Big Wisconsin Buck Downed After 7 Years of Chasing

How long can one buck possibly evade hunters? Five years? Maybe six?

Well, for Mitch Piepenburg — who was after the same one in Wisconsin since the 2018 season — the answer was seven year, and he finally closed the deal on September 28th, 2024.

The hunt began when he cut the track of three bucks while doing some late-season scouting. Weaving his way through thick Tamarack and Cedar for three miles led him to a spot that looked good, and his hunt the next day paid off with a sighting of the trio. One of the bucks had dark antlers and multiple splits.

“Once I saw him, the chase was on,” Mitch remarked.

Mitch tried to kill the buck for the next three seasons, but the deer knew that swamp very well, and he was always a step ahead.

Then Mitch caught a break when his buddy called telling him, “You have to see this deer!”

“I wasn’t expecting it to be the same buck,” Mitch saide. “But the pics didn’t lie.”

The buck, now an absolute giant with a new moniker — “HGH” — was over on private ground and his buddy was after it, too.

When he failed to tag the deer, Mitch teased, “the only way to kill it is to let me hunt over there!”

After getting a look at the situation, he was convinced the buck was watching every move they made. He would bed where he could hear when they showed up and see when they headed into the property to hunt.

The next two seasons were more of the same. The giant was still evading all their combined efforts. Then pictures showed that he had broken his rack, and they agreed to quit hunting him for the 2021 season.

In each of the next two seasons, Mitch’s friend came to full draw on the buck, but couldn’t get a clear shot either time. As it ended up, that would be as close as they would get.

Then Mitch got an unexpected call in 2024. Some of the property that the buck frequented was up for sale. After some real consideration, and against the advice of others, he pounced on it! After all the frustrating years, he knew what needed to be done.

“I planted some cover to prevent being seen and added a food plot and a water hole,” Mitch stated. “Then my wife became ill, and I had my father hunting him.”

That turned humorous, when he got a picture of his dad leaving the stand and HGH showing up a few minutes later!

“It looked like he still had our number,” Mitch proclaimed.

In spring of 2024, Mitch doubled the size of the plot and opened more trails.

“I didn’t think HGH could make it through another winter, so this might be my last chance to take him,” he recalled. “And I was running out of options!”

When the bow season opened, HGH was on camera again and Mitch moved in for the hunt.

“I cannot tell you how it felt to see him coming in after all of the years,” he explained. “But there he was quartering to me at only 15 yards, and as I stood and grabbed my bow, he began making a scrape. His head was up and I was sure he was looking right through me, but I managed to come to full draw and take the shot!”

HGH lurched away, then stopped long enough for Mitch to put another arrow in him. Then he bolted into cover, and all was quite once again.

“I slipped down, retrieved both arrows, and backed out for four long hours,” he added. “And when I returned, he had only gone about 80 yards.”

Despite being well past prime, HGH sports an incredibly massive set of antlers that features tines as thick as heavy beams. No one knows his exact age because he had almost no teeth left, hopefully he passed along those great genes to the next generation!