Most of them grow out of it. Anybody that says "once a spike, always a spike" is just ignorant.

 

Texas folks often quote this based on a terribly faulty unscientific study done at Kerr Wildlife Management Area. They chose as the breeder buck a deer that was a spike his first 2-3 years, and amazingly enough, many of his offspring were spikes. Data from a study done by Dr. Deer (Kroll) based on over 3,000 free-ranging deer (and duplicated by another researcher in Mississippi) revealed that spikes catch up to their forked-antlered brothers by year 3.5 in every category of antler measurement except mass.

 

yes.

 

Yeap they grow out of it. I sure hear the once a spike always a spike around my parts. I see a lot of spikes in the bed of trucks. Kinda sucks but as long as their being killed legally...

 

If he is 1.5 years this year he would have only been .5 years old last year and nothing more than a button buck so your age structure is off. If he was around last year as a spike, he was 1.5 years old last year and if its the same buck then he would be a 2.5 year old this year. If he is 2.5 and still only a spike, he won't develop into much of a buck. If you are looking at two different deer and the buck is only 1.5 years old this year he still can develop into something better than average. The odds are a bit against him but he still could be a good buck.

 

ALL of our 1 1/2 olds are spikes. they all turn into something by 3 1/2. we have terrible soil, no ag or crops anywhere near us.

 

He might not have record class potential, but spikes don't stay spikes. He could easily turn out to be a nice 8 pointer, if you let him grow.

 

Yes !!!!

 

http://www.realtree.com/deer-hunting/galleries/photo-gallery-from-buttons-to-booner

Cool write up on this question.

 

Lots of studies around the Web showing spikes growing to average or better on the reg. Let em grow.

 

Let him grow a few more years, only then will you know his potential, and then he could be on his way to a booner...if you kill him at 1.5yrs old, thats all he'll ever be....

 

Here is proof they can and do produce decent horns later in life. This deer lived close to my house so I got to see it nearly every day for over a year. I guess a coyote or cat got to his ham but he recovered nicely. We got to watch his wound heal and his horns grow the next year. Unfortunately my neighbor stopped his growth. I was looking forward to seeing what he could have been knowing he was a spike at 1.5.



at 2.5, you can still see the scar on his ham although it is completely healed

 

http://www.thrillon.com/kb124/board...kb124/boards/watch-this-spike-buck-turn-into-a-monster-boone-crockett-buck-pics

 

Still to this day I don't get where people even could think this is true with ANY wildlife knowledge at all, let alone fellow hunters lmao still don't get it.

 

What is there to figure out? There is an easy explanation.
Ignorant hunters say "once a spike, always a spike" as a way of justifying shooting young bucks.

 

How (ill be nice and use ignorant as posted above) someone has to be to believe that if a deer at 1.5 yrs is a spike in 2, 3, or even 4 YEARS of GROWTH it will still have two spikes. Blows my mind. For those that actually ask yourself if its true. How many 4-6 yr old bucks have been spikes vs 6 or more... Off season sucks, but between this and wildgame vs feed store corn thread it makes you wonder about the people you share the woods with that are allowed to carry weapons.

 

I used the word "Ignorant" with purpose. "lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular"

 

As others have stated, it's just ignorance and an excuse to shoot a young deer.

It is VERY rare to see a buck 2.5 years or older with spikes.

 

We had a spike on our Illinois ground that was missing half of his ear. He stayed in velvet all year. The next year he was a spike again and had a tiny body. We never saw him or got pics of him last year. I believe this is the exception and not the norm.

I've read an article where a spike turned into a 217" non typical

 

Most will grow out of it.

 

I had this "discussion", (closer to a fist fight) maybe 30 years ago with some buddies. I knew a guy at that time that raised whitetails. He said most of his 1.5 year old spikes were 8pt at 2.5 years old. Never saw a spike at 2.5....never.

 

Strangely most of the spike "2.5-3.5 yr old" bucks that someone shot because they needed to be culled seem to have small bodies exactly like an immature spike buck.

 

There are a bunch of reasons why a yearling buck is a spike, especially in the northern part of the country. Probably the least common reason is due to them being genetically predisposed to always be a spike.

 

We have 2 properties about 2 miles.apart as the crow flies. One is notoriois for 1.5 year old spikes. I've seen as many as 4 different spikes In a morning hunting this farm. Most 3 year olds on that property will be anywhere from 115-145". We have shot a few mature bucks that score between 135-160. Most of the bucks we kill on that place are 3 or 4 years old and typically close to 140", and almost every one of them sport a spike or fork horn rack at 1.5.

I've seen 2 older spikes on this farm. One was probably 3 years old and the other was a sure enough mature 250 pound on the hoof 6 or 7 year old spike with spikes about 16" long.

just 2 miles away on our other farm you rarely see a spike. Typically at this place bucks will have 4-8 points for the first rack. A good percentage of the time these deer will be withing 15" at 3 years old of the ones that start as spikes 2 miles away.

"a spike will always be a spike" probably came about from somebody that whose wife was.giving him a hard time for killing a baby deer and this is what he came up with in defence.

 

If you have 1.5 year old spikes and 1.5 year old six points in the same area eating the same food then I'd say the spike is genetically inferior and the herd would be better off with those genes removed from the gene pool

 

And you would be wrong. Some of those spikes could be bigger at 3 or 4 years old than the six points. Spikes are spikes for reasons other than genetics.

Could have been a fawn from a fawn.
Could have been a twin or triplet.
Could have been conceived later in the rut.
Etc.
Etc.

Just sayin. In most cases genetics has nothing to do with it.

 

YES. THEY WILL GET BIGGER. I think that saying of once a spike always a spike was made up by the brown its down crew that wants to kill everything alive just to make them try to justify their motive to others and call it "management"

 

If you were a betting man which deer would you bet on the be a ten point in the next year or two?

 

Nutrition and genetics are the main determinants of antler growth. Nutrition being the same that leaves genetics. A 1.5 six point has more genetic potential than a 1.5 spike. You can always point to exceptions but were talking probability. Genetics and population genetics is all about probability. So I ask again if you were a betting man which one would you bet on?

 

not true.

some deer handle stress better than others, and have a "blow up" year putting on a ton of antler, while others, flatline out.

Killing 1.5 year old deer "for the good of the herd" is poppycock