Shooter ?????

[Cornfed]

Saturday evening I passed up a good shot on a 2 1/2 year old spike buck. With the genetics and nutrition what they are in Iowa, should I have culled this deer from the herd? According to the new regulations... any unforked buck is considered antlerless.

What would you guys & gals have done?

 

[TallTines]

As long as the spikes weren't to long and you truly believe he is a 2 1/2, I probably would have culled him. Especially if qdm is your main purpose.
Its my understanding that the doe carries most of the antler genetics though. So if you don't cull him take a bunch of does and hope you get the one with spike genes.

 

[IAbowhunter18]

I kind of have the same question. The regs read that an antlerless deer is anything with no forked antlers. So would a spike with 10 spikes be considered antlerless and could you tag it with an antlerless tag?