As for those "sub-legal" spikes, I think in most cases those are year and a half deer. It is setting harvest standards that protect the majority of yearling bucks, 1.5 year old bucks with their first set of antlers from harvest. There is an article in the latest issue of Quality Whitetails about harvesting 1.5 year old spike bucks. Again, it is crucial for these bucks to graduate into older age classes to see what they will become. nutrition than deer foods in the Edwards Plateau. Normally a population is skewed with too many does, not bucks. Good luck. Aren’t the two point bucks “spike” bucks? Thanks for reading! Where did your research derive from? With a higher predation rate, there is a greater need for each spike buck to mature into the next age class. North Carolina Spike Buck Estimated at 10-12 Years Old. Spikes are bucks that have only a single, unbranched antler on each side of their head. All bucks without brow tines at 1 1/2 years old lacked brow tines at 4 1/2 years old. By the way, the Houston Livestock Show has a marvelous 3-4 days that target commercial ranching enterprises synergies with wildlife. On Thanksgiving morning last year Dennie Bowman tagged a big buck just after daybreak in northern North Carolina. They can develop strange shapes and also have waves in them. 5½-Year-Old Bucks and Older If you’re lucky enough to see a 5½-year-old or older buck in the woods, you’re experiencing something special. (Daniel C.) Answer: I think you may be confusing the methods used in the East to count antlers on whitetails with the way we assess mule deer antlers here in the West. When I cover this buck’s antlers he appears as a mature doe. I would have never guessed it to be the same deer but he has the injured leg and walks with a limp still. Research derived from my studies of management programs. After analyzing these records, he determined that the buck size was not increasing because they were reducing the number of bucks moving into older age classes. That’s usually a good indicator of a two year old buck due to lack of muscle development. I would never cull out spike bucks if you I was looking for management bucks to remove. For example, a spike buck is one year old 83% of the time, based on our 2019 sample. A buck growing his first set of antlers may be doing so because he was a late fawn and he’s just behind in development. You can follow Kevin on Instagram (@txsunriseoutdoors) or Twitter (@sunrisetx), Steve Nelle, a Natural Resource Specialist and Wildlife Biologist. Young whitetail buck is growing velvet antlers. This allows them to grow which means hunters see more bucks and harvest larger bucks. Spikes are almost always 1 1/2 year old bucks. Here are some questions for you to answer. An 8 point buck at this age is much less likely to develop into a 10 point buck than say a yearling or 2 1/2 year old 8 point. This allows them to grow which means hunters see more bucks and harvest larger bucks. This i s one of the factors which contributes to the difference i n body and antler size of deer from these two regions of the state. And have you had much experience or proof that a spike would grow into an 8 point the following year. Nutrition is a yearlong need for a whitetail deer, but the more nutritional value a yearling receives from February to September, the better. Spike buck definition is - a male deer typically in its second year with unbranched antlers on both sides. FYI, a deer eats around 2 tons of food per year. Thoughts? Cattle are grass eaters and in my experience a deer’s diet is principally composed of browse. A “spike buck deer” is a buck with no antler having more than one point. Spike-on-one-side inducing abnormalities were detected in 31 of 41 (76 percent) 31⁄2-year-old bucks. So what is the answer? 84 for 81-year-old hunter Send jpeg photos to Brad Dokken at bdokken@gfherald.com. Minimum antler counts are to ensure the animal is old enough to be harvested. 3. What is a Spike . I took a doe yesterday, at 30 yards. He is a yearling deer and likely 18 months old. Looking at these teeth makes people think the deer is very old. Yes, I have read the Kerr study in the past. Based in central texas, protein and corn fed year round. Low fence, however 10 properties all mangement minded surrounded by high fence properties. I would rather look for older bucks that have small antlers and let the young ones go long enough to find out what they can produce. A buck with a short spike was choosen for the study. There are a lot of factors that determine whether a buck will be a spike, 4, 6 or 8 pointer as a yearling, and older in life. And any buck over 4 years old is a great buck in my book. That is invalid. Beyond this age, bucks may have larger antlers but more of them die of other causes or simply become too cagey to see, … Where is the new