At what age do you shoot spikes?

[338Shooter]

The year I killed my trophy, my dad killed a nice 8 point, my uncle killed a nice 10 point mule deer, and my cousin killed a heavy spike. I'm not sure how old it was, but his spikes were about 18" long. He had to be at least 2.5 years old probably even older. He weighed around 150 dressed out (not hanging weight, just dressed). It was a goofy looking deer for sure and we were glad to have him off the property.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Gomer Pyle deer, lol.

 

[dennishoddy]

I have my place in the WHIP program mainly to remove cedar trees. When the biologist was doing his inspection, I remarked that I would see a spike buck at nearly every stand on the place. He said it was because of too many does. A greater number of does means more does bred later, hence later born fawn. When those fawns start forming antlers they aren't even a year old. So the best way to decrease spike bucks is to kill more does. Actually spike bucks don't really bother me. I know eventually they will grow into good bucks.

Exactly the point I was putting across earlier

 

[dennishoddy]

We just have an 8 point or better rule cause it's momma nature that says what they are going to come out UNLESS they are in a highfence and the does are AI'ed with said awesome genetics sperm from said buck and the others are fixed kinda like those high dollar cattle.

In nature there is nothing stopping that crazy goofy buck down the road from sneaking in and knocking up a few does on your place! so my question is HOW do you know that spike is 2 1/2 years old? not to stir up anything but I'd not think a buck over 1 1/2 would be a spike, and I'm sure not going to say THAT spike buck rith there is 3 years old UNLESS he's been in a pen the whole time HOW do you know it's the same deer? eartags?

Just asking been doing this a long time and find it hard to tell how old a deer is without checking a jaw bone and have found that difficult to check that on a live deer so far. Later,

Kirk

Basically, you have to be able to judge the deer on the hoof for age, as well as the length of the spikes somewhat.

A buck with a swayed back, long snout, belly hanging a little, and thick spikes are probably a mature buck that needs to be culled.

A buck with a short snout, small body, straight back, and spikes with no mass are usually the young of the year.

Its really tough for anybody to accuratly judge a 1 1/2-2 1/2 year old deer even by experienced deer hunters.
Its like a transition period into adulthood.
Poor nutrition in one year can make a 2 1/2 or a 3 1/2 look younger, and the opposite is true.

 

[Ksmirk]

Kind like girls huh? I could have all sorts of fun but this is a family site so I'll refrain LMAO!

Ya know I have been hunting those dang deer for years and even managed a property but I never was any good at saying that deer right there is 3 1/2 years old! I can get close but still it's a crapshoot. For the last several years we have been on doe patrol and leaving the bucks alone with good results so far, our bucks have been coming along well with rack growth and even the body size has improved. This year a couple of bucks were taken but these were older deer and there are some coming up that are going to be awesome bucks in the next year or two. About to start some food plots and possibly add some minerals to help with those racks.

I can't say enough about thinning the does down, on the place I'm on now a doe this year means 3 next year and well that's a tad hard on the whole herd. Fella's this special doe season that is coming up do everyone a favor and go bust one! Later,

Kirk

 

[ArealGunNut]

The whole idea of "culling" to "improve the herd" makes me laugh. The funniest thing i read was the statement about checking with a spotting scope before shooting, now thats funny! I would rather take a 60lb doe over a monster anyday of the week, simply better eating in my opinion and thats the reason I hunt. If all i was concerned about was horns I'd hunt a high fenced game preserve or the zoo which is about the same thing in my book. Im no expert but if I was a guessing person the only way to see more mature bucks is to let every single buck walk for say 4-5yrs and harvest nothing but females.
If we really wanted to get innovative, how about reducing limits to 1buck a year reguardless of season, or eliminate buck harvest for say three years while at the same time increase the limits on females.

 

[MoBoost]

The funniest thing i read was the statement about checking with a spotting scope before shooting, now thats funny! I would rather take a 60lb doe over a monster anyday of the week ...

I bring the spotting scope to make sure that the 60lb deer is a doe, not a button buck. Nothing funny about that. I've killed a button before during antlerless season and didn't feel right about it at all, so I'm making sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[AllOut]

I bring the spotting scope to make sure that the 60lb deer is a doe, not a button buck. Nothing funny about that. I've killed a button before during antlerless season and didn't feel right about it at all, so I'm making sure it doesn't happen again.

Im with U MoBoost... i have had my cases of mistaken identity, did it this year in the rain (made it hard to tell and i had 2 people telling mt it was a doe) and it pisses me off everytime it happened to me. So u have a great idea with the spotting scope.

 

[dcmtex]

I saw quite a few at the ranch in E. Texas this year. More than I have seen in the past and I would say several were two +. I attributed it to the drought.
Too many variables to claim spikes will never grow a nice set of antlers.

 

[Buzzgun]

I'd love to attend one of the seminars - looks like I'll have to wait till May

You wouldn't happen to have access/link to the data collected - often people involved in data collection have inadequate knowledge of discrete math and get to conclusions with agenda other than statistical analysis.

No, I don't have access to the data. I can assure you, the Noble Foundation folks KNOW what they are doing. They are a non profit outfit not trying to sell anything, so don't bet on any agenda.

The study they did on deer aging is pretty enlightening too. The majority of wildlife biologists that participated in the study were very poor at aging deer, both on the hoof and by the jaw/tooth examination methods.