Back in the 80’s - almost all I ever killed was spike bucks - every now and then a four or five pt. I was probably 30 years old before I ever killed a deer bigger than a five pt. I am not sure my grand daughters have even seen a spike. I know the smallest set of antlers they have ever taken was a seven pt. Now, out of 20 or so bucks I have on camera on my property, there is one spike. Maybe one four pt. Most are probably seven or eight pts with a few bigger. Has anyone else seen this trend away from spikes and four pts?
Spike Bucks?
- Thread starter SwampCat
- Start date
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Nope. Saw two this am out of the three bucks I saw. I still see a proportional amount
I see a few here and there. 20 years ago PA had too many deer so spikes and 3 pointers were everywhere. We did a good job knocking the population down and now that there is some quality habitat and food, the antlers are improving as well as the overall size of the deer.
I did not see an 8 pt or bigger during the 1980’s. Saturday evening, I saw five and three more 5 to 7 pt. Way different now. I used to maybe only see two or three bucks a season. Not a whole lot more does, either.
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
My first buck at age 13 was an 8 pt. But that was rare for sure. I've said on here before a 100 inch buck was a monster back then. I passed 3 last year that would score 100+.
Nope. I have not seen this trend. It’s a running joke at our lease how many spikes we see on opening day. They are plentiful and have been for at least 30 years. I’ve always attributed it to an excess of does.
Electrodigical
5 year old buck +
80-85% of bucks I see on camera are spikes and little forkys.
90-95% of what we see in the woods are too.
90-95% of what we see in the woods are too.
Spikes used to be plentiful here - up until about six or eight years ago. Forty years ago, when any deer was few and far between - almost all we had was spikes
I have one protein site with 12 bucks using and no spikes. Another with five and no spikes. Another with four and one spike, and then some semi regular pictures of maybe four more bucks with one spike. So, out of about 25 bucks, two spikes. I have more mature bucks by far than spikes
westonwhitetail
5 year old buck +
I have similar observations, my first 10 years of hunting we did drives and shot anything. We hardly ever saw a spike, but had many 1.5 y.o. forks, sixes and small eights. Now days (last 10 years) spikes are pretty common, wonder if genetics in an area can shift over time?
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
Stress and/or nutrition. Healthier yearlings = more nutrients to send to antlers. If there are more deer and overall carrying capacity is lower, I would think this would do it too.
BIGDHunting
A good 3 year old buck
About the only buck we have that is a "regular" is a spike. In the back of my mind, I still think it's a doe based off the company "he" keeps
