A Wisconsin deer hunter landed two bucks for the price of one kill.
Dan Bartelt's bonus bounty this past weekend came during the start of the state's firearm deer hunting season on his father's property in north-central Wisconsin's Marathon County.
It turns out that the buck Bartelt shot had locked antlers with a larger one that was already dead by the time he squeezed off his shots.
Bartelt said a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officer came to the scene and allowed the hunter to work around the one-buck limit and get a second tag so he could keep both animals.
The 42-year-old Bartelt met with a taxidermist Wednesday, and they are trying to find a way to have the 10- and 14-point bucks mounted together.
Bartelt's wife, Caryn, said there's plenty of venison to go around from the bucks, which she said each weighed roughly 250 pounds.
"He has a smoker," she said, noting that he will get plenty of opportunities to use it.
In a posting on Facebook, Bartelt called his twofer "the most unique hunting experience of my life."
Bartelt wrote that he noticed the 10-pointer's butt "sticking up out of the grass" but couldn't see its head. Once he spotted the tip of the deer's antlers, he shot the buck twice through the lungs.
"It scrambled backwards, and I could see it had its horns entwined with another buck!" Bartelt's posting read.
"While I would have loved to have kept the horns entwined, it was quickly apparent they were both enormous deer, and there was just no way to drag them out of there like that."
He called his father and told him, " 'Get out here!' "
Bartelt said DNR Warden Randy Dunkel drove out and made arrangements to have him buy a second tag in the name of a relative who chose not to hunt, "so I can both have the bragging rights and both mounts."
Yes, DNR Chief Warden Todd Schaller said Wednesday, a single hunter getting a second tag under those circumstances is legal.
Bartelt added that the smaller buck killing the larger one while they were locked in battle "taught me the importance of watching out for the little guy."
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
