I spoke with someone the other day about the antler restrictions here in PA. I explained to him by doing this we allow all of the spikes and fork horns to grow and muture into larger deer. He then proceeded to tell me that it doesn't matter and that if a deers first antlers are spikes then he will have spikes his entire life. I could hardley keep a straight face. The bad thing is that he fought me tooth and nail on the subject and wouldn't believe me that their antlers grow in bigger each year to a certain point. Did anyone else ever run into someone like this? (sad thing is he wasn't the first one to fill me with this infinite wisdom)

I've never met anyone who insisted on nonsense like that. But considering all the poacher and trespasser stories we hear about, it's not hard to believe that idiot hunters are out there among us as well.

Bearklr, it is sad but there are a lots of misinformed people like this.
The two major things I hear are "once a spike, always a spike." Thats simply not true!
Also in my area I run into lots of people who dislike killing does! It seems they have deer confused with cattle, one bull and 30 cows!
In fact, on my lease we are allowed two bucks and only one doe. It really should be the other way around. We would be seeing much better bucks!

Some people still believe that. Correct me if I am wrong, but arn't all yearling Elk spikes??

was this guy who tried to tell you this... was he on drugs??? or just a complete and utter idiot???!!!

hey matt sounds like someone we know ehh?? cough cough ...chad!!! lol

you aint lying man

Tabby- you are correct! sometimes they have a 2x1 frame but that is considered a large rack for a yearling.

This is one of the biggest non-truths/myths in all of deer hunting. It is surprising that it continues to be repeated as much.

It's been my experience that there is about a 50/50 chance that a spike will develop a rack.

On the ranch I hunt on, we hammer the spikes. Roughly half of the spikes I have killed have been over 1 1/2 yrs of age.

A deer with good genetics should have a forked rack for it's first set of antlers.

Will a spike ever grow a rack? Maybe. Will he ever have a "good" rack? Probably not. Will he ever have a "monster" rack? In my experience, never.

Just my 2 cents.