the means necisary to grow those big racks. one thing you are doing by adding mineral to a spot that you never did before is giving the deer something they need, something they want, something that many other deer are after as well. its possible that you lured some deer with the brow tine trait into your property because of the things you were doing and he bred with does that were there already. just my .02 on the subject.