Crazy Wisconsin Non-typical 5 Point Swamp Buck

by Drew Fussy

Wisconsin Opener is the weekend before Thanksgiving, which is when I tagged this buck. I already had taken the nicest buck of my life two weekends before during the MN Whitetail opener. My stand in Wisconsin is located on a small island directly in the middle of a swamp. On opening day I've seen as many 18 deer through out the course of a day and I've also seen as little as 1 deer, after that its a crab shoot.

This opening morning started out good, it was a nice crisp morning and the sun was just starting to rise and would be peaking over the tree tops any minute, once this happens the swamp begins to play tricks on you. Luckily I heard the break of a dead tree limb on out and to the right of me. When I first saw the deer I couldn't pick up any sort of a rack on him which calmed me down, the deer had gone into a deep part of the swamp and I lost sight of him for a moment, as the deer reemerged I had a profile view of him and that's when I saw he had a rack. As I scoped the buck something was incredibly different about this buck. At times it looked as though he had a great big rack, and when he would turn it appeared as if he had no antlers at all. Anyways, I picked a spot a little bit ahead of him, as I watched his floating head reach the cross hairs all I could see was the dried swamp grass and a large head just peaking over. I braced for the first shot and took it and immediately had the scope right back on him. My first shot had missed, but to my benefit the shot froze the buck with his head high and alert. I knew I missed high on the shot and I lowered the cross hair and snugged them closer towards the head. I squeezed off my second shot and knew it was good. The buck air lifted above the swamp grass with the hind legs fully extended. I glass him into the nearby thicket which lead up to my trail. As he disappeared I heard the reassuring sound of crashing through brush. It's been over two years now and the more I see that big goofy 5pt rack up on my wall the more it grows on me.