I shot a buck this year with my bow that didn't have eye guards, 6 points. I seen a few others after that that didn't have any eye guards either. I live in a small town that is very proud of it's hunting background and heritage. From the start of bow season until the end of the second bow season, you will see pictures of hunters with their deer in the local newspaper. I seen a lot of real nice bucks with no eye guards. Some folks call them brow tines, just in case someone is wondering what eye guards are. A friend of mine shot a very nice buck he thought was an 8 that turned out to be a 3 1/2 year old 6 point, no eye guards, with a 15 1/2 inch inside spread and a ton of mass. Now how about your areas, did you see or hear of a lot of bucks this year with no eye guards or maybe just one. The area I hunt and my friend hunts has a gene pool that supports eye guards on 98% of the bucks you will see, except for this year. Anybody have any idea why this could be?

LIVE TO HUNT,HUNT TO LIVE.

Strange Hawk. I've learned to really pay close attention brow tines

Hawkeyes,
Strange you should ask this question? A few of my hunting friends and I were just making the same coments. I also live and hunt Michigan, (The U.P.) There were quite a few deer taken this past season with this trait. Nobody remembered seeing so many odd racks in one year? I don't know what may be the reason, but very interested to find out too!

EAT What You Harvest, Mobrandy

Im sure there are some bucks with the eye guards

I tend to agree with nub. Not only have I started to pay attention to brow tines, but other tines as well...especially ones that don't seem to really "fit".

yes, i missed a 6 pt at 25 yds this year. I originally thought it was an 8 but it was missing brow tines.

We have whitetail and blacktail deer and most of the whitetails do have eyeguards . The blacktails are maybe a 50/50 split and usually they are pretty small as far as eyeguards go .They don't count them as points here .Just a different way of counting out west .

masterbuck: maybe its not too late for this one to grow some browtines. LOL

Weird, I've never seen a 2 1/2 year or older buck without browtines. Sometimes will see a young basket racked buck without brows, but is usually because it just hasn't grown em yet. Don't know what's causing yours, maybe something genetically?
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