Bowhunter Kills Giant Buck After Missing It 2 Seasons Ago

Sean Hinzpeter slipped out for a last-minute afternoon hunt on Sept. 24 and bow-killed this outstanding Wisconsin whitetail that he’s been tracking since 2022. Photo courtesy of Sean Hinzpeter.

In 2022, Wisconsin hunter Sean Hinzpeter captured trail camera pictures of a buck with a really nice antler frame. The rack was tall and fairly tight, sporting 12 points with some additional kickers on the G-2s. It was a no-brainer buck for Hinzpeter to hunt, and he got his opportunity late in the season.

“I didn’t get to see him while bowhunting, and I only got him on camera at night,” he said. “However, I’m pretty sure that I missed him during the last minute of legal shooting light on the last day of the Wisconsin gun season. I was overlooking a swamp edge, and out came a buck. You couldn’t have scripted it any better. An issue I have when trap shooting is lifting my head because I want to see the clay break. I think that is exactly what I did when I shot at the buck, and I missed him.”

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The following June, the buck began appearing on Hinzpeter’s trail cameras again. Each week, he captured new images of the buck, so he got to watch the exciting antler-growth progression. Unfortunately, a July image showed that the buck had busted off half of his left side, right between the G-1 and G-2.

“I still decided I would shoot him if I saw him,” he said. “And I saw him three times last fall. On one encounter, the buck was in a bean field and noticed me leaving the woods. Another time, he was running behind a little buck that was chasing a doe. I tried calling and rattling, but he kept running.”

Meanwhile, someone posted a picture of the very distinguishable buck on the Wisconsin Rut Report Facebook page. Hinzpeter was surprised because he had thought that he knew everyone who was hunting in the general area. It prompted him to change up his tactics.

“I went to a part of the property I hadn’t hunted all year,” he said. “Immediately, a huge-bodied 6-pointer with a 17- to 18-inch spread appeared. I shot him, got down and found blood, then went and got my best friend, Luke. We tracked him and were unable to find him. The buck ended up walking by one of my cell cams, which was about 1,000 yards away from where I had shot him. We kept trailing him, and while we were searching, I found a shed with eight points on one side. I believe it was from the buck that I missed with my gun in 2022. We unfortunately didn’t find the 6-pointer. I got pictures of him last year and this year, so he survived the hit.”

In 2024, Hinzpeter got a picture early in the summer of a really nice buck, but it was too early in the antler-growing season to tell much about it. But by August, he got better pictures, and was sure it was the same deer he’d missed 2022, and which had broken its antler in 2023.

The buck is built to score with excellent mass and nice tall tines. Photo courtesy of Sean Hinzpeter.

“He had his ears pinned back and his antlers were all grown and in full velvet,” he explained. “He was absolutely a giant. I started getting pictures of him during the morning, daytime, and at night. I got pretty excited. One buddy I sent the pictures to said the buck was 200 inches. Another buddy said 170. I estimated it to be about 180.”

Hinzpeter has a stand that he can reach with minimal impact in only five minutes, so even when he has only an hour to hunt, he often sneaks in for a quick sit. He had just gotten into his stand on September 18 when the buck suddenly appeared with a small five-pointer trailing him.

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“It was about 6:30 p.m. when he came walking through an open grassy patch,” he detailed. “He was broadside at 35 yards, and my bow was hanging behind me. Given the terrain layout, we were basically eye to eye. I didn’t reach for my bow; I just watched him. If he turned left, he’d walk by at 20 yards, and if he went to the right, he’d be walking straight away.”

The buck chose option B. In an effort to turn the buck around, Hinzpeter tried snort-wheezing with his mouth, but that freaked out the little buck, which took off running. The big buck never moved. After 5 minutes, Hinzpeter snort-wheezed again. The big buck was about 70 yards away and looked back his way, then faded into the woods.

Hinzpeter continued hunting both mornings and evenings. He didn’t see the deer, nor did he get any trail camera images of it. Naturally, he started to worry that he had blown it.

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“I was scheduled to go to Wisconsin Dells with two of my friends,” he said. “We were planning to leave at 4-5 p.m., but one buddy said that he wanted to have dinner with his family and asked if we could leave at 7 p.m. instead. That meant that I could squeeze a hunt in. I was doing some errands, and time got away from me. I finally got out there at 6:30 p.m.”

A squirrel caught Hinzpeter’s attention first, causing him to stand up and get ready. He sat back down, but a little bit later, he heard a stick break. He grabbed his bow and turned toward the sound.

The buck not only has an impressive 200-plus-inch rack, but a bull body and a blocky forehead — obviously a fully mature buck. Photo courtesy of Sean Hinzpeter.

“The big buck I had seen on September 18 was just about to pop out 10 yards away in the open,” he said. “I shifted around and immediately drew my bow. He popped out 15 yards away in the wide open and was walking. I took the shot, and my arrow buried right behind his shoulder. He ran 70 yards and stopped. I didn’t see him go down, and even though I was confident in the shot, I left. My buddy, Luke, and his father, Mark, who is my taxidermist, came over about an hour later, and we followed the blood trail. The buck was down right where I had last seen him.”

While Hinzpeter was still fairly convinced the buck was in the 180 class, Mark, who’s been a taxidermist for about 30 years, assured Hinzpeter that it was the biggest buck he’d ever seen and that it would gross over 200 inches. Sure enough, the deer boasted an unbelievable gross score of 211 5/8 inches.

Looking back, Hinzpeter wasn’t too thrilled when he missed the buck in 2022. Even though it took a while to come to fruition, that miss turned out to be a stroke of good luck.