In my opinion, spike is the best, but you don't always want my opinion.

This will go no where. The fork may be a year older than the spike or vise versa - most guys ain't gonna be able to tell if they are the same age. Nothing saying either one will grow up to sport a bigger rack than the other.

Rack, rack, rack, rack, rack...

No way in the wold to tell which has better genetics, except maybe body size, whichever ones head is still is my answer

Both........

Definitely the fork "antlered" one.

They're easier to drag out! You grab one side, I'll grab the other. :biggrin:

iSnipe

Fork horn without a doubt, esp. with a bow
BigBuck95

Forkhorn. I'm still in the intermediate stage as a hunter and that would be my biggest.

either one that stood still long enough. all this talk about genetics... boring. what about diet? the spike might have better genetics, just a crappier food supply his first winter. if they're in the same geographical area and you can undoubtedly say they're siblings, then i'd shoot the spike, but you've got so much speculation, and isn't hunting supposed to be fun? why regulate the fun out of it for yourself? if you feel like shooting and you have unfilled tags, burn some powder.

Whichever one presented an ethical shot, and preferably had the largest body size. There is no evidence that a 1 1/2 yr old fork horn has better genetics than a spike at the same age. So I would not include rack size in the equation when determining which deer I would take.

There is no way to tell which one of these deer will be bigger in a few years. Even if the fork was actually a basket rack 1.5 yo 8 pointer you couldnt tell if he was going to be a bigger buck than the spike in 3 years. At 1.5 years of age their rack depends so much on when in the year they were born. If a buck is born earlier in the year they have more time to grow and will usually have more points. Genes have nothing to do with their first rack. Width is more of a predicesor of quality than points so which ever one has a wider frame is likely to be the bigger buck but that may still not prove to be true. Either way at 1.5 years of age, I wouldnt shoot either of these bucks for a few years to give them a chance to show their true potential.