Steve Knight

Earlier this year, Dr. James Kroll basically called Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's long-standing spike study bunk.

In arguing against a spike provision within its restrictive antler buck regulation, the Stephen F. Austin State University wildlife professor declared the department's 1970s era genetic study showing that a spike will remain an inferior deer isn't right. In his own study, using deer trapped on ranches across South Texas and followed through the years, Kroll showed that a spike at four years will catch up with the first-year forked antler deer and gain at least quality status.

According to the SFA study, almost 48 percent of the 1½ year-olds -- both spikes and fork-antlered bucks -- grew to be 130-class deer at 4½. The percentage of the two that became 150-inch-plus deer was also statistically equal.

To which, TPWD biologists cried bunk. The department has used its so-called Kerr study as the cornerstone of its management recommendations since it was first reported, and immediately dug in to protect it.

To say there isn't a lot of personal or professional love lost between Kroll and most department biologists would be an understatement. Kroll is stubborn in his views and opinionated, but then so is the department. It seemingly holds this one piece of research so reverently, that to question it is akin to blasphemy. TPWD biologists from border to border spread this doctrine like wildlife evangelists.

The result of this brouhaha has led to nothing but confusion among landowners, wildlife managers and, more importantly, hunters. It has hunters on one lease shooting spikes and those across the fence protecting them.

By and large, a spike is a yearling buck with antlers that do not fork. While common throughout the state, in any year, spikes are seldom the majority of bucks within that age class. Statewide, TPWD estimates they are at most 20 percent of the population.

Kroll's complaint is that the restrictive antler regulation was adopted to protect yearling bucks, yet a provision allowing a spike to be taken as an option puts a target on bucks that age.

Ironically, both Kroll and the department have pointed to additional research by the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M-Kingsville as supporting their stance. Begun in 1998, the CKWRI study mirrors Kroll's work, but with different results.

"We are finding on average that the spikes are not catching up with fork-antlered yearlings," reported Dr. David Hewitt, the principle researcher on the project. Hewitt said final results showed that yearling spikes and fork-antlered bucks didn't top out the same as 5 year-olds. There was in fact a 10- to 15-inch difference.

However, done in a real-world scenario compared to the controlled research of TPWD's Kerr study, the CKWRI study isn't exactly an endorsement of the department's work, either.

"There is a little difference in the two sets of work," Hewitt explained. "Kerrville was set up to look at genetics over generations. It involved selective breeding. The study we did, and I understand Kroll's, was not looking from one generation to the next, but was looking at individuals from one year to the next."

If it had to be compared another way, TPWD's Kerr study would be like looking at what might happen if you turned just one bull loose in a pasture full of cows. The CKWRI study looked more at spikes in a natural setting.

Conducted on five ranches with different management practices and habitat, Hewitt said there weren't any yearling bucks that became Boone & Crockett-sized deer. Two did become 150-class bucks, and more than a third of those studied topped 130, which in South Texas where Hewitt says the average 5 ½-year-old buck averages 128 inches is worth noting.

"One thing interesting is that we did not get any top end deer from bucks that were yearling spikes. We had a couple of spikes get to 150, but it is a small percentage. All of the 160s or better were from 4-points or better. If they were a 6-point or better as a yearling they had the best chance of becoming 160s," Hewitt said.

And Hewitt agreed that while the spikes may not have become trophies, those that became 130-inch or better deer were still a commodity worth thousands of dollars in this era of packaged hunting. For many Texas deer hunters it would be the best buck they ever took.

As the Kerr study proved, there is little doubt that there is a genetic factor in spikes. In the wild, however, the chances of a spike impacting the population is about as likely as bringing in a trophy buck or two, something Hewitt says is nil.

"In the grand scheme of things, in a free-ranging population (spikes) are not going to make a lot of difference. There is not a lot you can do about it. In a free-ranging population you are not going to shoot all of them," Hewitt said.

The biologist said factors more likely to impact the number of yearling spikes from one year to the next include nutrition and quite possibly does being bred on a second or third cycle or doe fawns being bred late in the winter.

"We have anecdotal information that those fawns (from doe fawns) don't get raised, but if they are raised they could be poor quality," Hewitt said. Ironically, fawns being bred is most often a condition of good management.

Of course, the unknown remains the role of a doe in antler genetics.

TPWD continues to stick to its guns, recommending culling spikes and on including a spike as a second buck in its restrictive antler regulation, even though its goal is to reduce the pressure on yearling bucks. Hewitt agrees that is a management option, but only in a small number of instances where management is super intensive. For most other ranches, he said a different approach is more prudent because it is unlikely that the spike will be a breeding buck anyway.

"We are finding that on average the spikes are not catching up with fork-antlered yearlings. Some overlap, some become good and some not as good. From a management standpoint you have to decide if you are in position to harvest spikes or that age class heavier," Hewitt said, noting that many ranchers he talks to prefer to wait to cull any buck until it is 3½ and has shown its potential.

For those not certain which route to take, Hewitt said Mississippi State University's "General Guideline for Selective Harvest Of Yearling Bucks" might provide some tips.

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Contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight at 903-596-6277 or by e-mail at outdoor@tylerpaper.com

HOW GOOD IS GOOD?: A study by Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute shows that while a buck that is a spike as yearling may have an uphill climb to become a trophy such as the deer on the right, it can become a quality deer.
(Courtesy Photo)