10-Year-Old Girl Arrows Monster 12-Point Buck Named Shrek

Erika Engstrand took this outstanding Wisconsin typical while hunting with her father, Keith, during the recent youth hunt. (Photo courtesy of Shane Indrebo)

Keith and Kristine Engstrand reside and hunt in Wisconsin’s famed Buffalo County with daughters Jessica, 16, and Erika, 10. During the Badger State’s special two-day youth season, Erika killed the buck of a lifetime — a deer that her family knew very well. Keith first noticed the buck in 2022 when it was 2 1/2 years old and about 110 inches.

“He was a normal eight-pointer with little G-4 nubs,” Keith noted. “Last year, he blew up into the 140 class. Erika was nine years old and had her heart set on taking him. The buck was very visible. We saw him many times throughout the summer feeding in an alfalfa field. The rest of us who have more hunting experience were hoping that he would make it another year, but Erika wanted to pursue him. So I let her.”

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Erika eventually took a different 3 1/2-year-old buck, which was her first “wall-mounter,” as she calls it. That allowed the other buck to survive the 2023 season. Keith and his family hoped the buck would push 160 inches in 2024.

“When we started seeing him this summer, it was evident that he was all of that,” he explained. “He took a while to fill out, but once he finally did, he was substantially better than we had hoped. He was also quite visible on our fields, as well as neighboring fields, all summer. Quite a few locals knew he existed, and some had his trail camera pictures and were hunting him, too.”

Once when the Engstrands had seen the buck coming out of some tall swamp grass and cattails during the summertime, Keith told Erika that the buck must live in the swamp. Erika responded, “If he lives in the swamp, he’s just like Shrek!” The buck was thenceforth named Shrek.

The buck was a regular on the Engstrand property, although it frequented surrounding properties, too. (Photo courtesy Keith Engstrand)

About three weeks before Wisconsin’s 2024 archery opener, the Engstrands harvested the third alfalfa crop from their ground, and Shrek more or less bailed from the area. He only showed up twice during those three weeks.

Keith and Erika hunted Shrek immediately on Wisconsin’s archery opener. “A few years ago, I turned a 3-acre area into food plots,” Keith said. “I also created a pond and positioned a Banks Blind near it. It’s an easy spot for my wife or me to take Erika or Jessica hunting. I planted corn right up to the base of the blind for good, discreet access.”

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Erika shot a mature 10-point buck on the opener. “We made sure that Shrek wasn’t coming out, and then she shot the 10-pointer,” Keith said. “We were excited, but we were careful with retrieving the buck. Afterward, we let the spot settle down for a week before hunting it again.”

Keith said that Shrek started showing up again, coming into the food plots about two to three times weekly. “I started hunting him,” Keith said. “I hunted him for six straight days with no sightings. On Day 7, it was windy and warm, and I didn’t hunt. Of course, Shrek showed up in the food plot 20 yards away from the blind at 6:20 p.m. I hunted the two following evenings and didn’t encounter him. The evening after that, the wind was wrong, so I didn’t hunt. He was in the food plot again that night.”

What was once a cat-and-mouse game became a distinct three- to four-day pattern. With the Wisconsin youth season two days out, Erika was pumped to be able to hunt for bucks again using her gun tag. Keith said they skipped hunting on Saturday of the youth hunt, hoping the buck would visit on Sunday given his pattern.

“That day, I dropped Erika off at my parents’ house and then moved some cameras around on another property,” Keith explained. “I returned just before dusk to see if Shrek was in the plots above their house. When I arrived, Erika said, ‘Dad, there are three bucks up there. If one of them is Shrek, I’m going to punch you in the face! We should have hunted today!’ After looking them over with binoculars, none of the bucks was Shrek. I told her that Sunday was our night.”

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On the second and final day of the youth season, a doe was the first deer to appear and it drank from the nearby pond. “She kept looking to the southwest corner of the cornfield,” Keith said, “so I told Erika to look that way. She peeked out the blind and said, ‘It’s Shrek! It’s Shrek!’ I told her to calm down. The buck and two others were within easy rifle range at only about 60 yards, but her mother and I felt she wasn’t ready to hunt with a rifle, so she was using a crossbow.”

The two smaller bucks fed in the Engstrands’ direction, and it looked as though Shrek would follow them. “We got the crossbow ready,” Keith said. “A 3 1/2-year-old buck walked out right in front of us. We had the blind mostly closed up, so Erika couldn’t see Shrek. I leaned over and saw that he had gone the other way and was 175 yards out. Erika was upset, but I explained that it was early. Meanwhile, the other two bucks gave us a show, sparring and chasing each other around the pond.”

Keith and Erika kept their eyes on Shrek, and Keith felt that it wasn’t in the cards, so he began thinking about how they would exit at the end of shooting time. Meanwhile, corn was being harvested about 300 yards below, and some does that had been feeding below Shrek moved up toward the impressive buck.

Keith and Kristine Engstrand are all smiles as they celebrate their daughter’s mega-buck. (Photo courtesy of Keith Engstrand)

“I’m not sure if he didn’t like having additional deer around him or what, but he suddenly turned and came our way,” Keith detailed. “He was eventually back where he had first appeared, and then he kept coming. We were waiting for him to walk out in front of the blind, but nothing happened. The other deer in front of us kept looking in his direction. I had Erika quickly peek out the window, and she said that she couldn’t see him. I looked and didn’t see him either.”

Once again, Erika got upset. “I told her that we were lucky to have seen him and that she should be excited,” he said. “We were having that discussion when I saw antlers coming through the corn rows. I said, ‘Erika, he is right here. Quick! Get on the crossbow!’”

The big buck stepped out perfectly, just 19 yards away. “I was excited but also pretty nervous,” Erika explained. “I had shot other bucks, but this one was extra nerve-wracking. If I missed or made a bad shot, I knew I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

Erika recalls putting the crosshair right where it needed to be. Her hit was perfect. There was too much excitement in the blind for dad or daughter to watch the buck go down, although Erika mentioned that she heard it fall. After a little while, they recovered the monster 175-inch grossing typical.

“He is a really special animal because we got to watch him so much,” Keith reminisced. “It was a deer that our family knew so well. We all had a little part in his story.”