Hunter Arrows Giant Buck with $99 Amazon Recurve

On Oct. 25 last fall, Jordan Kampa proved that it doesn’t take an expensive bow, just great arrow placement, to bring down a monster buck. (Images courtesy of Jordan Kampa)

Wisconsin hunter Jordan Kampa has hunted for years with a compound bow, but three seasons ago, he decided to buy a cheap recurve bow, a “Black Hunter” that he ordered from Amazon for $99. For two years, Kampa spent a lot of time shooting the bow and familiarizing himself with a completely different style of archery than he was used to.

“I got frustrated along the way,” Kampa admitted. “But I watched a lot of YouTube videos to learn what I was doing wrong. As a side note, I used to go bowfishing and shot instinctively, but I just wasn’t getting the instinctive shooting with my recurve. Once I learned the string-walking technique, I really got dialed in and started shooting more consistently.”

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This past summer, Kampa felt ready carry his recurve afield during the 2025 deer season. Beyond 20 yards, his arrow grouping was somewhat random and inconsistent. But at 20 yards and in, he was dialed in and ready to try for a doe or even one of two great bucks that were frequenting his trail camera locations.

Kampa’s property consists of hardwoods mixed with agriculture. “The property has a ridge and a valley, and is surrounded by ag,” he explained. “I planted my food plot in corn. When the corn was chest high, I broadcast some other seeds amongst it, including brassicas, wheat, rye, peas, purple top turnips, tillage radish and buckwheat.”

The deer was one of two big bucks that bowhunter Jordan Kampa captured on his trail cameras.

Upon the start of the Badger State’s archery deer season, Kampa went hunting twice, but had little enthusiasm given the heat that persisted well into October.

“It was miserably hot,” he said. “I sat twice in September. I saw does, fawns, and small bucks. I carried my compound bow on one of those outings and shot a doe. I wished I had hunted with my recurve, but that’s how it goes.”

Right before a cold front on Oct. 25, Kampa headed out to a stand located over his food plot at around 1:30 p.m. He was hoping to encounter one of the two shooter bucks that he’d been tracking on his trail cameras, but one had been a no-show for three days.

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“A doe was already on the plot eating corn when I was walking in,” he said. “I sneaked all the way to my stand and was halfway up the tree when she finally caught onto me and busted out of there. I finished climbing and got settled in. Some young bucks came out and were running around looking for the first estrous does. Then, some does and fawns came out.

“I was thinking about shooting one of the does because I had never shot at a deer with my recurve,” he continued. “But then I heard the unmistakable sounds of a buck working a scrape. I turned and saw the larger of the two bucks from my trail cameras working my mock scrape 30 yards away. He’d been missing for a few days, so I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know where he came from or how he got so close.”

The buck moseyed into the plot and began feeding. When it stopped 15 yards away, Kampa drew his recurve and let an arrow fly.

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“I immediately knew that I had made a double-lung shot,” he detailed. “He only ran 30-40 yards, and I watched him fall over. I was really in shock. I honestly couldn’t believe that it happened.

The buck’s inside spread measured 23 6/8 inches.

“When I told my wife that I shot the big one,” he continued, “she could hardly believe it. We loaded the kids up and went out to the plot. Even though I knew where the buck was, we did a little blood trailing with the kids. After we walked up to the buck and enjoyed the moment, I called my dad, sister, and cousins. Everyone was pretty excited.”

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The buck’s most notable attribute is the inside spread, which is 23 6/8 inches. The beams are long, with the right one measuring 26 4/8 inches. A drop tine off the end of the left main beam and a kicker off the left brow tine provide some cool character. Tallied up, the rack grossed 172 6/8 inches.

Now that Kampa has taken a monster with his recurve, is he putting away his compound bow for good? “No,” he said. “Some of my stands are set up for 30-yard shots, and I’m just not going to shoot that far with my recurve.”