Spike Bucks

[iffwalleyes]

I have read and heard in the past that spike bucks are genetically an inferior animal and will never develop into a true trophy deer. I have heard that they say it also will never bred trophy deer and that they should be part removed from a deer herd. I have heard that before but I am wondering if anyone else has experience with this or if they have heard that. I don't have a problem shooting any deer whether it is a doe, spike, fork, or decent buck. As a matter of fact I shot 2 spikes this year. I look to make more a clean kill than anything. They happened to be what came in and gave me the best shot.

[hanson]

iffwalleyes-

Definitely an interesting topic. The spike I shot this last weekend was just as big as some of the forks I have seen our camp shoot in the last few years.

I have no background in biology, etc but I'd say those small forks have worse genetics than a nice spike.

Just my thoughts.

[riverrat56]

that may be true that spikes are inferior but i doubt it, what if they were bred in the second rut the year before making them a month behind other deer, or if they are from a large forest area food sources wont be as good as in cropland areas for growing antlers. The guy i hunt with shot a spike this year that wasnt really a spike, the antlers came out and curved like on a basketrack but there were no tines, DNR said it was a year and half old, it was way bigger than the 1 1/2 year old deer he and I shot last year so maybe his antler genetics were inferior to most deer. Also a spike may be a yearling deer that just had good nutrition or that was bred early on in the rut and had a few extra weeks of antler growning. Ive seen some deer the size of my bambi's with spikes on them just long enough to be registered as a buck.

[N_Foster]

I have read in various hunting magazines about this subject. They have tested the theory of spikes being inferior and have found that spikes have about the same chance of growing into trophy sized deer as the normal 4-6 point bucks, both in terms of antler and body size.

[ricqik]

Untrue. Spikes do grow to be trophies if given time and food. I don't have a link to back it up but I have a video where they had 2 yearlings, a spike and a 3pt or something. These 2 bucks were raise in an enclosed fenced area and fed the same kind of food. At age 6 they were both B&C bucks. Spikes are the results of late pregnacy does and born later then you average fawns.

This is proof because an area I hunted had a crippled spike that my hunting group saw 5yrs ago. Each yr we would see him because of his distinct crooked front leg. We planned to shoot him at age 3 because his unique antler shape & size but none of us ever had him within range. We began to see him less and less. 5yr we never saw him, thought maybe some lucky hunter got him. Finally saw him again this past week. He should be 6yr by now and he is a monster. He would easily push 200 in score as a nontypical. And " No " I'm not saying where I hunt. Let's just say he's in an intensive harvest zone.

Given time all bucks will grow trophy size antler, some smaller, some bigger but they should almost all be garanteed 130 class.

[bigbucks]

I've read that about the pen raised deer too. I'm not sure it was the same story about the same deer, but the same results. Eventually a deer that was a spike still grew a huge rack. My guess is they may tend to be the bucks that are 6 pointers at 2 1/2 & grow bigger heavier racks with less tines, as they age, but there's nothing scientific about that.

We've noticed that the bucks near my Dad's place for some reason don't seem to get a lot of points, but the racks will be thicker & the points longer. The deer also tend to be blockier built than at my Uncle's place a mere 14 miles away. The deer there will be longer & taller with the young small racked bucks having lots of points. For instance we shot a 9 pointer this year, very tiny rack, that I'm sure was a yearling. I'm sure it's just got to do with characteristics passed down by individual bucks in a specific area over the years.

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

I saw a toothpick spike on Sunday. He looked like a yearling so I would say he was ahead of the game as most yearling bucks have nubs. They appeared to be 3 inches but it was close. I did not shoot it.

[bigbucks]

Yearling bucks generally have antlers of some type. Small yearlings have spikes, generally late fawns from the previous year. Those with nubs or buttons are fawns. Yearlings are 1 1/2 year-old deer. For some reason there's a lot of people confused by that.

[PerchJerker]

Spike bucks are not deer with inferior genetics. They are deer that are either too young or didn't get enough nutrition to grow bigger antlers.

One of my pet peeves is guys that complain about not enough big bucks, but who shoot spike bucks and say they were doing it to improve the genetics. Age more than anythign else will give a deer bigger antlers. Shoot the spikes if you want, but don't call it something that it's not.

[Bushwacker]

This year I watched and shot what I thought to be a large doe. First I had it in my binocs in the brush and then put my scope on it. I watched it for about 10 minutes until it worked its way clear of the brush. I shot it and it did not move anymore than 10 feet. I watched it through the binocs for 20 minutes before I got out of my stand. I was sure it was a doe. I went over to it and it had one spike about 4 inches long and the other was a button. It ended up being the second biggest bodied deer at our camp out of 5 deer. Its body size was between an 8 pt. and a 6 pt. What do you guys think was going on with that. Very nice sized, at least 2 1/2 I would think, but no antler growth hardly at all. I have hunted for ten years now and have never seen that big of a deer with that small of a rack.

[lawdog]

I think that there are lots of factors in rack development including genetics and food most notably, but that none of use are expert enough to really know. I do know this, by the second year you should be able to tell if their rack looks junky or not a lot better than on that first yearling rack. That being said, I still believe you will see lots of knowledgeable game managers say that many spikes should be shot to cull the herd. I bet there are just as many though who disagree with them...

I just say let them all grow up a bit before we shoot them and then we should see better bucks over time because those scrubby inferior ones won't get any lovin from the does, and they can get shot to clean up the gene pool as you guys are claiming you are doing with the spikes!!!