The Spike Theory
The myth that a spike will always be a spike has been put to rest long ago, but there are still hunters who believe that bucks that wear spikes as their first set of antlers are inferior and will never grow a big rack. Thus, they willingly shoot every spike they see in an effort to "improve" the bucks that remain. In some ways, taking spikes out of the herd can help the remaining bucks grow bigger, says DeYoung, and researchers have determined that yearlings with four or more points do tend to grow larger antlers later in life than those bucks that only carry spikes as yearlings. In fact, a study conducted between 1998 and 2007 followed bucks as they aged and found that only a small fraction of yearlings that carried spikes - 3 percent - grew antlers that scored higher than 150 B&C points after they reached 5 ½ years or older. On the other hand, 33 percent of yearlings that had at least four points scored 150 or higher. Further, only 8 percent of bucks that had eight or fewer points at 3 ½ years of age grew antlers larger than 150 B&C later in life, while 37 percent of 3 ½-year-old bucks with nine or more points ended up growing antlers over 150. But again, all of that data is moot if you don't know the age of the bucks you are looking at. So do you shoot that small 8-pointer standing in front of you? Depends.
"Taking out some bucks that meet any standard you place on them automatically leaves more food for those bucks that remain. However, you will achieve the same general results by removing antlerless deer," explains DeYoung. "Some studies have shown that bucks have somewhat different dietary requirements and intake than does, but it's probably not that big of a difference to have any management implications for most hunters." Small antlers on a yearling buck might be the result of something as benign as a poor mast crop the previous fall. DeYoung says the health of a fawn is usually determined not only by the forage directly available to that young buck, but also by the forage available to its mother. When fawns are still nursing, their body mass is determined by the health of their mother. An underfed fawn this season might ultimately grow healthier in subsequent years and carry bigger antlers.
A high number of spike-antlered bucks could also be the result of what DeYoung calls stunting, which happens when too many deer occupy too little habitat. It's similar to a pond filled with bluegills. When there isn't enough food to adequately feed all the fish, they continue to breed but they simply stop growing because they aren't getting proper nutrition. It's fairly easy to tell if a pond has too many bluegills, but it can take hour upon hour of careful observation and record-keeping to determine if your land is above its carrying capacity for deer. If you do have more whitetails than you should, DeYoung says it's far better to simply knock down the deer herd to a level at which there is more food available to fewer animals by shooting more does and leaving more bucks, even if they are spikes.
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