Jace Langowski and his North Dakota Giant

By Alex Comstock

Earlier this fall, while I was in North Dakota on an early season hunt, through some friends I got word of a giant buck that was shot not too far from where I was hunting. Then, I saw photos, and let me tell you, giant is an understatement. Not too long, after, it just so happened that Jessy Langowski, the father of the hunter who shot this buck followed WhitetailDNA and sent me a message. And that eventually led to this story being shared here of how young Jace Langowski was able to send an arrow through a 190 class velvet whitetail at the age of 13.

Below is the story in Jace’s own words…

“The first time I knew of this buck was three years ago. We had two pictures of this beautiful buck. It was only my second year hunting and I was hoping to get him. We hunted and hunted, but never saw him. Since I couldn’t get him, I shot a smaller 8 pointer instead. Even after getting the 8 pointer, we checked cameras a long time after and never got any more pictures of the monster.

The following year, we put cameras out in the middle of August. After about two weeks of checking cameras, we got a picture of the buck, so I was hoping to get him that year. We hunted many evenings, but had no luck. One day towards the end of September while out hunting, there was an 8 pointer in front of us. We looked up and the monster was standing under a branch 50 yards away. All of the sudden, the 8 pointer took off running towards him and they started fighting. It was right at dusk so we knew I wasn’t going to get a chance to take a shot. We snuck out of the stand and left. We kept hunting the rest of the season and never got him. I ended up shooting a 140 inch buck about a mile away.

The next season we began checking cameras in the middle of August once again. It had been about three weeks since we had initially put cameras out. When I got done at school, I had a text from my dad. I ran home to see the pictures and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was opening day and we left to get to the stand. It was really slow and we only saw a doe and a fawn. The next day, I woke up and shot my bow with my friend. We shot all day until it was time to head back out to the stand. My dad and I had a good feeling!

At about 6:45pm, a doe and a small buck came in followed a little later by a 10 pointer. I decided to pass on the 10 pointer and they all walked off together. At about 8:00pm, I looked up and I saw a big bodied deer at the same branch as last year. I said “Dad, look!” He looked at the deer and said it was him. I couldn’t believe it. He took a few steps, stopped, looked everywhere, and then took a few more steps. He kept doing this and finally got under a branch about forty yards away. We were running out of time and we worried we wouldn’t be able to get a shot if he didn’t come out. He took a few steps out from under the branch and I told my dad I wanted to take the shot. It was further than I typically shoot, but I had been practicing a lot, was shooting really accurately and knew I could do it. He was standing broadside so I pulled back. As soon as I pulled the trigger on my release, he jumped and turned. It looked like the arrow hit him in the guts. We listened to him run off and then waited about ten minutes after it was quiet before we went to check for blood. We found blood so it looked good. We followed the blood for about 50 yards before my dad spotted him. I looked up and he was lying there dead. I ran over and looked at him. He looked HUGE compared to the pictures. He was in velvet and in perfect condition. Thankfully, when the deer jumped and turned, the arrow hit him further back than I had aimed, but then went up through the lungs making it a good shot.

Jace, with his dad Jessy.

We tagged him and gutted him before bringing him home. When we got there, my friend that I had been practicing shooting my bow with was there with his family. It turned out my best friend got a nice buck the same night. We took pictures and had lots of people come over to see the deer. My dad’s friend scores a lot of deer and is always dead on. He was scoring my monster buck. I heard him say 194 ⅜ and I couldn’t believe it! It’s a hunt I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”