we have this spike that is coming in to our feeder very frequently(our deer lease is in robertson county) and were debating whether to try to shoot him or let him walk. were leaning towards taking him out but none of us are very good with ageing so were were looking for some advice.
here he is

i have more pictures if i need to post them but i thought this was the best one. any help is greatly appreciated.

take him.

he looks like a 1 year old deer. rough year for spikes with this drought this year... personally, I don't see culling any 1.5 year old deer for antler growth, ever.

X2

No this is a 1 1/2 old deer

I wouldn't.

I wouldn't. Too young and too much curve in the horns.

Give him another year.

unless you are overrun with deer and need to thin the herd, i would let him walk.
plenty of does for tender steaks...

I have never been a fan of taking out yearling spikes. Been too many studies that prove there is more reasons for a yearling having spikes than just genetics alone.

Depends on your buck numbers and your goals. But if it were me I would shoot all of the spikes unless I was weak on numbers of bucks.

cold hearted killer.....

But I like to and and and it makes

LMAO. go shoot some javelinas bambi killer! I hear they're great on teh grill?

i would let him go another year.

i've had years(dry ones) where almost every yearling we had was a spike. the next year the majority were ten points.

i don't shoot a 1 1/2 year old buck.

kinda like the runt kid that grows up to be 6'2 240, you just never know

They are they taste like chicken..... ...

Let him grow

but you can still

wait...what's the limit on javelinas again?

Don't have any so won't matter. No hogs either. So guess what I get to take out my frustrations on.

thanks guys we will probably give him another year. we are over run with does but only have 2 or 3 bucks coming to feeders so this year will be a year to thin out the does.

you want some? I can hook you up with some low fence, native mcmullen county javelina genetic critters!

Only if you have DNA pedigrees and it goes back 5 generations with pics of sires and his offspring. If not you can keep them. They won't have been managed

Not this year. concentrate on taking all the mature does you can with as many doe tags on your license. Get the mouths off the range so that the little ones can grow.

I used to shoot all spikes simply b/c in most cases the spikes never could catch up to those that had more inches of antler early on. However, I have found that if the spikes live to 4.5 years old you can see what they actually become.

FYI I am in Dr Deer (James Kroll PHD)'s camp now to let them grow to maturity (at least 4.5) b/c you will see what they can produce when not having to channel nutrition to skeletal and muscle growth. TPWD still advocates shooting spikes for the reason I used to take them.

to the orginal posting: in regards to aging on the hoof: never look at the antlers. Just look at the body. 1.5 yr olds will look baby faced and just like a yearling doe. 2.5-3.5 year olds will look like a large doe. 4.5 year olds+ will be muscular and stocky with bodies that look too big for their legs. 5.5's will start to have a "beer belly" look to them. 6.5+ will start to have saggy skin in their faces and a swaybacked look. See some of the other aging threads for different pics's.

Yearling... I wouldn't shoot him...