Can someone tell me if a buck that has a tine broke off at the main beam is considered un-branched? We have a 4 1/2 year old fork horn that is about 15 " wide and has a tine that is broke off. I wanna get rid of this deer but we are in an AR county and I don't wanna waste my "good" buck tag.

I would think so, however, I'm not a Game Warden, so I would not be the one making the final decision. Have you called your local GM? That may be the only way to get a definitive answer.

Just following common sense, if what is left of the tine is less than an inch, he should be legal. To say that it would have been longer would be like getting a ticket for speeding not because you were speeding at the time, but because the officer thought you would be. Given the spirit of the rule and all things considered with the buck being older, I suspect you would get a pass.

But of course, this is just my opinion.

It is legal as far as I understand it, but keep in mind that some game wardens may assume that you broke it off yourself just to use the cull tag. If you have live pictures of the deer with him busted off, I would keep them handy.

Broken antlers do not constitute unbranched. The early descriptions of A/R restrictions used to have this wording in it, not sure if they still do but I've heard that from a GW myself before as well.

Wrong, I faced this same problem a few years back. The buck kept coming to my stand, and I wanted to take it, but was unsure of the legality. I called the GW and described the buck and was told it was not a legal spike because the broken antler could not be verified as to what it had been. DQ Kid is right.

An unbranched antler has only one point.
A point is anything that extends at least 1" from a main beam or another tine.

I know how the GW's handle broken antlers in the area we hunt, like others have already said it would be best to call and ask your GW.

To me it wouldn't be a "waste" of good buck tag, if I thought the buck needed to go I'd consider it good management practice as long as the GW agreed.

You need to whack him as soon as possible before he breeds this year. Got any kin/kids that would be willing to take him for you?

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/game_management/deer/antler_restrictions/

Question. if the tine was broken off flush from the mainbeam, then how is the GW going to know if that tine was even an inch long or how much longer to begin with? GW will never have seen the buck before till he is dead.

How many tall tines have narrow bases at the main beam

This might be one worthy of taking to the judge to decide after pleading that seeing a single broken tine was too difficult. I suspect there are quite a few errors made by hunters who did not see small brow tines behind the ears.

No offense to TPWD officers, but just because someone hands you a ticket, it doesn't mean you're guilty.

This might be your chance to throw a little chlorine in the gene pool. I'd take him and tag him a spike. If you do get ticketed, it would go before the warden's Captain before a judge. Just say all you saw was the un-branched antler. It's pretty easy to tell a freshly broken off tine from one broken off naturally long before. If it really is broken off flush or nearly so that it's hard to see I wouldn't have a problem with it. If broken tines are that big a deal they should put it in the Outdoor Annual. Nothing there, I think you're good to go, especially if you have a kid to do the taking. That'd just be icing on the cake.

Doesn't 15" make it a legal buck anyways? If you want it culled, burn the tag or find a family member who will take it.

Called the GW yesterday. He told me too take the buck because the broke tine made it a three point. He also said if I had it on camera that would be good too but he could tell if I had broke the antler or if it occurred in the wild.

Glad to hear that. Common sense usually wins out.

I have a fork horn deer on camera. He has broken his right side off already. Has about a inch or so sticking up, making it now a un-branched antler. Under TPWD rules, he is now a legal deer.
Would I shoot him??
Probably not. Just from the pics alone, he looks like a 1 1/2 yr old deer.
If he looked much older, I wouldn't hesitate to take a shot.

He'd rather burn his spike tag than his "buck" tag to get this thing out of the gene pool, but yes, if he's 15" he could be tagged a legal buck. He now has options, and options are always good.

"Spike tag"? All the tags on my license say either buck or antlerless. Do spikes use the antlerless tag?

While all three of the tags will say buck or antlerless, I believe he's referring to the notion that in an Antler Rest county, you get two bucks, only 1 of which can be 13"+, and the other must be a spike. Hence you sort of have only two antlered tags, one for your 'buck' (13"+) and one for your 'spike'. So some of us refer to them as 'buck' and 'spike' tags.

In any event, any deer with a hardened antler requires use of a buck tag.

I just keep hearing about all these deer that suck in AR counties. Lol. Glad you can take him as a spike. If the GW hadn't gone your way surely some buddy would have been happy to shoot him. All I've ever shot is spikes and does. As a meat hunter on a low budget I usually only get to shoot deer that people want gone and don't wanna tag or clean.

If the deer is over 13 inches wide like he said, you only get 1 deer over 13 per year in that county regardless of how many points it has.

Ohhh ok gotcha. Just wanted to make sure, as last weekend we saw a spike that we might take this weekend if we see him again. Just wanted to make sure I'm using the right tag, as we haven't had a spike on our property in a while so I wasn't sure.