Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Opinion on spikes

Everyone has ideas, and places are different. As are the times.


Was a time, years ago, we lived on deer meat.
I killed does exclusively, for meat.
Any buck was someone's trophy.

Then they massacred our herd.
Now I'd rather kill any buck, for any reason, than kill does.
Bucks are just bucks, females can get bred and are the future.
Now days we can get a half dozen tags, only 1 buck.
Can't kill does with a clear conscience anymore.
Unfortunately others don't feel that way. So they keep hammering does, and complain how it's gotten hard to fill tags. As they kill more.

I've killed a few spikes in the past but, it's been at least 25 years since I killed one.

Shooting horns to control genetics for the purpose of improving antler quality is putting the cart before the horse. I did see a study in QDMA that suggested that shooting some younger bucks is good to improve survival rates of other young bucks in the area. This has something to do with the remaining younger bucks not being kicked out of their home ranges.

Only one way to shoot a big buck, and thats to not shoot him when he’s little. That’s the hard part, passing on a 3 or 4 year old 8 or 10 point that is handsome and starting to put on some body and antler mass.

We get 5 tags where I hunt in Texas. If I’m still looking for deer meat by the time our late season doe and spike season rolls around, they are are the same to me.

This is at my brother's place.






I would take the spike 11 times out of 10 before I would take one of these 3 yr. olds. (my estimation). I keep several feeders going. I've got cellular cameras set up and I love watching the deer in real time. Since I'm paying the freight, I've asked him not to let anyone (including me) to take either of these two for at least a year if not two.

ya!

GWB

IMHO it's an "it depends" question. If it is still small framed, hasn't grown to full adult size, let it grow and see what it turns into. If it is a full sized adult, 2 years old or more, shoot it and eat it, it has spike genes that probably shouldn't be passed along. Not just spikes .. we've got some does around here that I'd shoot if I had a tag, they've got weird ears that droop 'n' stuff suggesting too many generations of inbreeding. (I guess we have some neighbors like that, too.)

This spike walked within a few feet of my burlap wind break a few years back and jumped sideways when I moved, stopping but 20 yards away from me.
I could only see its back when it walk by in a bit of a down slope.
The only reason I didn't kill him was because I had already filled my antlered tag earlier that fall, and had two anterless tags ( antlers under 4") in my pocket.
This is in Alberta, we don't have buck and doe tags, but antlered and antlerless.

You can see the trail he was on in front of my blind, this was two days after I saw him


Cat

If it's legal I take it, spikes, forkhorns. I've even taken a button buck on a deer reduction hunt, I thought it was a doe till I came up upon it. Young deer's venison is tender and tasty.

I think I've shot one spike ever and one 5 point that I shouldn't have. It was clearly his first rack. I'd rather have a doe these days if I feel like shooting a deer. The kids can shoot whatever they want. I'd rather help them out.

We had a genetic thing going on quite a few years ago. My brother and I noticed spiked one horned buck and didn’t shoot him. A year later there was four of them walking around. At the end of season there was zero left. We must have got rid of that gene in time because no more popped up. Edk

You’ll start shooting big deer when you quit shooting little deer.

Only by mistake.

In Nebraska, whitetail bucks are considered to be "antlerless" if they antlers less than 6" long. A buck with small spikes can easily be mistaken for a doe at ranges past 100 or so yards. The "River" WMA tags allows for 2 antlerless deer to be taken, with no limit on the number of tags you can buy. They are a "seasons choice" tag, meaning that you can use them during any open season. I donate most of the deer that I shoot to Hunters Feeding The Hungry, which allows me to shoot several deer with different rifles or loads each year.

Yeah and they fish my stream at my Camp until there's not a trout in it. Then they still keep fishing it. It's just the PA way

The places I hunt now are 1 buck states and it gets expensive in a hurry to transport the meat home. If I’m not shooting something with an impressivenn I am eating the tag instead a spike.

Seen lots of nice bucks follow in a little while after some does or a little buck walks through.

Not deer, but moose.

The largest bodied 1.5 YO spike that I've killed (NEVER have passed one up!) had a 3" spike on one side, and 3 1/2" on the other side, with a bit of a knob on it, 330 # of boned out meat. I initially thought him to be a cow, at 30 yards! Then I noticed those funny eyebrows..... And no, he was not a big calf of the year - his antlers were hard, not velvety and soft.

The smallest bodied one that I've killed had 16" velvet spikes, 270 # boned meat. (16 yards, if you must know.). Both with a .338WM. For the bears, doncha know.

They were killed several years and 5 miles apart, in identical habitat - a common burn area, with excellent winter feed and similar winters/snow.

Pretty sure it was genetics, but who knows for sure?

I did let a "spike" get away from me one time, under spike-fork/50inch/3 brow tine rules. At the time, he was 3 or 4, and I didn't see that he only had a long, 20 or so inch spike on the side away from me until he turned and stepped into the brush. 4 years later, and a half mile away, I got him tho, I think. That same side, on the bull I shot, had a main palm noticeably smaller than the "good side", tines less than a couple inches long on that side, and where the brow tines should have been, was a "drop-tine" lump of antler about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 4 or 5 inches long. He was in full rut on Sept 13 about 2 weeks before he should have been, but hadn't been fighting yet, and came in hard to my call. Excellent eating, despite that.

He would have been legal the first time I saw him with that spike. When I shot hum, he had 3 brows on the good side, and went 53 inches. Had the antlers been symmetrical, he would have been about 58", I think. I suspect his deformity was due to either a damaged antler bud, or a damaged/undeveloped testicle.

They all hunt the same and eat the same(well, latter not strictly true).

At 200 acres, our place is big by local standards, but not big enough to really influence the herd on our own.

Being in Zone 1, Kentucky allows one antlered deer per year and any number of antlerless harvests. We have 2 weeks and a day to get the job done. If you have the urge to burn your buck tag on a spike, have at it.

We have the Spike Wall at camp. If you harvest a spike it goes up on the wall. For a young kid, it is a badge of honor. For the rest of us, it is a remembrance of some moment of angst or frustration or regret we'd rather leave at camp. On the occasion of Opening Day Dinner, we have The Toast, and it is delivered towards the Spike Wall. There aren't all that many up there, but we all have one or two.


My Spike came to me about a decade ago. I was out on a dark, windy afternoon and there was this single forlorn creature that came out and ate for a good long time with his head down in the tall grass. I glassed him all that time trying to make out any antlers. Finally, I concluded it was a doe and shot. This picture was snapped just as I was falling over.

I thought I killed a spike a few years ago, ended up being a 3pt. He weighed 194lbs and the spikes were both over 20 inches. I've had a couple of hunters kill spikes thinking they were a doe. I tell them spikes will usually be by themselves or with other small bucks, but the thrill of killing something overwhelms thinking.

It just all depends. I am usually pretty picky, but I have taken a spike or two over the years.

I'm not a head hunter.

I don't really care if it has horns or not.

I shot a spike that was a mature buck with both horns broken off. I knew it was an adult deer as it ran across the field but where were it's horns? I saw them when it stopped, so I shot. I would shoot again if that happens again. One of the places I hunted in Wisconsin has tons of broken horn deer.