Wondering if this guy hit the minerals hard at our place as a newborn or if he's 1.5?

face looks more 1.5

I have one on my place that looks just like him.

fawns will usually have fuzzy knots with a small hard antler on top.

Shooter!

I think he's a late born 2015 buck, about 1 year and 3 months old. Face and head sure doesn't look like a fawn.

My 8yr old missed one just a little more than that last week. I had to look hard to find themore:) He was small though I ended up thinking he was this years deer but might not have been. I just know ive killed spikes wuth much bigger body size. Usually they're like what Fred said but I've had a few pics over the years where I could see short spikes sticking out of a knot head.

I personally have seen very few buck fawns with hard antler showing, and none of those has been over 3/8" .

Here's a 1.5 yr old on same cam.



I ask because we were really religious with minerals this year for the first time ever on the property. About 2 weeks ago I had two button bucks within 5 yards of me, one looked like a normal button head, lumps on his noggin. The other looked like his were painful, he had good 3/4-1" knots coming out between his ears. We have multiple 1.5 year olds with 5-8" spikes and I'm wondering if a deer born in 2016 could possibly even half antlers that break the skin - I'm ignorant on the subject.

Buck fawns with hard antler on top would be fairly rare in most of Alabama. May be more common in areas like Bankhead that have an early rut and therefore early birthing date. I know it is more common in northern states.

I've had a handful over the years up here break the hairline barely but for most part little nubby bucks on their first year.

I agree with 2D. They are late born fawns due to too many does requiring late breeding to get bred. If there were few does as many say, the ones remaining would be bred quickly and you wouldn't see scrapes during turkey season.

Last year, I saw a fawn with maybe 6" spikes. The deer was small, maybe 50 lbs or so. Never have seen anything like that before or since. Someone else in our club also saw it and made a comment that they had never seen a fawn with spikes.

We've also had some +- 100 pound deer with 1/2" or less spikes/buttons. Not sure what is going on there either, but I usually see several each year. I've always thought they were the ones that were born very late and instead of being 1 1/2 years old, they are closer to 1 year olds. Just a thought.

mman, I can promise you that spike with 6" spikes was NOT a last years fawn. Ain't possible, kind of like a bigfoot sighting. Science dosen't support it.

Whatever. You weren't there. I know what I saw. What would you think if you saw a 50 lb deer with 6" spikes? I guess it could have been a dwarf of some kind or some type of genetic anomaly, but I know what I saw.

I saw nearly 250 deer last year while hunting. Many of them came from the location where I saw the spike. I saw many of the same deer on many occasions. I could tell many of the individual does apart because I had seen them several times. I was used to seeing deer in this area. The small deer had a fawn type head, very short, with around 6" spikes.

Another member, who hunts in the same general area who is also very experienced, mentioned to me that he had seen a fawn with antlers coming out of its head. He too thought the deer was around 50 lbs. He has always been very reliable and accurate when describing deer that he has seen. Neither of us had seen anything like it.

So, if you can promise it wasn't a fawn, how do you explain a 50 lb deer with 6" spikes?

Axis deer done got loose sounds like

Haha, or maybe a keys deer wandered up into central Alabama.

We better hope not, they are infected with screw worm and dying by the dozens!!!
Far as the OP topic I see half a dozen little 1/2 to 1 in spikes on our lease in Butler county every year. 75- 100 lb deer. Always thought they were late born fawns from previous year.

I'd think I saw a late deer that was small for age with six inch spikes.

I've got a doe on my place that is two years old and weighs maybe 60 pounds, a 1.5 year old buck with 2" spikes that weigh maybe sixty pounds. It happens, unlike five month old bucks with six inch spikes which does not happen.

Yep

Anything is possible inside the big pen Fred.

me either but with any thing there's always a rare one.