Interesting article with time line photos........


"The process of getting a whitetail from the button buck stage to the Boone and Crockett category is a mystical journey that includes a complex assortment of variables. It takes four basic ingredients to produce a buck with a 170-inch rack: genetics, habitat, herd management and age.

Too often hunters feel they can tell a buck’s potential by the kind of antlers it grows as a yearling. "




Spike to Booner

little teaser




from




to

photos of one deer's progress is very little empirical evidence for either side of the argument..... be that as it may I say the spike goes in the freezer, and I never give it a second thought of what he might have become.

kt

which brings about another question. If you're shooting spikes do you shoot yearling spikes or do you wait til the next year?

From that one deer, all those managed ranches are pissing in the wind shooting the 8's. They turn into 9's, 11's, 10's and whatever else. Just goes to show, no one knows anything about deer

I think there is more to what your saying than we realize, joke or not. I do think there is a law of averages that has been somewhat concluded though. I will let a yearling spike walk, older ones get a dirt nap.

If you need more bucks then stay... if you have more deer than your C.C then they go..... if your sitting well off on both ends then its your choice and I wont argue with either

I was only half kidding and think there is a lot of truth to it. Different management tactics work but not because of one philosophy, but because of the overall. One ranch can not shoot any spikes and a neighboring ranch can shoot every spike. They can both be successful either because of or despite, but success will not rest solely on that decision.

On my place any 8 point or less starting @ 2.5 goes. Law of averages where I hunt, no fences, no protein, just age, genetics and with the right weather, great range conditions for growing very big white tail bucks. I am sure this does not work for everyone and I am MLD, so that helps too.

Agreed. You will surely find those that will "fight to the death" on both sides of that issue too.

I remember in the early 80's, you couldn't find an LO in Central Texas hardly that would allow a doe to be shot, same arguments about that issue back then. There are still signs of over CC on some ranches down there.

I shoot all spikes pretty much on sight this year, next year, the year after...... that's the thing if you are going to shoot them, do so with out prejudice.

I'll go out on a limb and say that, > 1.5 old spikes are about as common as the pictures of the 169" spike buck you started this thread with....

We shoot every spike we see which isn't many maybe 1-2 per year. I don't need a surplus of deer and I'm not into playing the deer lottery hoping and wishing a spike will end up catching up with its multi point yearlings.

Haha...Yep

I don't think it matters one bit for 99% of hunting properties. You won't make any difference in the long run. Since I have a hard enough time keeping the buck to doe ratio where I want it, I don't hinder that by shooting any young bucks.

I think Nav is on the right track with his thoughts.

He still was not a booner Love these articles with pics of just one buck that made it to a nice buck from a spike. Why don't the post up pics of all the ones that turned into a mature buck with a whole lot less headgear?
Take two ranches had the exact same herds of deer to start and one did not do any culling till 4yr old + and the other shot every spike every year. IMO they both would have the same top end bucks in the end. The one killing spikes would just have less bucks to cull from than the one culling at 4+. The difference in some ranches is they are selling deer for money, so killing bucks at 4+ makes them more money. Nothing wrong with that. Killing spikes is not a one year and done process or for small acreages, it needs to be a long term commitment for a large scale area. Like Nav posted if you need more bucks then keep them if you have to many deer/bucks then shoot them (13" IR bucks make this difficult). If you just like looking at bucks then keep all the bucks till they mature. In the end they are a mouth and the vast majority will be shot at 4+ as lessor quality deer IME. The problem with culling at later ages is finding those older age class bucks no matter what their headgear looks like. Older bucks are just harder to find than when they are younger.

Sound managements says you should kill 98% of your yearling crop every year, until the only ones left are yearling 22pts

I like your way of thinking

Probably ok if you only want to shoot one trophy per year. Might fit someones plan.

attention to detail.......

I've gone back and forth on the issue and we simply aren't recruiting enough bucks to 4+ to warrant culling yearling spikes. YMMV

We do this......



Picky picky picky....

I've never seen a two year old spike...

Not saying they don't exist. Just think they are more of a rarity than a spikes growing into booners

No, no, no you don't get to shoot any trophies, you're to busy culling and you can't shoot your top seeders

I'm in sign me up coach

I mean he's a respectable 140