I read an interesting article last year that is right in line with what Buckshot explained, but this article had a big twist to it. As Buckshot said, most spikes are a result of being late fawns, however, get this... The article said that when the doe to buck ratio is far out of whack, does that aren' t bred until late in the rut or during the post rut, are more inclined to give birth to buck fawns. This is nature' s way of trying to balance things out the way they should be. (It has something to do with body temperature vs. the doe' s eggs, etc.). The bottom line is that areas with a very high number of does means that many fawns are born late, which includes a high number of buck fawns, and those young bucks are behind the eight ball from day one. It isn' t until their 2nd set of antlers that their bodies and antlers catch up with the fawns that were born in April and May.