warbirdlover

What I've seen in over 40 years of deer hunting in Wisconsin is that if the deer has good genetics he'll be more then a spike even the first year. My BIL used to be a technician for the DNR (now retired) and would register deer in northern Wisconsin during the gun deer season. He also knows how to age them. He registered one 1 year old deer that would have made the record book. This is the same area where the Jordan buck was taken many years ago. I've seen footprints that looked bigger then a bull up there but those big bucks are mostly nocturnal and impossible to get. Spikes don't get up to trophy class IMHO.

J Pike

What blows my mind is that how can someone like yourself spend a life time (40 + years) doing something they love soo much and not invest even 10 minutes of that 40 + years learning anything about the quarry they were persuing over that long period of time!! You can not judge the genetics of a 1.5 year old buck by the size of their antlers!! Because some of them were conceived in early Oct. and some of them were conceived in late Dec. and it might take a late born male fawn a couple of sets of antlers to catch up to an early born male fawn.
Also deer are just like humans, some have growth spirts earlier than others etc. Also how did you know those huge tracks you posted about were made from bucks since you said the deer were nocturnal?

Your BIL needs to learn how age deer!! There is no way one of the bucks he aged made any record book let alone more than one. Pike