Help me understand the 4point or bigger regulation

[sled_guy]

Ok, in the hunting regs the following line is written for the elk areas requiring 4 point or bigger.

"Bull elk taken must have 4 points or more on 1 antler, or brow tine at least 5 inches long"

I get the 4 points or more on 1 antler part. I don't understand the brow tine part. Give me an example of what qualifies in the brow tine part.

Thanks,
sled_guy

 

[DuckBuckGoose]

Any bull with 4 or more points on EACH side is a legal bull. A bull can be legal if it has less than 4 points on either side if and only if the brow tines are longer than 5 inches.

 

[bigfireboss81]

The key word is, "or a brow tine at least 5 inches long", so if the bull has only three points with a 5 inch brow tine then the bull is legal or a spike with a 5 inch brow tine then the bull is leagal to shoot.

 

[stinky]

Disregard what DuckBuckGoose said, there on has to be one qualifying antler to be legal.

A bull w/a busted off antler, at the base, on one side, but the other is a 4 pointer is legal critter.

Generally, this applies to 3 pointers. I have seen one 4 pointer, that was a 3 pointer on the other side. ONe one side he had 4 points and the brow tine was either busted, or shorter than 5 inches. On the 3 pointer side, he had a brow tine that was about 6" long. Either side was enough to make him legal.

Either way, it is an either or kind of a deal. If he (or she) is a 4 pointer, on ONE, or more sides, then it makes no dif how long the brow tines are...It is a legal bull AND if it is a spike (or forked horn or a 3 pointer) and has A/ONE 5" brow tine, then it is a legal bull.

I'm not sure if this is your Q or not. But, the first fork on the antler is the brow tine. On a big bull, they are over a foot long.

John 14:6

 

[zekers]

My buddy had a 3 point at 10 yards last year that he passed with a bow because it was not a 4 point. He didn't know the 5" browtine rule. IDK if it had 5" brows, but he should have been checking them out.

 

[DuckBuckGoose]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-11-10 AT 03:13PM (MST)[p]stinky, this is what i was getting at, just worded differently.

 

[SoleSearcher36]

Well put Stinky.
And to add to this the regulations define a legal antler point as being "a projection of the antler that is EITHER an inch in length or longer than the width of its' base" Meaning a point that is 3/4" long can qualify as a legal point as long as it is narrower than 3/4" at the base of the point. If you are good enough to see that kind of detail on a point then you should be good enough to find something alot bigger and legal at a glance IMHO. LOL!

To add to this, DOW regulations also defines an elk's brow tine as "a projection of the antler in the lower half of the main beam" While most "brow-tines" project from the antler basically immediately above the burr, it can originate further up the beam and still be considered the "brow-tine" I know that a few years after the 4-point restriction went into place my clients and I started seeing an increasing number of bulls that were genetically lacking a "bez" or second point and thus weren't legal to kill even though they were the same age at 3pts as their 4 & possibly 5pt counterparts. This seemed to be favoring those genetics as many of those bulls were passed up by law and by default given one more year's shot at breeding. Under the 5" brow rule we were able to take many of those bulls out of the gene pool before they got a chance to breed and now it is pretty uncommon to find one that is missing the bez tine even at a young age. As a guide the 5" rule made it easy to quickly judge a bull for a client that was interested in shooting the first legal size bull we came across.(which was the majority of our clients)

 

[kilowatt]

http://wildlife.state.co.us/NR/rdonlyres/393CEE85-2EA3-48B9-9480-7EDC2166361B/0/biggame.pdf

scroll down to page #26 and at the bottom of page is a picture for you to understand.

Brian
http://i25.tinypic.com/fxbjgy.jpg[/IMG]

 

[sled_guy]

Thanks guys... so basically if it has 4 points on one side or it has a 5" brow tine on one side it is legal?

sled_guy

 

[txhunter58]

Yep, either one is legal.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

 

[COjack]

Looks like the DOW has a muley pic where they should have an elk.

 

[Alamosa]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-14-10 AT 07:22PM (MST)[p]>Looks like the DOW has a
>muley pic where they should
>have an elk.


Ya. The DOW were red-faced about that at the big game regulation review meeting. The graphic artist mixed up the buck and bull images.