I promise he will be if you shoot him.

This buck is 3 years old. He was a 6" spike at one year old. He was born in October/november so he wasn't as mature his first year as deer born in June and July.

He's not a special deer on my place. But he's no slouch. He'll be a 12 point main frame and score ~170 when he's killed in a year or two.

I don't think he should be shot as a spike for the sin of having a late birthday.

Note that TPWD took a south Texas breeder buck and line breed it to only the breeders bucks offspring... They took a hill country spike and Line breed the spike to only the spikes off spring.

Great study that showed a 170" 210 lb STX buck will throw bigger off spring then a hill country spike...by a percentage of overall B&C score.

Not really an even playing field. Note there was no middle group where the cross breed between two control groups.

Rock science results.

Y'all have fun

I have always heard once a soike always a spike shoot it...

My brother cleared all of the deer from his place before he HFed it (that was a tough job), then he brought in bred does and breeder bucks to start his herd. The first fawns made for 11 bucks, one was a spike. After the first year we could no longer tell which one was the spike.
They were 5 years old this last hunting season and the four small ones were shot, they all scored 170+.
I figured that spike was born late, the genetics were good so we had to give him a chance.

My brother cleared all of the deer from his place before he HFed it (that was a tough job), then he brought in bred does and breeder bucks to start his herd. The first fawns made for 11 bucks, one was a spike. After the first year we could no longer tell which one was the spike.
They were 5 years old this last hunting season and the four small ones were shot, they all scored 170+.
I figured that spike was born late, the genetics were good so we had to give him a chance.

Thank you BoBo! Most hunters could not tell you who Big Charlie is much less the fact his father and maternal grand father were known deer with large racks and bodies and that every single forked horn deer in the spike study came from Big Charie, and let's not forget he was a 160" deer at 3.5.

There are numerous study's in the Kerr publication and one of the other studies involved feeding different percentages of protien to deer over a 4 or 5 year period. There were only 2 spikes in that study and if you look at the numbers at 4.5 or 5.5 the two spikes are two of the biggest antlered bucks in the study.

The Devil's in the details and the field was most definitely not level in the Kerr study. Looks more like they developed a hypothesis and set out to prove it rather than do everything they could to disprove it and allow it to establish on its own if it were fact or not. Definetly not the scientific method.

Is every spike a future book deer? No. There are so many biological and environmental factors that could lead to a 1.5 old deer being a spike it's just not worth killing them.

Just my opinion.

Spike bucks are a natural part of any natural deer herd. Trying to wipe them out in the search of huge racks (something nature itself made very rare) is simply dumb. I for one don't care a thing about the size of an antler since I only hunt meat now. This obsession with big antlers will eventually bite us all in the butt since it is proven that non-hunters widely support hunting when it is for meat but they get squirrelly when it is for antlers. So if they get the idea that big antlers are all you care about, don't be surprised if they try to shut down hunting in the future and they will use your own words against you.

All game animals are special and none should be called "inferior" simply because they don't look the way you want them to.

jefbird...how did your brother clear all of the deer off his place before hf?

I don't know but Spike meat is good. We used to call it Camp meat.