Since my post, myself and several in my camp have taken their biggest bucks ever. Yes, I have taken some young bucks with 6, 7 and 8 points. But, I only have one buck tag, so most of the others survive.

To my surprise, I am seeing a lot less spikes than before. I initially thought that we would remove the better genetics and leave the spike and 4-point genetics. "High-grading" is what we used to call it. But, the opposite is true. Now I see maybe two spikes a year and many more 8-points than spikes. The legal to sub-legal bucks are like 4:1. Of course, a lot of that could do with herd reduction as well. That 1986 spike may have been a basket 8-pointer if he had better food.

I also din't have any trail cameras in 2002. I have several now. If I had cameras back then, I would have probably had a better idea of the herd dynamics of the times.