Wisconsin Hunter Arrows Big Buck From Raised Backyard Deck

“No, you didn’t! You didn’t kill him!” That was my first reaction to my friend Josh Kasinskas when he called to tell me he’d killed the monster buck he was after for two seasons. He had to clarify multiple times, “Dude, no, I’m serious. I just killed him.” I knew Josh didn’t go hunting that day, so I sat up straight in my chair and asked: “Where? How in the world did that happen?”

Josh couldn’t find the words when attempting to describe his roller-coaster two-year chase for a 188 4/8-inch southwestern Wisconsin whitetail whose fate would end from Josh’s deck, just beyond his children’s trampoline. However, this was no see and shoot scenario with an unfamiliar buck. Josh had years of history with the deer. And just a day prior to killing it, he pulled an unplanned all-day sit.

In fact, Josh logged countless hours for this deer and put in all the work necessary to kill this buck-of-a-lifetime caliber deer. Hard work and a heavy dose of faith led Josh down a path he never thought possible.

Following a Plan

Despite growing up on the eastern half of the state of Wisconsin, Josh had dreams of moving to an area filled with deer. And he and his wife, Jessica, both felt a calling to start fresh in a new area with their grassroots ministry. So, they packed up and moved to southwestern Wisconsin in 2020. Josh eventually found a property to purchase and began aggressively altering the land to improve the habitat.

Although Josh had killed a few good bucks on this new property, he had no idea what the future held after his family spotted a huge 3 1/2-year-old just ahead of the 2021 season, a buck his children quickly dubbed “Spidey.”

During one stretch in October, Josh encountered the deer four days in a row. “We kind of started to realize this deer isn’t aggressive or a traveler; he was sort of a loner,” he explains. The young stud buck slipped through the 2021 deer season unscathed, and Josh received tons of his trail camera photos to keep hopes high heading deep into winter.

Close Calls and Life Lessons

Late September 2022 arrived after a summer full of habitat improvements, but there was no sign of the giant buck. However, Josh knew his property is a buck magnet come early October. Right on queue, Spidey made an overnight appearance on camera during early October, just in time to reinvigorate Josh’s hopes.

Josh says, “We just thought it was a totally new buck at first, but after studying Spidey’s 2021 photos, we knew it was him.” He had blown up into a mega-giant and had begun to consume Josh’s fall season, sometimes to a fault.

Josh told me: “After my dad sold our family’s business in the fall, I had taken a few weeks off work to be alone with the Lord, recharge and hunt.” After hunting the buck hard for a few weeks, Josh was running ragged. “I woke up on November 10th, and I felt a nudge to be with my family and not hunt that morning,” Josh continues. “I got my CuddeLink photos sent to me at 10:00 a.m., and he was in front of my stand at 9:00 that morning! I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”

After a morning re-charge, Josh marched up 300 feet in elevation to the steep ridge dotted with giant oaks and bedding ridge fingers. And he trudged right back into the same spot the next morning on Nov. 8. The hunter was putting his time in, waiting for something magic to happen.

Josh’s next morning hunt took place on November 11th, and he spotted a long-tined crab claw buck oddly resembling the giant he was after. Josh admittedly “turned into marbles” at the sight of this buck. Unable to reach for his binoculars, and not knowing if it was Spidey or not, Josh took the first shot he was presented with. “I had written on one of my arrows some of the things I needed to work on in my life, things like pride. So, I had an arrow specifically for Spidey, and here I shot the ‘wrong’ buck,” Josh laughs.

Wrong buck or not, it was a dandy sub-150-inch buck most Wisconsin archers would be over the moon for. Josh was very excited, too, but he regretted not displaying a little more patience. After Josh killed this buck, the giant buck he was originally after, “Spidey” should’ve paid Josh rent. Because afterwards, the big boy was living on Josh’s 60-acre ridge, and daylighting on camera almost every day. He was a complete home body!

The Kasinskas family could do nothing but wait for the traditional nine-day Wisconsin rifle season, since his wife Jessica had also tagged out on a brute of an 8-pointer. Josh stayed positive, saying: “I knew I could chase him with a gun, but I really wanted to take him with my bow. And with that specific arrow.”

