Probably the biggest influence on the size of a bucks first rack is what point in the fawning season they were dropped the year before. Late comers have less time to grow their bodies and less nutrients will go to antler production. Another factor is nutrition while still in the womb
Can you produce a link to any study that shows that the date of birth is correlated to the number of points a 1.5 buck produces as a 1.5. Are all 1.5 8 pts. born before the 1.5 6 pt. and are all AR legal 5 pts. born before every 1.5 spike? Obviously we are talking about bucks from the same area, which means we can also eliminate the effects of differences in nutrition
Over crowding places nutritive stress on the does which affects buck fawn antler development down the line. This is where Alts plan comes in. One aspect of his reasoning was that if we harvested the does before the rut, there would be a more condensed breeding because of the higher number of bucks that could get the job done sooner.
The herd in 2 G is now 3 DPSM below it's goal OWDD and it has been at or below it's OWDD gaol since 1989. However, it still has one of the lowest recruitment rates of any WMU and has a higher percentage of 1.5 spikes than many WMU's that are double or triple their OWDD goals.
If the date of birth is the reason why 1.5 bucks are spikes why does it take them three years to simply equal a 1.5 6 or 8 pt. If the spike had superior genes he would be equal in just two years and exceed the 8 pt. in the third year.