And they work so . . . I'm not currently hunting an AR county but the pics from my buddy's place confirms they are working there.

These few people who hate AR's must be miserable when the hunting season comes around, and can't wait for the season to be over!

Naaa, not miserable at all. I have leases and properties all over the place to hunt so I have a blast during hunting season. East Texas, West Texas, Central Texas, and a lease in Illinois. I don't have much time to be miserable. It does however sadden me to see a place I grew up hunting declining every year like it is. I don't expect you or anyone else to care. It doesn't affect you so why should you?

TPWD has long considered spikes inferior in their management plans. So I would guess to them they do not count, so kill them all. Who said all spikes are yearlings? Who said it has to be a yearling buck? The rules state unbranched antler, correct?

You are correct, it states unbranched antler. That's why I said 99% of the time it's a yearling and not 100%. I have lost count of how many deer we've killed on the MLDP with unbranched antler and 100% of them were yearlings.

It's nowhere near 99%.

I'd say by age 3, it's probably over 90%, but there are plenty of 2 yr olds with 1 unbranched antler. I had a couple of pigs (fat bucks) running around last year that had pretty heavy unbranched clubs (not really spikes because there was just kinda a mass at the end where you could tell the antlers want to branch but didn't).

I have also lost count of how many deer we have killed under MLDP but I can say for a fact that there have been several bucks 2 yrs old and older with at least one unbranched antler. Including one 4 yr old spike.

That's good but I'm not sure what your point is. In who knows how many deer several of them were not yearlings. Can you at least agree that the vast majority are yearlings if they have an unbranched antler? I didn't expect anyone to take the 99 percent thing seriously. I have no idea what the percentage is because it's impossible to figure.

Now that's what I call a trophy spike!

Me and BowSlayer finally start joking around about ARs and the thread dies down.

Maybe it wasn't broke for you but I'm pretty sure the majority would argue with you. And where did you fellas get your info that there aren't ARs in Central Tx. ARs don't fix it all but they are a start. I wish they would change it to number of points on one side instead of spread. I think Missouri has the best ARs in the country.

All Counties in Central Texas do not have them.

I like that idea too. Arkansas does that.
It would be a l lot easier for everone especially the kids to judge.

Had an early post in this thread about the data Noble foundation is putting forth. Spike deer is one of those hotly contested issues, harvest, leave alone etc. If you have 30 of them running around you may have a problem, a few probably not.
Ken Gee was the research biologist at Noble foundation but new leadership shut down the research leg after 24 yrs. For interested parties his work and presentation via the Noble wildlife biologist still working for the foundation is recommended.
The study of spikes was very in depth. They had a high fence 2500 or 3,000 acre ranch, natural habitat, no food plots nor supplemental feeding except utilizing corn ever so often for drop netting deer. Used it to rid the ranch of hogs as well. They would ear tag, DNA test etc. the deer, including spikes so they knew how old they were when seen again. Their picture portfolio of spikes and what they grew into in later yrs. is very interesting, not all were 140-170 class deer but most made enormous progress. I had for the most part ascribed to shooting all spikes and have a grandson who intends to try his best to harvest the spikes. The data presented changed my mind about the harvest of all spikes. I now let some walk every year.

I guess our idea of Central Tx is different. The two counties that I hunt in have ARs. Brown and Comanche

We don't Curly. Ar's work for some of us and don't for others. Lets fix it. [/quote]

Fix what wasn't broke in the first place? [/quote]

Maybe it wasn't broke for you but I'm pretty sure the majority would argue with you. And where did you fellas get your info that there aren't ARs in Central Tx. ARs don't fix it all but they are a start. I wish they would change it to number of points on one side instead of spread. I think Missouri has the best ARs in the country. [/quote]

I like that idea too. Arkansas does that.
It would be a l lot easier for everone especially the kids to judge. [/quote]
I knew we would agree on something eventually.

Great job TPWD keep up the good work.

So it took TP&W this long to figure out that Texas needed antler restrictions?
Friggin dummies.

No it just took them that long to realize that some people just can't help themselves when it comes to shooting little bucks so they need a babysitter.