![]() ![]() quality (such as spikes) will always have poor antler quality. ![]() There is no reason for a spike not to grow into a giant buck. The value of spike deer to a herd continues to be a topic of friendly debate, especially among wildlife biologists. I have hunted a few places where the genetics were not great and found spikes at older ages, but they were obviously older deer long spikes that often curved like the main beam normally would. Also, NEVER shoot a yearling that has a forked antler. Bill responds, Brett, Spikes are almost always 1 1/2 year old bucks. I have a quota of spikes that is 1/2 the number of " trophy" bucks allowed on my property. ![]() Texas studies/results are for Texas deer, not NC. But the AVERAGE buck that is a forky at 1-1/2 years will be a better buck later on.īottom line is that if you shoot every spike you see you will probably increase the genetics of the herd faster, but you won' t have many older bucks for a few years. Shoot all the spikes you see in the coastal herd and you will be killing 85+ of the yearling buck population. The research does show that some spikes will eventually be good bucks and some branch antler yearlings won' t amount to much. Therefore, if you are trying to increase the quality of bucks on your hunting area, at the expense of buck numbers, you should shoot spikes, especially in years when nutrition is very good. However, research does show that if you take 10 bucks that UNDER GOOD NUTRITION are spikes as yearlings and 10 bucks that had a branch antlers as yearlings, the spike group as a whole that are yearlings will never have as good of antlers when they get older. However, some evidence does show that spikes can be. He tracked this particular deer until it became the dominant buck in its area, declined, and died at age 12.5. Nearly every spike whitetail in my neck of the woods (Texas) is a yearling. Although a theory at one time has been that a spike always will be a spike, this concept is not valid. One benefit of that is the ability to track the lives and development of individual deer. In short, they believe all spikes should be shot immediately. In my experience and from what I have read, this statement is not true. Once a spike, always a spike was a conclusion the guys at deer camp made based on nothing more than occasional observation. ![]()
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