ranch located? You want that number as close to 1:1 as possible. That being said the difference between a 115” and a 130” is a bigger gap than the score indicates. I agree with what you are doing then but the buck numbers are way too high. Trophy Room: Spike buck is deer No. Do you have too many young bucks in your herd or do you have a shortage? From here on out determining the age of a buck is as difficult as believing the sincerity of politicians. These factors include rainfall, habitat, nutrition, carrying capacity, and competition. Habitat and nutrition fall into the same category for me. 5½-Year-Old Bucks and Older If you’re lucky enough to see a 5½-year-old or older buck in the woods, you’re experiencing something special. What I got from reading the article is that yearling spike bucks are usually but not always inferior and should not be culled from a deer herd unless someone is practicing QDM on a very large tract of land with excellent deer habitat. Use everything at your disposal including preseason, firsthand scouting and trail-camera photos. Also, his front legs appear to be short for his body. RE: how old is a button buck? The buck has antlers, but the spike is a particular category of a buck with antlers featuring one point on at least one side or both. 4. Thus, with our intensive nutrition program we were essentially “creating spikes.” Those same late-born fawns finally caught up with those that were born at a “normal time,” but usually not until they were five years old … Spikes are bucks that have only a single, unbranched antler on each side of their head. Depending on the severity of the drought, the deer herd population could decrease naturally and throw your age structure and sex ratio into shambles. This year we have a buck in velvet and his brow tines look exactly the same way that Lefty looked last year, however he is an 8 point. Once he peeled velve… I shot a spike last year. The less nutrients a yearling buck is getting, the greater chance he has to be a spike. You never know what those deer may turn out to be. An antler development study was conducted on tw o groups of yearling bucks ( 1.5 years old) fed a high-protein ration. Do you think a spike’s antlers would be similiar to brow tines or main beams the following year? The buttons are sometimes protruding through the skin, and are hard like antler. Ryan Poncia shot this buck – a 21″ velvet-antlered ‘spike’ – in unit 43 in 2010. In the first experiment, eight bucks that were spikes as yearlings and one buck that was a large 10-pointer at 3 1/2 years old were bred to does and the antler development of 10 generations of offspring was recorded. What is “Yearling Buck Protection”? Written by Kevin Burke on 02/14/2019. When I say competition, I mean the deer having to compete with livestock and other wild game for food, not to mention just finding a way to stay alive! Then comes the internal debate: “should I shoot the spike and take his genetics out of the herd?”, >> Check Out Our N1 Outdoors Hunting Shirts. Did you harvest a … When taking into account the age of a spike, Larry says it perfectly when he states “If spike bucks are killed as spikes I can assure you they’ll never develop a bigger set of antlers.” Simple, but true. A button buck is a fawn, six months old, born this spring. It was a really cool hunt. a male deer typically in its second year with unbranched antlers on both sides… See the full definition He tallied spikes in a subset of Wisconsin data and found 29 of 1,588 deer aged 2 1/2 years old (1.8%) were spikes in forested northern Wisconsin. Dr. Kroll says that the differences in a 3 1/2-year-old buck and a 4 1/2-year-old buck are startling. All their first year had spike antlers! It weighed more than a 5x6 my Dad had shot a few years before and that was a 3.5 year old bull. Seven others sustained skull damage not affecting pedicle formation, while five had malformed pedicles but no apparent skull injury. That’s great! Use everything at your disposal including preseason, firsthand scouting and trail-camera photos. Aren’t spike bucks illegal to take? With each additional year of age a buck's neck gets larger and connects lower on his chest until at 5.5 to 6.5 years of age the necks appears to … Most ranches in Texas have cattle that will compete with whitetail for food. Poor antler growth continued for the 6 pt and it's offspring even though they had been on a "High Quality Diet" This buck was breed to 6 does. I've seen several that field dressed 90+ lbs. Ask an new FAQ. To determine the odds of a spike buck siring more spike bucks was done. That buck is truly one of a kind. Research has found that most spikes are 1.5 year old bucks. If you have a shortage of bucks, do not shoot spikes — or at least not every spike! 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