The first few days of Wisconsin’s highly pressured gun season came and went with no sign of the monster buck. On the fourth day of the gun season, Josh slipped into a ridge top stand near a saddle system, hoping to catch Spidey leaving his bedding area during the evening. It worked, but Spidey was well behind a spooky doe who was keeping an eye on Josh. “I finally was able to get my binoculars up, and I couldn’t believe it. The buck turned his head, and I was just in disbelief at the size of his rack,” Josh says.

With one minute left of legal shooting light, and no ethical shot opportunity, Josh let the deer fade into darkness that late November evening. The buck walked out of the leeward side of a ridge, following a doe, heading towards destination food sources.

Josh received only one other photo of Spidey, on December 5th, and didn’t hear of anyone killing him during late-season archery. The buck had completely disappeared after early December, but keeping in touch with neighboring hunters gave Josh confidence no one else had tagged the giant.

Expecting the Unexpected

Spidey made his first 2023 trail camera appearance in early October. With added mass, his unmistakable sweeping beams and cagey tines were back and better than ever. Josh wasn’t surprised the buck returned, but felt it was all part of a larger plan.

Due to a busy family schedule, Josh’s 2023 season wasn’t going to look anything like the free time he had in fall of ’22. A few hours after climbing down after his first hunt of 2023, on Oct. 12, Josh’s phone buzzed with the first daylight photo of Spidey. Josh knew the coming days were going to be a game of cat and mouse. He says: “From my first hunt on October 12th until I killed him in late October, I had him on camera every day but one. My confidence that I could kill him was growing, but my lack of time to hunt was kind of stressing me out.”

As if having a 188 4/8-inch buck daylight on your trail cameras while you can’t hunt wasn’t stressful enough, Josh moved on from his full-time job he held for over 10 years on October 26th. He called his wife Jessica, saying he needed some tree-time to unwind. She took a day trip to visit a friend and informed Josh she probably wouldn’t be home in time for him to hunt. So, Josh picked up their kids from school, returned home and called his brother Jordan to chat about his emotional work resignation.

While on the phone, Josh casually looked out a back window and was completely shocked to see Spidey standing in broad daylight where brushy creek habitat meets his yard. Josh’s children also happened to spot the giant by the upstairs playroom window and came stampeding down the stairs proclaiming they had just spotted the giant. Josh hung up the phone and told his kids, “I know!”

Then the hunter quickly ran to grab his bow!

After a frantic scramble to attach his release and get himself in position on his raised backyard deck, Josh locked in on Spidey at full draw, but he had to pass on a poor shot opportunity. All Josh could do was watch the giant trot off into the woods with a doe.

“So, there I was wearing khakis and a maroon sweater with my kids inside watching from the window.” Although disappointed, Josh stood stationary and on high alert. Just seconds after vanishing, Spidey reappeared with a doe from the woods near his house, prompting Josh to quickly return to full draw with his bow.

“I waited, and eventually he gave me the shot angle I needed,” Josh says. “So, I grunted to stop him and let it fly.”

Josh wasn’t so sure about the hit since the events had unfolded so quickly, but Josh’s oldest child confidently slid open the patio door, saying, “Dad, dad! You got him, I saw him tip over!” Josh recalls, “I didn’t really believe her, but we go upstairs in the playroom where the kids first spotted him, and sure enough, I see my lighted nock. And then I spotted what looked to be a dead deer laying just beyond the tree line that splits the edge of my yard and food plot.”

Jessica wasn’t going to believe it. Josh says, “My last conversation with my wife Jessica, just 30 minutes prior, was her saying she wouldn’t be home in time for me to hunt. Now, I call and tell her I just shot Spidey. Jessica’s first reaction was, “What?”

After Jessica pulled in the driveway, the whole family picked up the trail, and sure enough, Spidey piled up almost instantly after Josh’s unbelievable 50-yard shot found its mark. “I remembered in 2022, this phrase kept popping up when I was in prayer: ‘Expect the unexpected.’”

Nothing about Josh’s journey for this net 179 1/8-inch buck was ordinary. Josh attempted to sum up the story, telling me: “I had been holding on so tightly to things like my job and pride — and literally the day I left my job, this deer shows up, and the Lord puts him in my lap in the most unexpected way. We as deer hunters want the biggest buck, and there is a lot of pride wrapped up in it. I now recognize that. The Lord gave me the desire of my heart, but he did it in a way where I can’t take any credit for it.”

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