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Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" #5234126 08/04/14 02:30 PM
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Turkeyman Offline OP
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This thread appears to be the place to get everyone's opinion on a long debated topic. I'm curious to see how many of you fella's believe the old adage "Once a Spike always a Spike". Please give your opinions and reason behind them

Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5234150 08/04/14 02:41 PM
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Not true and don't think most people believe that. Many believe they will always be inferior to their forked horn peers, but not that they will always be a spike. Research and field observation is my reason behind it cheers


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Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5234924 08/04/14 10:24 PM
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^^^ sums it up pretty well ... from my own personal observation, once a deer hits 2.5 years old (2nd set of antlers past a button) and is truly a slick horned spike, they typically will never be much better antlerwise. Also, they are still in the breeding passing those inferior genes on for future generations.


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Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: PMK] #5236056 08/05/14 02:33 PM
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You are a smart man

Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5236801 08/05/14 09:44 PM
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I believed it growing up because that's what I'd been told by those older and more experienced than me. This was back in the early/mid 70's. We shot every "damned spike" we saw. Once I started doing my own research I saw how untrue that was and started giving them a chance to make something.

Last edited by Slow Drifter; 08/05/14 09:45 PM.

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Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5290765 09/06/14 04:25 AM
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Once you shoot 'em, they'll never be anything but a spike...


Old age ain't for sissies!

Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5462892 12/07/14 07:29 PM
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Does horn growth make the meat taste any better. If you are only hunting for a trophy rack, you are in the field for all the wrong reasons.


Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5463232 12/07/14 09:57 PM
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A trophy buck is in the eye of the beholder. I never was a "Trophy" hunter and never wanted to be. I am tired of so many people trying to force all of us to trophy hunt and the ridiculous antler restrictions in many counties proves the state is trying to do the same thing. I have a friend that has had a lease for about twenty years and they are seeing loads of bucks now days but still can rarely shoot a legal buck because of genetics of narrow racks. They have fine mature bucks dying of old age that don't make thirteen inches so they are illegal. My favorite buck of all time is a little five point that was my first buck. That made it a trophy to me. I killed it in 1967 and his antlers are mounted on a nice plaque and still have a special place on my wall. If you want to trophy hunt great, but why do you try to force me to do it too. We all are different people with different wants and ideas. You do your thing and allow me to do mine.

Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5463418 12/07/14 11:24 PM
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Many years ago I heard the "Once a Spike always a Spike"
I always took it to mean "Once a spike always inferior"


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Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: txshntr] #5486811 12/19/14 03:32 AM
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Originally Posted By: txshntr
Not true and don't think most people believe that. Many believe they will always be inferior to their forked horn peers, but not that they will always be a spike. Research and field observation is my reason behind it

cheers warning: statements like that will get ya on the egnorance list flag



i'm postaddic
Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5487024 12/19/14 11:28 AM
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I've read research that says it isn't necessarily so. However, on my place I used to rarely see a spike. Now, I'm see a lot more of them. I remember killing a 3 to 4 year old spike that went about 125 pounds and was very healthy. That was 20 years ago. Last year a kid shot a spike on my place that weighed 70 pounds before field dressing, and was, according to the teeth, about 7.5 years old. It had a wedge head and I'm seeing others with that head. Obviously, they are breeding and/or the does are carrying the gene. Other than the head, I would have thought that it was a yearling.

My game cameras tell me that I have very few bucks with over 8 points. I'm seeing mature bucks with high narrow racks that are illegal to shoot and you can bet that those suckers are breeding. They also tell me that I have 3 or 4 monster bucks that I'll never see while hunting and from a geneology standpoint, I guess that's a good thing.

On one hand, I like the AR's. I'm willing to give them a chance. But, letting young bucks go to improve the gene pool isn't the whole story. We have no idea what a does genes are.

But, I really don't know the absolute answer to the original question.


Without a sense of urgency, nothing ever happens.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley, Rancher Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5487139 12/19/14 01:28 PM
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I was told by a Texas Game Biologist I worked with on managing deer on my place, that most spikes will eventually develop into forked horned bucks, but some will stay spikes for many years, if not his entire life (he referred to them as longhorn spikes). His view was bucks with good genetics will have brow tines and usually a fork on each side at 18 months (what I call a basket 6). His view was the genetics for spike bucks at 18 months are "risky," thus he believed you should not risk letting a spike breed the does with what may be inferior genetics. All I know is that for the first 7 years or so, we culled every 18 month or older spike we saw on my place and today, we seldom see any spikes; instead, we see a lot of very good bucks and even the youngsters are nice looking bucks. Admittedly I'm no game biologist, but for me, the results I've experienced are hard to argue with.

Re: Tales, and Yarns / "Once a Spike always a Spike???" [Re: Turkeyman] #5493179 12/22/14 07:58 PM
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Know I am starting a fire here but:

How about setting an antler restriction where big "trophy" antlers are banned or limited? Maybe come out and say for three years no big antlered bucks may be shot, to increase the genetic heritage. But open season on spikes and mature forker horns.

I was in VA a while back and they had it so you had to shoot a doe, and a second doe or a button before you could collect an second antlered deer. Made sense.



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