Unbranched Antler Question

I have a buck on my camera that is 5 points on the right side and the left antler sticks straight up without branching. But there is a brow tine on that side. Is he legal or not?

A brow tine is considered a "branch", so no, not legal.

If the brow tine is less than an inch, then it is still considered unbranched. If it is more than an inch it isn't legal.

Thanks for the info. Need to know these things.

Another question. I have pics of one or two bucks that have broken their left main beam and G-2's off. Does the 1" branch apply in this scenario?

That's a gray area that has been debated many times here. I wouldn't chance it personally.

Just read the definition of unbranched antler. The word broken is not included as somehow not applying. I’ll pop a broken antler old buck all day.

If there is only a single point (the end of the broken beam, for instance), then it is considered legal. As Unclebubba posted, if the brow tine or a sticker over 1" remains along with the beam, then not legal.

BTW there is nothing grey about this. I've spoken to two wardens and both firmly said 'legal'. One of them was speaking about the 5x1 broken-beam cull buck in the bed of my truck.

I've heard wardens say otherwise on broken main beam deer down to mainbeam only but have no verifiable proof that folks have been actually written up on it. I will error on the side of caution regarding this.

My Warden had told me exactly this, last year. Broken antler without another at least 1" point, is legal.

Since the presumption of proof is not on the hunter, this makes complete sense. There's no way to prove the deer wasn't a legal buck.

True. Confirmed by a TPWD biologist a few weeks ago during a hunt orientation.

Not legal

I have looked for this in the book but have never found it. I know B&C use this rule for scoring but I've never seen it in any TPWD publications. Can you tell me where you've seen this? I have a cull buck i want to harvest that has what i would call a bump or a nub more so than a branched antler. U

As said, with a brow not legal. Broken beam resulting in just an antler that doesn’t branch is legal

This was legal.

I killed what would have been an 8 point, but 1 side was broken off right at the brow tine, which was about an inch in length. The only thing that made him legal was the part of the main beam had not yet grown back to an inch. Called and sent pictures to the game warden in my area. She said good to go as it was considered unbranched.