Posted on 11/25/2018 12:55:44 PM PST by SJackson
CHIPPEWA FALLS — After several years of tracking a prized deer, Joshua Gawrysiak shot the “buck of a lifetime” Nov. 10 in the northeast corner of Chippewa Falls.
The 19-point buck will be mounted and put on display at Scheels in Eau Claire.
“I’ll never shoot a deer like that again,” Gawrysiak said.
Gawrysiak, 32, of Eau Claire, said he shot the animal on private property near the EOG Resources sand plant. He added that he and other hunters have permission to hunt on the grounds.
“I’ve been hunting since I was 12 years old,” Gawrysiak said. “It’s been my passion.”
Gawrysiak said he was roughly 18 to 20 yards away from the buck when he struck him at 8:53 a.m. The cold temperatures of the morning proved to be a challenge, as Gawrysiak dropped his arrow trying to load his bow, before recovering in time to take the shot.
The prized buck was perhaps 5½ or 6½ years old. Gawrysiak said he first began tracking it in 2015, and had a good shot at him in the past but missed. Hunters in the area knew of his existence, but the buck had managed to elude them for years. That area of town has become more developed, particularly with the addition of the Mills Fleet Farm distribution center.
“This year, the deer became more visible. There are hundreds of people who knew about him this year,” he said.
Gawrysiak spent much of the past two weeks in the woods, tracking the buck. He passed on does, as well as a good-sized but smaller buck that Gawrysiak believes is the big buck’s offspring. Gawrysiak used a trail camera and knew that the big buck had been directly below his deer stand Nov. 9.
“I patterned him. I sat in that stand, knowing he’d be there,” he said. “You stand in the woods, freezing your butt off.”
When a doe went through the area near his deer stand the morning of Nov. 10, Gawrysiak got ready.
“I knew he’d follow her,” he said.
After hitting the shot, the buck ran off about 75 yards before it collapsed, he said.
The buck is impressive with its 19 points, but it had three or four points broken off as well. The animal showed signs of its age and living in an area in city limits — he had a broken leg, and was missing an eye. Gawrysiak believes the buck had recently been hit by a car but survived.
“He had really bad damage on his back end,” Gawrysiak said.
Gawrysiak said he’s opened a GoFundMe page to help offset the $3,000 cost of having the animal mounted.
“This deer has got to be one of the smartest deer there ever was,” Gawrysiak wrote on the page. “This is a majestic buck and deserves a full body mount. I’m capable for getting a shoulder mount, but this deer deserves way more than that. This deer is a legend.”
Gawrysiak said he was filled with emotions after finally landing the prized buck.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “It’s the buck of a lifetime.”
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IBT “I hate trophy hunters....”
I don’t have a problem with trophy hunters until they ask for 3000 dollars like this dickhead is doing.
Won't get a cent from me. I have no problem with him shooting the animal, especially with its injuries. But he shot it so he's solely responsible for whatever happens thereafter.
Personally, I find his request disgusting.......
What a jackass! You shot the animal, the least you could do would be to pay for whatever else you had in mind for it without begging others to pay for it. Why don't you ask for someone to dress and butcher it for you too? You're a disgrace to the hunting community..........
I still would like to have seen the Bin Laden trophy pic, especially if the skull was spread out.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called ‘gitche gumee’
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
And a deer came down the pathway,
Flecked with leafy light and shadow.
And his heart within him fluttered,
Trembled like the leaves above him,
Like the birch-leaf palpitated,
As the deer came down the pathway.
Then, upon one knee uprising,
Hiawatha aimed an arrow;
Scarce a twig moved with his motion,
Scarce a leaf was stirred or rustled,
But the wary roebuck started,
Stamped with all his hoofs together,
Listened with one foot uplifted,
Leaped as if to meet the arrow;
Ah! the singing, fatal arrow,
Like a wasp it buzzed and stung him!
Yeah the GoFundMe thing is off-putting. That, and the bit about it being one of the smartest bucks ever. If it had been a world record, he could get endorsements. There may be ways to get the work done in exchange for having the mount tour for part of the year.
Quite the resemblance
Hey, anyone can ask for anything. If you don’t want to give, don’t. It’s not like he wants tax money.
Concur.
Too many people seem to think everyone else should pay for their life decisions.
I was hit up by someone at work to send his kids on a vacation — er, I mean “mission trip”. Aside from the fact I am a different religion, I looked at the activities from the last “mission trip” and it was just a fricking vacation, replete with white water rafting.
Turns out he begged for money from everyone at the company.
I agree, he can ask for any amount of money he wants. But I also have the right to criticize this POS for shooting a trophy buck with the intent of full mounting then asking for the money to pay for it........
So only the rich should hunt?
This guy’s been hunting for decades, and got the buck of a lifetime. He had no real way to know it would be now, or ever, and you don’t know what other financial obligations like a family he has. I can’t blame him for wanting it preserved and mounted, and without knowing his situation I wouldn’t call him a POS over it. I’d save that for scammers and such. But that’s me.
Anyone can go hunt.
But he wants a super nice mount. And suckers to pay him.
I see 10. Must be double counting the points.
Eastern count is all of the tines. Western count is just once side IIRC. And i would think on both, even broken tines would count. Now with the western count, does one count the side with the most tines? (I would!!)
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