What if she was a barren doe and not bred anymore. In that case your doing an injustice to the herd by taking doe fawns and not her. In a matriach family of does I'll always target the oldest biggest doe rather than the fawns.

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I can't say anything about the 4.5 year old spike that you saw, but I have seen the rack of a very spike buck. A buddy of mine shot him with a bow a long time ago. The bases have to be close to 4 inches around if not more. It may have been a state record spike, but it sprouted legal stickers at the tops of its bladed spikes. This was clearly a mature deer. If he were legal I would shoot him before I'd shoot a 2.5 year old basket 8.

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I don't think the spikes that Drop and HuntingBry are referring to are the normal circumstances though. Yes, occasionally a spike will never be more than a spike but most of them have a change to be better than that if they are allowed to walk. We've all seen the photo documentation of spikes in captivity growing up to be HUGE non-typs but that is under ideal conditions and nutrition. I'd shoot a big old fat doe over a spike any day of the week.

here in jersey, i know from experience, that alot of the guys that shoot the first antlered deer are often jealous of the bigger bucks being shot. they dont understand that in order to shoot big deer, alot of times you must pass up smaller bucks. this is for two reasons: one is to allow more deer to pass by you, increasing your chances of mature deer coming by, and the other reason is that a deer isnt mature until 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 years of age atleast.

i believe that droptine249 was talking to the people who see pics of big bucks and automatically say, "i never have anything that nice come by my stand"

that being said, shoot what makes you happy!