Wisconsin man bags 19-point buck after hunting animal for years: ‘I cannot believe this’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gawrysiak said he hunted the buck for roughly five years before finally bagging it over the weekend. (Joshua Gawrysiak)
A Wisconsin man says his “conquest is finally done” after he bagged a 19-point buck over the weekend.
Joshua Gawrysiak, of Eau Claire, told Fox News he hunted the buck for five years before finally shooting it with a Matthews Compound Bow in Chippewa Falls on Saturday morning.
“I cannot believe this. It just amazes me,” the Wisconsin man said in a Facebook live video he posted the same day, which had more than 10,000 views and 600 reactions as of Thursday afternoon.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“This is the buck I've been hunting for so long. Here he is, I can hold him,” Gawrysiak added.
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The 32-year-old shot the buck after it followed a doe near the deer stand where Gawrysiak was waiting, which was roughly 20 yards away, he told the Leader-Telegram. The buck ran off after he was struck but collapsed shortly after.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gawrysiak said finally killing the buck is "bittersweet." (Joshua Gawrysiak)
“I patterned him. I sat in that stand, knowing he’d be there,” he said, adding he tracked the buck consistently over the past two weeks.
The deer, which the Leader-Telegram reported was possibly five or six years of age, has “dodged cars, bullets, arrows and poachers” for a number of years, Gawrysiak wrote in a GoFundMe he created to purchase an estimated $3,000 full body mount for the buck, which is a "legend," he added.
He plans to mount the buck in a public place — possibly in sporting goods store Scheels, WEAU reported — “so the hundreds of people who have seen this deer, have pictures of this deer and have hunted this deer will be able to come and view him,” he wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It’s bittersweet. The journey is over."
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“It’s bittersweet," Gawrysiak told Fox News of the kill. "The journey is over."
"Watching this deer grow each year for the past five seasons was special and it’s sad I won’t be able to watch him grow anymore," he added.