[Quote from skippyturtle] "You can not kill the genetics in a wild herd by shooting only the bucks that show bad genetics. That buck got half his genes from his mom. Likly his dad did not show the same genetics so now you have to kill both parents and their parents and siblings and well you just cant kill them all esp when you do not know which deer have the gene." [quote]

Here is the part that you are leaving out. Generally speaking, it is accepted that mature bucks breed many does, resulting in passing its genes to many fawns/year.
If a particular mature buck is a 24 inch spike, he will pollute several does, resulting in many fawns receiving his lousy genes.
That doe out there carrying bad genes who spawned the 24 inch buck is only responsible for genetics of the fawns which she gives birth to in her lifetime. That is much less significant, statistically speaking than how many fawns/season a buck is responsible for.

The bottom line is, while you cannot eliminate all bad genetics in the wild, taking out 3+ year old bucks exhibiting lousy racks will prevent a significant number of fawns from receiving and passing on those lousy genes in the future.

I wonder how many spikes do any breeding

I hope all the guys that are against hunting for antlers don’t wait for fur to be prime before they start trapping. That would be pretty moronic.
And you know what other saying I really hate? ‘I haven’t found a way yet to make antlers taste good, no matter how long you boil them for’.
Makes me want to spit my coffee out every time!

I wonder how many spikes do any breeding

Not many, if any. But let them walk for a few years and now they are a 4 year old average buck that do get a chance to breed. They still have the same genetics that they did as a spike. You know, the ones that made it take 4 years to become even average.

Bet you'll be hard pressed to find a meat-hunter against you passing up deer while waiting for your rack to show up.

Not against you doing that at all, but seems like rack hunters are the ones telling others what to harvest.
(wear a bib for the coffee dribble :D)

I wonder how many spikes do any breeding

So,..... Are you saying we should pass up 180" deer and just shoot spikes
If a yearling buck was sired by a buck that had great antlers but struggle through a horrible winter, would he be a 3 x3 or 4x4 the next year?
The reason I'm riding your a.. is, I live in WIDE OPEN farm country where the only cover is basically the few River bottoms we have. Can't tell you HOW MANY TIMES I,ve watched 1 1/2 year old bucks push a doe from cover and get her MILES out in the middle off black plowed fields and breed her!!
MANY TIMES!!

So when you chime in and say " seldom if ever", well, that's someone talking out of their..