Getting a seven-point buck is a big accomplishment for any deer hunter during Wisconsin’s nine-day deer hunting rifle season. But that accomplishment level escalates when the person behind the rifle is 95 years old. 

Garald Rossing, of rural Fennimore, did just that this past season when he ventured out in the woods and shot himself a huge, 200+ pound, seven-point buck, at 95 years of age, as he has pretty much every deer hunting season since 1942.

Garald’s hunting stories don’t begin there though, as they go way back over many hunting seasons.

Born in 1930, Garald was raised during the Depression, and with those tough times, people were living off the land more, so hunting, as well as fishing and trapping, was essential.

Garald first went deer hunting in 1942 when he was 12. “We had to drive four hours to Drummond,” Garald explained. “I changed my clothes in a bar and went out and shot my first deer with a 12-gauge.”

Garald said deer hunting was always a journey, going as far as four hours away. He went hunting in areas north such as Minong, Hayward, Necedah, and Hatfield, to name a few.

As hard as it may seem now, deer were not in “our neck of woods in those days,” Garald stated.

Between that first year and 2025, Garald only missed two deer hunting seasons—1949 when he was in the U.S. Navy, and 1953, the year his first child, Randy, was born—because, as he explained, “My wife, Marian, just wouldn’t let me.”

But the “Hunting Gods” may have smiled down on Garald as deer became more bountiful in the area that following deer season, allowing Garald to hunt in the area as he has done since.

“We raised our five children, Randy, Kim, Sheri, Ruth, and Todd, on venison,” Garald said. Randy, who was visiting at the time of Garald’s interview, said he did the same with his children.

“I took my kids in Hardee’s when they were young. They looked at the menu and asked me where the ‘Buck Burgers’ were,” Randy said.

Garald went on to say with the deer now prevalent in our area (Grant, Crawford, Iowa, and Richland Counties), hunters came to him, rather than him making a trip each season.

He has fond memories of the Straka family coming to stay with him and his family and hunt each year from the mid-1970s into the 1980s.

“We’d start every year at the golf course and work our way through the hillsides all the way to Werley,” Garald explained. “But, on Thanksgiving Day we’d go to Arena to shoot our does, to keep the population for next year.”

Garald said he also took part every year in Wisconsin’s black powder (muzzleloader) deer season which takes place after the traditional rifle season.

“I had the privilege over many years to hunt with some ‘black powder specialists,’ Dick Coleman, Tom McCullick, Darrell Bloyer, Brian Verhulst, John Liska, and his son, Todd.” Garald got a buck during his last black powder season in 2020.

“2020 was my last exceptional deer hunt,” Garald went on to state. “That year I got three bucks and one doe while with my daughter Sheri, using one of her tags.”

The 2024 deer season was nearly season number three missed as Garald broke his hip in June of that year. Garald had a target date and did his rehab religiously to get out to his blinds to hunt, and nabbed a buck and doe that year.

Speaking of those hunting blinds, Garald hunts in “luxury” as he’s named his two hunting blinds the Comfort Inn, his favorite, and the other named the Hilton, each equipped with rolling computer chairs.

Garald has also taken part in bow hunting over the years, using a compound bow, not a crossbow, he stressed. Not just deer, Garald stated that at the age of 68, with his compound bow, he shot a bear. 

He also at one time had 17 hounds used for coon and fox hunting until the red fox population dwindled down in the area.

And Garald is no stranger to turkey hunting either, stating he got another “tom turkey” this last year.

Garald shows no sign of stopping hunting, as Randy stated, “As long as he has a hunting tag, he will hunt.”

A pretty fair prediction as above a hallway in Garald’s rural home hangs a sign that reads, “Gone Huntin’. Be back at dark-thirty.”