I've always defined a "raghorn" as a smallish brow tined bull. Generally with 4 points or less on one side, but if a 5x5 bull had really small antlers (narrow spread, thin tines) then I would probably call it a raghorn too.
I would say they would typically represent a 2 1/2 year old animal. At 3 1/2 most should be solid 5x5's.
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Own and hunt on 160 acres in Fisher county.
Mtdream has it right, but I also agree with NP, any smallish bull we tend to call a "rag horn". It's kinda like this: cow-spike-ragehorn-5x5-6point etc.
A young bull elk can have a spike, a "fork" horn, 3 ponits, and on up. I've seen many "rag" horned 5x5's. My uncle shot one several years ago that didn't have a 24" spread and spindley little 'ol points. Rag horns are young bulls, and what they have on their heads is an indication of the genetics that their daddy carried.
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I consider a raghorn a young immature bull. I have seen what I would consider a raghorn 5 point many times. They are very small and carry absolutely no mass or main beam length.
But I do not know what the official definition would be. I always thought it was just a slang term for immature bull. I have seen some impressive mature 4 points that I would not consider a raghorn.
My group calls a rag horn an elk with a fork, no brows. spike=1, raghorn=2, then we go by points 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6. If the 5x5 is small, we just call it a small 5x5. a 3x3 and 4x4 are implied to be young and small.
A fork horn and a small 5x5 are too dissimilar to apply the same name, so we do it this way.
Albeit, many regulations define it this way...
A legal Raghorn Bull is a bull elk having no broken points or antler beams that display a maximum of four (4) points on either antler beam. The end or terminating tip of the main antler beam is counted as one (1) of the maximum four (4) points.
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Rag horn by most is judged by number of points, 4 or less. Another way of looking at it is a juvenile or teenager. A bull at 1 yr old could have a spike or forks, a two year old could have up to 4pts, a 3 year old could be a 5pt, most bulls can't get to the 5pt range until 4yrs of age and after that any number of points could happen. Most bulls don't get full mass with points until after their 6th year of life. So rags are young bulls.
Rag Horn definition
