RE: Shouldn't they be bigger?
It's simply not true that there is any advantage to culling out spikes. The antlers a deer has at 1.5 years of age mean absolutely nothing. There's also very little chance that a 1.5 year old deer will do any breeding unless the herd is extremely out of whack. Even if he did, there is no effect of culling out antler traits, despite what some "ranch" managers like to say on TV. That's simply advertising.