Wisconsin Bowhunter Bags Buck With a Hole in Its Face

Adam Oscar Vandenbogart’s Wisconsin buck was wounded in the face by a rifle shot in 2024, likely causing it to grow the misshapen antler. Image courtesy of Adam Oscar Vandenbogart

Adam Oscar Vandenbogart leases a little over 120 acres of Wisconsin farm ground with his father and brother. About half of the acreage is timbered, and the other half is agricultural ground. The hunting crew has four food plots on the property. But even with the great habitat in the prime area, there were no bucks of interest showing up on the food plot trail cameras over the summer.

“This year we weren’t seeing any bucks over 2 1/2 years old on the cameras,” Vandenbogart explained. “Our lease is hit and miss. Last year, we had a handful of nice bucks on the property during the early season. I hunted tons of hours last year and only saw big bucks twice during the rut.”

Things took a turn for the better just before the bow opener when a trail camera set over a waterhole captured a photo of a huge nontypical. Vandenbogart said the natural waterhole has been monitored with a trail camera for the two years that they’ve leased the ground, and that he had hunted over it once in 2024. He works every other weekend and was unable to hunt Wisconsin’s opener this year, so he sat for the first time on Sept. 15.

DON’T MISS: Giant Bucks on Tiny Properties

“The wind was terrible for the waterhole, so I sat on one of the food plots,” he said. “I only saw one doe that evening, about five minutes before dark.”

The following afternoon, Vandenbogart headed for a hang-on stand overlooking the waterhole at 3:30 p.m. He got his ThermaCELL going and settled in, hoping the elusive nontypical would show up. Eventually, a 7-pointer came from behind the stand. It circled and came to the water.

“He was in full velvet,” he said. “I’ve never seen a buck in velvet during the hunting season. I was contemplating shooting, but I held back. He walked about 50-60 yards to the right and stopped by the stump of a fallen tree. He was rubbing his velvet off for about 40 minutes and making lots of noise.

“At about 6:10, I heard a strange noise up the ridge to the right of the 7-pointer,” he continued. “It sounded like a deer snort, but different. It turned out to be the big nontypical. He made his way down the ridge to the younger buck, nudging him away from the stump. Then, he smelled the stump. I’m not sure what he was thinking, but he lost interest and came straight to the waterhole.”

Vandenbogart admitted that he was very nervous when the buck offered a 25-yard broadside shot, and he had no idea where his arrow hit.

“Immediately after I shot,” Vandenbogart said, “I got a text from my brother saying, ‘Hopefully that big boy comes in.’ I replied that I believed I had just hit the buck. He started calling me, and I ignored it to avoid making a commotion.”

A few moments later, the hunter climbed down to inspect the arrow, which was unfortunately covered in stomach matter. He called his brother and told him that they’d postpone tracking until the following morning.

DON’T MISS: Monster Buck Gives Son the Slip, Dad Kills It Instead

“I asked my brother to contact Dean Muthig of Muckdogs Deer Recovery,” Vandenbogart detailed. “He had the guy’s number, and I was about to lose cell service on my walk back to the truck. I asked him to feel him out, and he learned that Muthig does about 400 tracking jobs a year. Muthig said to stay out of there and that he’d meet us at 9 a.m. the next day. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night.”

Vandenbogart captured only a handful of images of the buck before the Wisconsin opener. Image courtesy of Adam Oscar Vandenbogart

After putting the dog on the trail the following morning, the monster whitetail was recovered within just five minutes. Vandenbogart’s broadhead had clipped the ham on entry before traveling into the guts. It wasn’t an ideal hit, but the buck went only about 70 yards before bedding down, where it expired.

Shockingly, the story took a unique twist when a hole was identified on the buck’s muzzle.

Check Out Our Latest Camo Pattern: Realtree APX

“We thought he had been in a buck fight,” Vandenbogart said, “because we had gotten him on camera last year with the injury. I found out that a guy that I went to high school with, who owns property two 40s away, had skinned the buck across the face and backstrap during gun season last year. The guy who caped the buck for me confirmed the scar across the back.”

The buck’s left antler sports four typical points, and the left antler is just whacky. It has six points, including a long, swooping main beam and a huge club coated in dried velvet, all totaling a gross score of 151 inches.