Joshua Gawrysiak hadn’t spent much time on the family property since he was a kid. However, he’s a realtor by trade, and earlier this year, his family member considered selling the farm. So, Gawrysiak posted some trail cameras to assist with the listing. Eventually, the landowner reconsidered selling. He decided to keep it and subsequently gave Gawrysiak permission to hunt there.

He put out cameras, planted a food plot, and a lot of deer showed up. The only mature deer? A monster non-typical.

Leading up to deer season, he continued to scout the buck. He also hung an observational treestand to glass from afar. From that spot, he watched the deer in the food plot multiple times.

Interestingly, through his scouting, he knew the deer entered the food plot anytime the wind was out of the southeast below 2 mph. Gawrysiak knew the buck was using the falling afternoon thermals to scent-check its way into the open. Each time, the buck entered from the west side of the field — a low spot that received mid-afternoon shade and where thermals collected.

By his third hunt of the year, Gawrysiak was sick with the flu and a 103-degree fever. On September 19, 2025, he was too sick to hunt, and as expected, the deer showed up on cameras. So, given the size of the deer, and its regularity in the area, he decided to hunt the next day.

On the afternoon of September 20, 2025, Gawrysiak still battled a high fever. Even so, he settled into the stand. It was supposed to rain, but last minute, it faded from the forecast.

With a Ricola in his mouth to stifle coughs, and battling a fever, he scanned his surroundings for movement. His setup was a food plot on a hilltop with tapering ridges and knobs down below.

Later in the afternoon, deer started moving. They alternated between feeding on falling acorns and the brassicas food plot. At one point, 34 deer meandered in the open.

One was an 8-pointer the big deer ran with most of the summer. Gawrysiak hoped the deer wasn’t far behind it.

“I turned and saw it was his running mate,” Gawrysiak said. “After seeing his running mate hit the field at 6 o’clock, I was like, it’s probably going to happen.”

Shortly thereafter, it did. Antler points materialized on the edge of the field, and he immediately recognized the non-typical rack. The deer slowly fed into bow range.

Once the deer turned broadside, he drew back, but bumped the camera with his bow. The buck heard it and went on high alert. Still, he settled the pin and took the 25-yard shot. It connected, but Gawrysiak thought the hit was high. After reviewing the self-filmed footage of the hunt, he realized it was much better than his initial thought.

He gave the deer some time, but seeing incoming rain, decided to take up the blood trail. The buck only went 100 yards.

The harvest was bittersweet, and Gawrysiak noted the process, not the kill, is the best part of deer hunting. Everything that leads up to the harvest is what he enjoys most.

“I still look at the trail cam and hope he shows up,” Gawrysiak said. “It’s bittersweet. You shot the deer, and it means a lot that you have the deer, but I think the chase and the setting up are better than the actual killing part. It truthfully is.”

Although Gawrysiak didn’t have history with the deer, some neighboring hunters did. One believed the buck to be 6 ½ years old. Another thought it was 7 ½ or 8 ½. Either way, it’s a giant whitetail. It scored 196 1/8 inches, but the memory is even bigger. And he got it done with flu, a fever, and buck fever playing against him.