Do you shoot a spike buck or pass on him

I eat venison..In fact thats really the only red meat my family eats. If he's the first deer I shoot....If I already have a deer I let him walk. At this point one deer feeds us most the year.

"I like a big set of horns as much as the next guy, but I'm no macho big buck hunter. 9 times out of 10 he's going in the freezer. That other time i was probably asleep when he came by. "

What he said.

Depends on how hungry I am.

I personally will not shoot a spike,or a doe for that matter.I hunt public and have eaten my tag many times. With that being said I will not judge anyone who would shoot one,Whatever makes you happy.

I like a big set of horns as much as the next guy, but I'm no macho big buck hunter. 9 times out of 10 he's going in the freezer. That other time i was probably asleep when he came by.

TO answer that question, No, I don't. But if you would have asked me that when i was 14 years old, and not a deer kill under my belt, I would have said, Yes. My first deer was a great big spike shot up in the northwoods. I couldn't have been more excited. Now, when i see a spike, unless i'm starving, i let him walk.

Pass....some years I eat tag but no worries.

Steve is exactly right.Can't add a thing except that if we all don't start holding back on the trigger finger,we won't have to worry about managing a deer herd.Thank your local landowner for managing it up to now.

Depends on what day of the season it is, and how empty the freezer is.....papa needs to eat...

Pass ,,,,,, I'm lucky and get to bowhunt just about as often as I want . Very few days I can't sneak out for at least a few hours any day during Oct/Nov. Life is good !

let em pass

just like catch and release with fishing let em go to be bigger later

I only shoot mature bucks with my bow and have passed on several small bucks this season ( just like the challenge and can shoot tons of does for meat ). With that being said I will now shoot any racked buck with my gun...I do hunt on public land and I did shoot a one horned spike opening morning. I have passed on smaller bucks during the gun season for sveral years now and after shooting the spike it reminded me of how much fun the whole experience is to harvest a buck ( any buck ) and to share that with my kids and friends I hunted with.

I think a lot depends on what your expectations are. Are you looking for a mature deer, are you looking for meat in the freezer, are you looking at public land deer or are you hunting private land? And if you're hunting private land, how many acres and what are the management goals (if any)?

If you're looking for meat in the freezer, then I think you'd be better off shooting a mature doe. You'll get more meat than a 1.5 year old buck anyway and a mature doe is going to be more challenging to shoot anyway.

If you're hunting public land, then it's a crap-shoot. If you don't shoot a spike buck, there is a good chance that the next hunter the buck passes will blast him. But, by the same token, if no one does shoot the buck, he'll be just that much bigger next year. And little bucks do survive to become bigger bucks.

If you're hunting private land, then you have to ask yourself some questions before squeezing the trigger. Are you seeing a lot of does and few bucks? If so, then maybe you need to thin down the doe population a little bit. Are you seeing a lot of immature bucks? Then it's possible that one or two small bucks harvested won't do any long term damage to your management plans, but it's a sure thing that a buck in the freezer isn't going to get any bigger. And one of the biggest factors in antler growth isn't genetics (although that does play a factor), it's simply age! A spike buck at 1.5 years old might be a fair 8 at 2.5 and a REALLY nice buck at 3.5 - 4.5 years of age. But if you shoot him at 1.5, you'll never know.

So it all depends... This fall, I hunted property that I've been asked to manage the deer population on. The landowner is interested in nice, large, symetrical racks on the bucks roaming his property. So when I saw a spike buck walking through the open, and he had a deformed antler, I shot him. BUT, here in Tennessee, we're allowed to shoot three bucks (regardless of weapon) throughout the season, so I knew I wasn't utilizing my only tag. In Wisconsin, I probably would have let him walk, even on public land...

Formerly Steve @ G & S

Pan chargers,powder measures,buttons...

Heck Ya.

They make good homemade screw driver handles, good for knives too. The straight ones are the best. The best tool is a garbage stabber thingy. Once I got a long curved one, made a great door handle replacement for the old truck. Three inchers make awesome coat hangers.

If I need a new manure fork or rake I look for a mature Buck. The bigger racks work real well on the grill of the truck. If by chance you get a deer a little too close to the bumper the poke gets them out of the way a little faster. A few big racks together make awesome hat racks.

Now a good fork horn is the best. I could go on forever with the uses of them things. Sling shots. Animal catchers, pins them down real good. Swallow nest removing. The list just goes on.