Colorado antler point restriction guidance

[s10]

I have sourced everything I can to feel 100% confident on the elk antler point restriction for the unit I am hunting this fall. I am going to ask you experienced CO elk hunters as well. My understanding is as follows:

A legal bull has four points on one side OR a brow tine of at least 5 inches. The brow tine does not count as a point when factoring in the four points on one side.

Do I have this correct? Please and thank you.

 

[winmag]

The brow tine does count as a point when factoring in the four points on one side.

The legal minimums would be:

It could have only 1 antler that is only a beam plus a 5"+ brow tine and it would be legal.

It could have only 1 antler that is only a beam plus three 1" long points off of that beam (so that antler is 4 points total) and it would be legal.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Honestly I wouldn't sweat this rule too much, I've never actually seen an in-between-er on the hoof. Most bulls are spikes or very clearly legal.

In this pic all spikes... this one on the right might be legal with that brow tine? That would be an in-between-er in my mind, only legal by brow tine length. I've never seen one, like I said.


Mostly you see true spikes/spike on one side and a couple points on the other or 5x5, 4x5.

This is the smallest (non-spike) I've seen and he's clearly legal, he's got 4 on a side and his brow tines are definitely over 5 inches. I took a pic because I was like "oh wow that's a goofy looking bull"



Honestly though, if you're even thinking about this question you should pass on the bull. The average bull taken in CO is probably around this size, a small 5x5, most of the bulls I see hunting OTC units are around this size.

 

[trb]

This was from a unit with no antler restrictions, but this is a legal CO bull in any unit because of the brow tines. Fairly uncommon to see one like this though, usually the young bulls you see are spikes or bulls that barely or not quite satisfy the 4 pt requirement.

 

[s10]

Thank you all!

 

[RyGuy]

Keep in mind that the first tine on a beam isn’t always a brow tine. This bull wouldn’t be legal:

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Colorado defines a brow tine as a tine coming off of the lower half of the main beam.

Colorado used the picture above that RyGuy posted, as well as the one I posted as examples of illegal bulls in antler restriction units.

Interestingly, it is possible that one or even both these bulls are legal under the letter of the law. It depends exactly how much main beam is above and below the point. With the curve above the time on this one, it may have more beam above the point, which would make it legal if that time is five inches.

I would, however, follow wllm's advice and wait for an obvious one. It isn't good if it has to already be dead and you need a tape measure to verify it is legal.

Beware of bulls with branches on top and no brow tines. I called one in archery hunt CO when I was a kid, and I saw one in a herd 3rd season CO two years ago.

 

[jvanhoy]

Not sure what season you are hunting but in archery I always tell anyone I take to look at brow tines first thing. Sometimes it’s hard to count points in thick timber. Both of these bulls would have been legal for brow and points but as soon as I saw the brows I went into drawing and picking a spot mode. Like most others has said most of the bulls I’ve seen in archery that weren’t legal were velvet spikes.

 

[s10]

Does the brow tine have to be 5 inches to count as a point when factoring in four on one side?

 

[GrantK]

Does the brow tine have to be 5 inches to count as a point when factoring in four on one side?

nope... a 1" point would count toward the 4 points, I'll add to the upstream post of not overthinking this, there are not that many questionably legal bulls around, don't waste time trying to count points, 95% of the time it's easy to see a browtine and that's all you need...

 

[tormenter]

I don't know about you guys, but in the last couple of years I have noticed a scary trend. We are now seeing bulls that are definitely not spikes - they may have been spikes the year before, but they are definitely not legal based upon the brow tine length and or number of points. Years ago we always said if the bottom of the antlers are wider than the ears they would be legal. This is absolutely not the case any more. I have seen some bulls with 3'-4' long antlers and excellent forks, but nothing but nubs on the lower half of the antler. The thoughts in our camp is that the traditional 4x4 and 5x5 bulls that are 3 years old are being shot out of the gene pool and some of the bulls doing the breeding are the 3 year bulls that do not meet the legal definition. 10 years ago, I would have laughed at this statement, but if you hunt late season cows and get into the big herds of several hundred or thousand elk - take a look at the bulls in the herd and you will see a number of bulls that were not spikes and are were not legal to shoot earlier in the season.

Just my 2 cents and definitely look hard for sizeable brow tines or 4+ points before you pull the trigger.

 

[BoulderBulls]

If you're in a non APR unit, aka "any bull" spikes must be 5 inches. The converse being a legal antlerless is less than 5 inches. I'd agree with the pics wllm posted, I've never seen a spike with spikes less than 12 inches