After hunting hard for several days straight, William “Dusty” Gerrits of Waupun, Wis., thought Nov. 6 might be a good time to take a break from the deer woods. It was Election Day, after all, and he also needed to get caught up on work at his auto parts business. But some promising trail cam photos and a favorable weather forecast changed his mind—which meant that Gerrits was in his stand when Wisconsin’s next state-record archery typical charged in to challenge a smaller buck working a nearby scrape.

Waiting out a five-minute game of cat-and-mouse between the bucks, Gerrits finally got his shot at a record. A final scoring completed earlier this month made it official: The big mainframe 12 with two stickers that Gerrits and his hunting buddies nicknamed “Big Surprise” netted 189 3/8, making it Wisconsin’s third new typical record in seven years.