I have let a ton of deer walk this year and it makes me feel good to know they have a chance at being a giant next year. I let the biggest 6pt walk this morning I have ever seen in my life and this afternoon I let a spike walk on my hayfield that had horns at least 20" long. I only kill one a year so my year has been over for a while. Let em' grow folks!

B

I might give my 1 a year for a 20" spike. Thats pretty rare.

Good on you but I enjoy killing em too much to only kill one a year and I’d gladly shoot a spike with 20” beams

A friend of mine grows large highfence deer for sale to hunting resorts in AL. We have conversations at length about antler growth and how buck genetics work. He would suggest getting rid of that spike as fast as possible, you do not want it breeding/reproducing and affecting the gene pool.

I am not a high & mighty deer hunter / land mangement person by any means, and would happily shoot a nice buck under 115", but evidently large spikes are not ideal.

A good friend that has a nice place in Lawrence Co has struggled with letting them walk for as long as I’ve known him. About 8-10 years ago he started slowly letting them walk. Buck limits really played a part in him to start doing that. Hated being told type. Well he’s been sending videos of pretty decent bucks he’s letting walk. Some are fighting etc…. He’s been in the front yard of watching deer behavior and so forth. Really enjoying it. One thing he has also done. He’s killing several brutes each year off his place.

I think he’s finally tired of asking for me to come hunt with him. Deer just don’t do it for me any longer. Whistles and quacks have always been my thing. I’ve started a few times but always go back to the swamps and fields.

Dang i ready to break ice! Had our church youth hunt tonite - wind swirled again like it says it will for next 2 weeks😀
But 2 does were killed and first time kill

I got a great young heard of 3 year old 8s n Clarke - one 9 that may b awesome if he makes it - decent now. If i never shoot and it late january - he may get smoked. But i trying for 5 r bettr. I got one shooter thats a nine that grew fair amount from last year. Got a stud on my neighbor that i likely hav visit n rut. And i got a pic of partial rack that i thi lnk was my stud 4 year old from 2 years ago - think acorns may b reason i did not see last year. I lov to watch grow and i lov to shoot - dang i ready. I cant even go w swirl wind - crappiest conditions/wind ever

Atleast my herd rested/fresh - getn swirl about 100% of time - season from hades 🤣🤣

I can let them walk here at the house but it sure is hard for me to let one walk hunting public land

Before I ever pick up my gun I ask my self 3 questions.
1. Do I intend to mount the deer?
2. Do I need the meat?
3. Do I really want to go thru the trouble of cleaning it?
If the answer is no to any of those questions it gets a free pass.

I’m just as happy letting middle aged bucks walk as I am killing an older deer. It’s great. If you can get to the point of not picking up your gun on borderline deer and just observing their behavior you’ll have a lot of fun and learn a heck of a lot about deer.

This and if the answer is yes to all three I still might pass.

It’s been a tuff road for me to do up until I owned my own property… I’ve let some really nice deer walk the last few years to see the neighbors kill… it’s tuff bc they don’t live close and are only around during rifle season.. don’t kill predators, don’t plant, don’t do anything but corn and shoot… part of it but I can sleep with it if they can..

I sent a pic I had of what I thought was a nice 8pt and 257 told me what he’d be the next year. He was right turned into a giant, I didn’t get to kill him but after that I became a lot more selective..

I let them walk regularly on both public and private but my questions would be a little different.
Do I want more venison?
Do I feel like getting this animal out of where I’m killing it?

I’m not all that interested in antlers per se. I’ll be thrilled if a get a mature buck but I’m just as happy watching does or young bucks go about their business never knowing I’m there. I don’t ever NEED the meat. For what it costs just to go to my camp I could just buy several weeks of meat.
And the ones I’d mount aren’t the tastiest individuals.

i pretty much shoot what i want too if i want too. i normally dont shoot younger bucks but have .

if im playing with some thing new ill shoot what ever walks out . last two bucks (3 1/2 year olds) i killed was 6 years ago when i got a 357mag rifle and was trying it out .

lol i have them walking around in the yard . i dont shoot any of them

We only own 40 and control another 80. We’ve let tons of bucks walk but only see probably 40% or less make it to 3 or older. Either they get shot by neighbors or disperse to other areas to never be seen again.

I got a 104 and don't shoot any buck unless it's mature. I very rarely get multiple pics of the same buck year after year. They either get shot or disperse just as you said. I always get bucks end of December first of January that I've never saw before. I'm in the lightwood area of Northern Elmore County. If I want meat I shoot a doe. It took me alot of years to mature and get trigger restraint on the younger bucks.

At my hayfield, I have several small areas of hardwoods, and deer love to eat the wateroak acorns when they fall. For the last 2 months, I have had a 10 pt that is a stud visit this area every night along with several 8's and 6's. The hayfield has houses on the north boundary line and the folks that live along the line will kill a deer in a heartbeat! I am pretty sure some of the families there feed the deer and enjoy watching them come and eat. The deer use the hayfield woods as a staging area before feeding in the backyards of the locals. I have not had a picture of the 10, 9, or good 8's in over a week. I know they are after does now and this makes them an easy target for the locals who could care less. So far no one has killed any of the deer as they would be all over Facebook if they were killed.

There is also a gene that grows huge spikes on this hayfield tract. Last year the best young deer I had was a spike that was similar to the one I saw yesterday. He was killed by a young boy whose family land borders me. I hated to see the deer killed as I was seeing him on a regular basis and I "thought" he would have great potential. The boy's family owned the land he was killed on so I had to be happy for the boy on his kill. With beams like these young deer have, when they grow points they will be good ones-I hope!

I have a hard time believing that Alabama spikes won’t turn into a good deer at 4-5 years old.
Our genetics is pretty dang good around here and I see spikes and three points every year.
They have to be growing into fork horns the following year. Imo anyway

A spike in AL is not an indication of anything that he can or can’t do at maturity.