Southeast hunter kills back-to-back 200-inch bucks

By Brian Mozey
Staff Writer

Spring Grove, Minn. — It’s a hunter’s dream to shoot a buck whose antlers score over 200 inch­es. It’s a rar­i­ty to record two 200-inch bucks in a lifetime.

But Spring Grove’s Luke Onstad achieved that rare accom­plish­ment in back-to-back sea­sons. In 2022, he har­vest­ed a 22-point non­typ­i­cal buck with a 236 7⁄8‑inch gross score and a 232 4⁄8 net score. In 2023, he shot anoth­er 22-point non­typ­i­cal buck with a gross score of 207 inch­es and a net score of 202, as mea­sured pri­or to the stan­dard 60-day dry­ing period.

Onstad nev­er thought he’d see such suc­cess when he was hunt­ing on his par­ents’ farm about 30 years ago. Now, he’s hop­ing to keep it rolling.

“It doesn’t seem real,” Onstad said. “I’ve been bowhunt­ing for 30 years and it’s just crazy to think we shot two 200-inch deer in back-to-back years out of the same blind off the same 40-acre farm.”

Onstad’s farm is near Spring Grove in south­east­ern Min­neso­ta, about 10 to 20 miles from the Iowa and Wis­con­sin bor­ders. The farm was his par­ents,’ and he bought it from them in 2018. He’s been hunt­ing the prop­er­ty since he was 12 years old.

The past two bucks he’s shot each have back­ground sto­ries behind when he first saw them, how patient he was to keep the deer near the farm, and even­tu­al­ly har­vest it.

2022 buck

Onstad first saw the 2022-har­vest­ed deer in 2019 on his food plots and hit­ting his decoy. He tried to take a shot in 2019, but missed and wouldn’t see it again until Oct. 16, 2022, when he walked below his bowhunt­ing stand.

The buck moved about 15 yards away and was star­ing at Onstad. The deer went far­ther into the field about 20 yards out and Onstad decid­ed to release, but brushed him with the arrow and didn’t ful­ly connect.

Onstad said he left from Oct. 19–25, 2022, to hunt in Mon­tana and drove all night to be able to hunt on the morn­ing of Oct. 26. He spent all day wait­ing for the 22-point buck to come and it took until 4 p.m. when he first saw it.

Onstad ranged it at 37 yards and drew back. He released an arrow and struck him in the shoul­ders and lungs to record his har­vest for the year.

“I turned around and saw the buck that I shot last year stand­ing there at 37 yards look­ing at the doe,” Onstad said. “I drew and he took two steps and I shot. I hit him right in the top of his shoul­ders and top of his lung because I got both lungs, but I also broke both of his shoulders.”

The 2022 buck’s rack is sec­ond on the Min­neso­ta deer non­typ­i­cal archery list, accord­ing to Min­neso­ta Offi­cial Measurers.

2023 buck

Onstad named the 2023 buck “Cap­tain Hook” because of its unique hook/split on his G2 antler point. In 2022, the buck was esti­mat­ed as a 11-point buck and was 4 1⁄2 years old. Onstad said he passed on the buck sev­er­al times to see it grow and he returned in August and Sep­tem­ber 2023 at Onstad’s food plots. The first time he saw the buck in the hunt­ing sea­son was on Oct. 6, 2023, and the deer came about 50 yards away from him, but it was too much wind and rain to take a shot.

At 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, Onstad said he was on the same stand as the pre­vi­ous night and heard trees rustling behind him. He turned around and saw the 22-point­er walk­ing away from him. Onstad grunt­ed at him and the buck approached to about 27 yards away, but he was fac­ing Onstad head-on.

After five min­utes, the buck turned around and walked away. Even­tu­al­ly, the deer hit Onstad’s scent and bolt­ed. Onstad was wor­ried that the deer wouldn’t return because of the scent, but about a month lat­er the 10-point­er returned on firearms open­er, Nov. 4.

It was a quick sequence of events as the buck chased a doe down the hill and away from Onstad’s sight, but he had a bet­ter view on Nov. 7. Onstad left work ear­ly to vote and then hit the deer stand before hunt­ing hours ended.

He reached his blind at 4:15 p.m. and around 4:50 p.m., Onstad saw a nine-point buck fol­lowed by the 22-point­er with a doe. The 22-point buck went straight for the nine-point­er to get in between the oth­er buck and the doe.

The 22-point buck stopped broad­side about 60 yards from Onstad’s blind. Onstad said he prac­ticed shoot­ing at 70 yards out, so he felt con­fi­dent with the shot. He sight­ed his bow for 60 yards and struck the deer.

“It struck him with what I thought at the time was a per­fect heart shot,” Onstad said. “He did a big mule kick and ran into the woods about 49 yards. I could see him stand­ing there twitch­ing his tail and looked to be about to go down. He took a few steps to the right and went behind a big bush out of sight and nev­er came out the oth­er side.”

About 20 min­utes lat­er, Onstad walked toward the bush and the deer jumped up and ran. He couldn’t find a blood trail or the arrow, so he decid­ed to wait until the next morn­ing to find the deer with help from a friend.

After a sleep­less night, Onstad came out the morn­ing. He and his friend fol­lowed an 80- to 100-yard blood trail until they found the deer. Onstad said he was thrilled to have anoth­er beau­ti­ful buck. The 2022 and 2023 bucks are sim­i­lar. Onstad said the two bucks have the same width (19 6⁄8 inch­es) and same non­typ­i­cal points (43 inches).

The 2023 buck will be at the 2024 Min­neso­ta Deer and Turkey Clas­sic, March 8–10 at Can­ter­bury Park in Shakopee.