Tall Spikes

[Barndog56]

Does the length of a youngun's spikes tell us anything about their future antler potential?

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[PrairieShadow]

Absolutely nothing about future potential imho.

 

[Bill]

That's a good question. I have absolutely no idea.

 

[bwoods11]

Most of them get shot in Minnesota so it’s hard to tell !

 

[Tree Spud]

Once that velvet comes off, he will look like a typical spike I have seen many of. QDM practices used to proclaim that culling spikes based on their appearance was a way to selectively pull out the spikes that don't look to have potential. That theory has been proven wrong.

Steve Bartylla talks about bucks that stall out antler development wise at age 3, then there are bucks that take significant jumps age 3 to 4.

 

[Brian662]

I think there was a Texas A&M study that concluded that deer who are spikes as 1.5 year old grow ~30% less antlers as older deer than non-spikes. Don't have time to look for the study right now.