Hunter Harvests Record Archery Buck in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club, the state’s official big game record keepers, announced that the Badger State had a new archery whitetail record after John Kassera harvested a massive buck on his property in La Crosse County. The deer, which was harvested last November, was panel measured recently and scored an impressive 193 and 4/8 inches net. The total gross score of the buck was 201 and 5/8 inches.

“At approximately 2:55 pm on Thursday November 5, 2015 a huge buck was cruising a steep hillside in a region commonly referred to as ‘The Driftless Area’ in West Central Wisconsin. Seventy-five yards away archer John Kassera, with 50 years of experience, sat patiently waiting on this warm breezy afternoon. The La Crosse County 5×5, on a trail upwind of the hunter, was arrowed at 20 yards. The wounded buck crashed downhill passing under the hunters stand and out of sight. After a brief wait John took the trail, and found the buck on a logging road near the bottom of the hill. John’s ‘back 40’ had produced some fine hunting memories in the past, but nothing quite like this!” stated the Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club in a press release.

Kassera’s buck beat out the state record set by Adam Hupf, who in 2014 brought down a buck that measured 191 and 6/8 inches.

There have been plenty of rumors regarding giant bucks coming out of Wisconsin this year, and Kassera’s buck may be the largest of them all. Wisconsin has seen a number of record-sized bucks in recent years, with its archery whitetail record changing hands no less than three times since 2012. The state has not always been known for large bucks however. In fact, a lack of recognition on a national scale was what led to the founding of the Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club. One of the club’s founders, Peter Haupt, first noticed in 1965 that Wisconsin was underrepresented in national record books. This did not occur because Wisconsin had comparatively small deer, but because the state had no organized record of large bucks. So the Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club was formed to keep records of big game harvested in the state, and in 1996 the Wisconsin legislature recognized this by naming the club as the official big game record keeper.

“In 1965, Wisconsin had only five deer listed in the Boone & Crockett Record Book,” the Club said on its website. “The Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club has over 20,000 entries in its organization of which over 12,000 of these are Pope & Young Club class animals and over 3,000 of these are Boone & Crockett class animals exceeding the minimum for entry into the Wisconsin State Record Listing.”

Kassera’s buck is also eligible for inclusion within those listings.

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