spike bucks

[chasefan31]

I recently acquired permission to hunt a new farm and have seen lots of spike bucks on it. Most have quite large spikes, one has 8-9" on each side with no splits. Without knowing the exact age of these deer is it possible to know if they're "good potential" 1 1/2 year olds or if they're 2 1/2 yr old deer that haven't developed much? In other words, is it a good thing to see large spikes or is it just a sign that aren't splitting out when they should be. Or is it a complete crap shoot and you never know what they'll develop into? If it helps any there seems to be a good number of deer that are basket 8's or 8's that are 120ish. There are 2 large 12 points that still seem fairly young(less than 4). I guess I'd like to know if some of these should be taken out or if they should all be left to mature.

 

[bowhuntr311]

Alot of people will say that a spike will never grow very big. The next will say there is no telling.

A guy I know in my community had a 1.5year old spike he bought from another hobby deer farmer. That buck came around at 2.5 with a 110ish rack and at 3.5 had a decent 130ish 9point rack. If I remeber right he broke his neck and died before his 4th rack. Being in a pen is obviously alot different than the wild but my opinion is that your never going to know how big he will get if he's in your freezer. Now with that being said if you can ageing these deer and your seeing 2.5year old or older spikes I'd start shooting them.

 

[letemgrow]

Very very few bucks remain spikes their whole lives, I have only saw one I would consider older than 2.5 ever taken and that was just a picture from somewhere. From what I have seen in my area, a spike is a underdeveloped 1.5 year old from bad buck to doe ratios and a late birth due to the doe not being bred in a timely manner.

I have yet to see a spike that I would consider 2.5 or older anywhere on my farm, yet I see enough 1.5 spikes so I woould not worry if I were you. Whats the buck to doe ratio like in your area??

 

[chasefan31]

On this particular farm I see more bucks than does. I always thought that was weird, but that's the way it is. About a mile away I see tons of does and rarely a buck. Now that I look at the pictures a little more I'm positive they're 1 1/2 and have decent horn for their body size. I'll find out next year and go from there.

 

[Daver]

I too am curious about spikes

In all of my days afield, from the mid-to-late 70's primarily as a young pheasant and duck hunter up through the early 2000's, by which point I was spending 90% of hunting time chasing deer, I can only remember seeing 2 spikes in those 25+ years. Two spikes out of possibly a thousand, or at least several hundred, different bucks that I had seen, either while hunting or driving, or whatever.

Then after I bought my own farm in 2001 or 2002, I have probably seen 3 to 4+ different spikes every year! Where did they all come from??? Did I just get lucky and buy the "spike capital of Iowa"? :grin: Some are only 3 to 4 inches, others are 8 or 9 inches, but every year, they are! Every now and then I will see one that is a spike on one side and very small fork on the other.

As near as I can tell though, all are young deer, likely 1-1/2 year olds. We have good deer density, but nothing ridiculous, and we harvest about 4 or 5 does to every buck at least, so our sex balance isn't too bad. For the most part the neighbors are harvesting similarly.

So why all the spikes? I really don't know, but my strong sense is that they are a little later born fawns and there really isn't a big problem because we also have adequate numbers of mature bucks around too, so those guys have to be coming from somewhere.