Cull Out or Give Another Year?
 

Went out and collected my cam card. Seen a nice buck track in front of it. Thought to myself got a pic of a dandy. Got back to the computer to find out it was a monster spike. Looks like a young deer. Skinney neck, staight back. Do you all think he was born late and put on some really good mass or will he always be a giant spike?

He's a young deer. Give him a few years or shoot him and eat him. Either or, that's your choice.

Im leaning towards Culling. His spikes look pretty thick and if they haven't forked at that height Im guessing he's never going to be a true giant. I spike with 4 or 5 inches still could have good genes, this one I think doesn't have the genes to be a big boy. Just my opinion.

Id let him walk a year or so. Some reports show that your spike bucks can turn out to be record sized bucks in just a few years. That spike in the pic isnt that old. Id say no more than 2 1/2. I never beleived in the theory of once a spike always a spike...

Jack Brittingham wrote an interesting article on spikes and the jist of it is to not shoot you yearling spikes. They could be spikes for many reasons such as being born later than average, poor nutrition that summer, etc. However after the first year I absolutely believe that a buck should be more than a spike. This deer looks to be 2.5 yr old and if he was on my property I would shoot him in a heart beat. Hope this helps...

Just a baby, if you are growing antlers then let him go. If you are hungry then he should be tender. I would think in Illinois there would be plenty of bigguns running around.

If you're wanting big bucks I'd probably let him walk and see what he looks like next year. If he's still a scrub take him than.
-Jake

Let him walk, most inferior young bucks will catch up to superior looking inmature bucks by the age of 3.5 -4.5 years of age.
Also it is impossible to improve the genetics of a free ranging herd by culling bucks anyway. Pike

He will probably be as big as the other 4,6, or 8 point 1.5 yr olds next year, and by age 3.5 he will absolutely be the same as the other 3.5 yr old deer. Most likely cause is being born from a young doe a month or two late.

I bet that he was born late last year, maybe just 14 months old. If you have a large deer population I'd probably shoot a doe for the meat before this guy.