RE: Spikes....do you kill them or let them walk?
That buck had to have some awesome genetics!!! I would love to be able to see that rack. Do you have a picture?
I did take a 4x5 last year. It was a year and a half as well. He was a pretty big bodied deer with a 14-15 inch spread. Nothing too much to brag about, but sure did taste good.
The area that I hunt, I have watch the herds for quite some time to figure out their daily, monthly activities. After watching for that long, sometimes you figure which are the older ones and the younger ones. Not that many people want to devote that much time to the hunt though. I took a spike this year for the simple fact that the doe population needs to grow a little bit and the other bucks, I wanted them to get a little bit bigger before I take them. It's really a crapshoot as far as that goes.
It's all a matter of opinion.