# Once a spike... always a spike?



## slowroller (Jun 30, 2009)

I got a pic on my game cam the other day of a big body deer, probably 2 1/2 years old, with about 10" spikes. Nice looking body, just odd looking because of the lack of a rack. One cousin told me that was cull deer due to poor genetics and 'once a spike, always a spike'. My other cousin said that it may grow a bigger rack in a better year with more food, minerals, etc. (neither of their names are Daryl, btw). Anyone hear that saying and subscribe to that 'once a spike'... I have read that with proper nutrition he'll be fine, provided he's not been injured causing the non-antlers.


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## slowroller (Jun 30, 2009)

Bottom line, should I shoot him or not.


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

He may grow more points, but it wont be a good score deer, he may top out at 8 points or he could get a bunch of stickers everywhere, either way he most likely will never be that 10 or 12 point that scores 160. Ur call if ya wanna shoot him. Do u wanna waste ur buck tag on a spike, I'd say it would be a great deer to put a young hunter on that would make him and u happy.


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## VitalShot (Feb 10, 2012)

Shoot him if you want to kill him. But as far as a cull deer I bet he is not. If he has got that big of spikes than he prob has good genetics. It's funny how people always say I had to take that buck out of the heard so he didnt breed does. In a real world he will not do much breeding as the majority is done by mature dominate bucks. 


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

yes, i,ve always heard the old saying. and i,ve read it in many books. and the dnr guys that i,ve asked have told me it is true. now im not talking about a yearling buck having big buttons thats long enough to be called spikes, but fully grown bucks with spikes will never have racks. i hunted one of the military hunts here in indiana a few years back. i shot this huge spike, when i checked him in there was a bunch of collage kids there doing some kind of study. my buck was a mature 4 1/2 year old buck that wasnt under fed or something. those kids doing the study said he would have died a spike. his spikes were atleast 12" long if not longer and he field dressed 174 lbs. its a genetic thing that causes spikes to be spikes. after all a deer is considered a member of the goat family. 

this is just my opinion from what i,ve seen and been told. if someone can prove to me otherwise i will change my opinion.
sherman


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

If, and this is a big if, the deer is older than a 1.5 years old, then it likely will never have great antlers. It could grow points, but by that age it should at least show more potential. There is nothing gentically to prevent a mature spike from growing branched antlers. However, the vast majority of spikes in the midwest are 1.5 years old. A yearling spike is perectly normal and those deer are not inferior. It's been documented many times of spikes growing B&C antlers by age 5.5 or 6.5.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I wouldn't waste my tag on a spike. Give him a year or 2 you just never know besides his odds of making it through gun season aren't very high anyway.


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## big red (Feb 4, 2010)

it's very possible he will never make that super trophy but,if you would like him out of your herd and you know that there are other big bucks in the area,take a youth hunting for it.it would make an excellant first deer for alot of youth hunters.


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## medium mouth (Dec 5, 2006)

i have an old whitetail hunting book that has sheds from a spike that was kept in a fenced-in enclosure and it stayed a spike...in the book it says once a spike always a spike. If i were you i would take a youth or wife/girlfriend/girl thats a friend with you to harvest the deer because i was talking to my taxidermist about keeping a funny horned non-typical in the herd to see what he grows into and he said not to because he tried that and in 5 years he had a lot more funny antlered bucks than he could bargain for. So i would assume that the spike could pass on the same gene pool or i could be wrong.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

_"We divided all of the yearling bucks we captured into two categories," Dr. Kroll continues. "Yearlings that had only spikes or 3-point antlers were in one category, and yearlings with four or more antler points on their first set were in the other. We did this because we reasoned that these two classes of yearling bucks are easy for hunters to identify. We got some very interesting results on the 21&#8260;2- and 31&#8260;2-year-old bucks that were recaptured, but the age of 41&#8260;2 is where the results were the most dramatic.

"Studies repeatedly have shown that whitetail bucks do not reach maturity until four years of age, and by the time the bucks in our study had reached 41&#8260;2,* there was no significant difference in any of the antler measurements, no matter what the buck started out with his first year. The antlers were just as wide, just as heavy and had just as many points*. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in gross B&C score," he says.

Many of the bucks that had been yearling spikes had grown 130-inch racks by age 41&#8260;2. Ironically, the average B&C score of all bucks killed across Texas each year is about 131 inches.

"It appears from our data that the spikes and 3-pointers are genetically equal at birth to multi-point yearlings for antler growth potential," Dr. Kroll concludes. "It just seems to take some deer a little longer to show their capability. The trick is, you have to let them grow up before it becomes obvious. Genetics certainly is an interesting aspect of whitetail management, and fun to debate around the campfire, but genetics is the least important of all the factors leading to the production of quality bucks."

So should spikes, or, for that matter, any bucks, ever be culled from the herd? According to Dr. Kroll, perhaps in some cases.
"...culling bucks is a very complicated issue," Dr. Kroll says. "In our opinion, instead of trying to cull bucks, landowners and hunters are far better off focusing their attention on things they can do something about, such as nutrition. 

Today the question of shooting more does is the only issue that generates as much controversy as that of what to do about spike bucks, and that's a no-brainer. We should all do our part in trying to shoot more does. It's essential for the welfare of the herd."_


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

medium mouth said:


> i have an old whitetail hunting book that has sheds from a spike that was kept in a fenced-in enclosure and it stayed a spike...in the book it says once a spike always a spike. If i were you i would take a youth or wife/girlfriend/girl thats a friend with you to harvest the deer because i was talking to my taxidermist about keeping a funny horned non-typical in the herd to see what he grows into and he said not to because he tried that and in 5 years he had a lot more funny antlered bucks than he could bargain for. So i would assume that the spike could pass on the same gene pool or i could be wrong.


There were a lot of old beliefs that turned out to be false. This is one of them. It's very well known that the old "once a spike always a spike"
myth has no merit what so ever. And as a taxidermist, I can tell you that taxidermists are in no way deer experts. Your taxidermist is just telling you what he believes, not fact. The fact is, he's incorrect.


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## Ozdog (Jul 30, 2007)

Not all deer come to be a high scoring deer. If the deer is 2.5 or 3.5 and is a spike or a forky then that's the genetic card he was played. I've seen & shot deer that were 3.5+ that just big fork horns, now a big spike would truly be a trophy to me. I saw one inside Mansfield city limits a few years ago, a spike with about a 18-20 inside spread.


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