3 or 4 brow tines on a bull in AK. How does this affect success?

[Wapiti1]

As the title states, how much of a difference does it make?

I would suspect genetics is the key component. You look at a lot of Newfoundland bulls and they have 2 browtines per side. Northern BC has a lot of bulls, it seems, that don't have much of a bay, and have tons of browtines. It's just the way they are.

In another thread, it was mentioned that they moved a unit in Alaska to 3 from 4 and it made me wonder how much of a benefit that really is.

Jeremy

 

[Yukon Cornelius]

All you need to do is look up the stats from ADFG’s website for each unit. 4 brow tines is harder to find that 3 brow tines. Stats will show success rate for each unit. More heavily hunted units will have stricter harvest requirements.

 

[Chumsnagger]

What Yukon said. In my sub gmu, the regs were changed from 3 to 4 bts after the 2018 season. All moose must be “sealed” Results:

2018
7 bulls over 50 (including 2 < 51)
0 bulls < 50 with 4 brows
2 sublegal bulls (neither had 3 or 4 bts)
16 spikes
25 total

2019
10 bulls over 50 (3<51) 6 only had 2 bts)
11 bulls <50 with at least 3bts (2 had 4bts)
1 sublegal bull
10 spikes
32 total

Of course these are only the bulls reported and sealed. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Yellowknife]

I've hunted the same unit under both 3 and 4 brow tine rules. I can tell you that 4 brow tines are drastically harder to find. Even a two yr old bull will sometimes have 3. In fact my first bull when I was a kid was a tiny 30" thing... with three brow tines.

Local genetics does make a difference, but where I have hunted the 50"/3 tine rule lets you judge on the brow tines most of the time. A 50"/4 tine makes you look a lot harder at width and you second guess all those mid-bay tines.

 

[Wapiti1]

All you need to do is look up the stats from ADFG’s website for each unit. 4 brow tines is harder to find that 3 brow tines. Stats will show success rate for each unit. More heavily hunted units will have stricter harvest requirements.

I've seen the harvest stats, but didn't see where they broke it down by brow points. I'll dig some more on the site.

Jeremy

 

[Yukon Cornelius]

I’d recommend if you can’t find it, just look at the number of hunters vs the success. I know unit 17 was like 25% success rate. Unit 21 was like 66%. Not sure what 13 is. This was a couple of years ago. Unit 17 and 21 were any bull areas.