"As the buck twirled to run, Joe shouldered his Savage .30-30 and made a hurried shot," John continues. "He hit it squarely in the hindquarters. It didn't go far before another round finished it off. If he'd been even a minute later, Joe never would have seen the deer.

"We knew the buck had a big rack, but we didn't know he was that big! We had shot a lot of deer in our time and to tell you the truth, we weren't that hepped up about the deer. We had a lot more hunting to do."

Rather than sit back and relish the moment, as any modern-day hunter might do after bagging a world-class buck, the hunt continued, and three more deer were taken that day as recorded by Goldie in her diary. Another fell the next day.

No, a great celebration was not in the cards. As Marlin Laidlaw remembers, "I was told that Joe was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Those guys were serious hunters and he was very upset that he'd hit his buck in the hindquarters. Apparently, he complained about the shot he made for the rest of the day."

A MONUMENT TO THE TIME
"Joe wasn't even planning to get the buck mounted," Joy Bigelow reveals. "He already had one nice buck mounted and thought it would cost too much money to mount a second. But his brothers convinced him that he needed to get it done. They each chipped in a dollar to help cover the cost."

With that decided, the head was transported from Joe Haske's Wood County home to Medford, Wisconsin. There, taxidermist Ewald Lindow performed what must have been true art for him at the time. Today, some 62 years later, if you care to examine his handiwork you'll no doubt agree that his work on the Haske buck is by far the best $15 mount you'll ever see. His craftsmanship truly has stood the test of time.

For years the big buck hung on Joe's wall. In addition to capturing the memory, whenever guests came into Joe's home they would stand in awe with dropped jaws as they gaped at the magnificent buck. Over the years the Wisconsin giant also served another important purpose.

"For all of Joe's grandchildren the big thing was petting the mount," Joe's granddaughter Joy Bigelow explains. "Joe would always lift all the little kids up to pet the deer."

As the years passed, Joe continued to hunt whitetails. In 1978, at the age of 75, Joe grabbed his Remington .30-06 Model 760 and headed for the woods for one last time. No longer able to make deer drives, he'd shifted to stand-hunting. As usual, it was a fruitful trip. He bagged his buck.

The following year (1979), before another deer season could come, Joe Haske passed away from an aneurism in his leg.

A TRUE WISCONSIN GIANT
The story may have ended there if it weren't for Joy's husband, Archie Bigelow. Some 42 years after Joe shot the giant, Archie's stories of this huge buck inspired Whitetails Unlimited member Marlin Laidlaw. Since the massive rack had never been measured, Marlin arranged to have it officially scored by a local B&C measurer, Peter Haupt, in early 1987.

Peter's entry score credited the main-frame 7x6 rack with a gross typical score of 213 2/8 and a net of 204 2/8. At the time it was scored this would have ranked the Haske buck No. 5 in the world in the typical division.

Later, however, at the Boone and Crockett Club's 20th Big Game Awards in 1989, the rack was panel-scored by a group of B&C judges and the final net typical score was determined to be 197 5/8 points. Apparently several of the original measurements had been a little too generous and the revised score reflected the corrected measurements.

In the tradition of so many great world-class bucks that have come from the upper Midwest like the Jordan and Breen trophies, Joe Haske's vintage buck still ranks within the top 35 typical whitetails of all-time.

In researching and writing this story, I couldn't help but admire the Haske brothers. To this day, 88-year-old John Haske still reads hunting magazines and he gave me numerous insightful comments on the current state of deer hunting. Also to this day, if alive I'm sure that Joe would still be kicking himself for the snapshot he made from his iron-sighted Savage .30-30 and for not smashing the boiler room of that gigantic buck with his first shot. That speaks volumes on how seriously the Haskes took their deer hunting and the ethics they clung to!

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