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Chasing a rumor in Indiana, led Stephen Crowell to this magnum whitetail buck with a green score of 266 3/8 inches Boone & Crockett. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Crowell.)
Ohio native Stephen ‘Chuck‘ Crowell was following a rumor late last November of a giant buck that had been calling Eastern Indiana home. Chuck says he’d seen a trail camera picture of the buck through a friend and some of his co-workers that was floating around.
The 35-year-old Project Manager says hunting is a deep passion of his so when he saw the one picture of the giant Hoosier buck he knew he had to go look for it.
“I only had one reference point to go off of,” says Crowell, “a lone tree was in the trail camera picture with the buck so that was the only clue I was working with, says Chuck.
With extremely cold temps last December Chuck took it upon himself to spend hours driving around areas the buck was rumored to be. Finally, after lots of searching I was able to lay eyes on the buck Crowell says, the buck was feeding in a picked ag field one evening.
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Since that day of seeing the buck in the wild Chuck says he couldn’t stop thinking about it, there wasn’t a day go by that I wasn’t theorizing a plan for the upcoming fall the bowhunter stated.
After several attempts to gain permission in the area where the buck was known to live Chuck finally got on a piece of property he figured he’d have the best chance to encounter the buck. It was around 100 acres in size with thick wooded draws interspersed with ag fields; ideal habitat to hold deer.
“I’d been busy through the spring and summer with my other ‘fun’ job,” Chuck explains as a fishing guide. “I had been running several cameras through the summer but I’d still yet to get any sort of picture of the buck, I really think this buck was avoiding my cameras,” Chuck says.
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So, it wasn’t until late September until he decided to place some more trail cams out in a new area of the farm.
One rainy afternoon on the 21st of September Chuck walked into a brushy draw leading a standing soybean field. “As I was working my way through the area I jumped a deer, it was him, the buck I’d been looking for all summer for,” Chuck says. “The buck bounded from its bed but slowed and stopped at a little over 100 yards looking back at what had scared it. We had a stare off for about 2 minutes. It was then I got a good look at his rack,” Crowell explains.
When bow season opened October 1st Chuck was eager to get after the big non-typical. “I had a scheduled fishing trip for Oct. 2 later in the day,” says Chuck, “but it was raining so those plans were halted.” Arriving early at his normal day job Chuck was hoping to slip away afterwards and do some hunting. “I have two kids under the age of seven,” the bowhunter says “so sometimes it’s hard to make time and thankfully my dad offered to watch them that afternoon.”
Conditions were optimal with north northeast wind and the temperatures were cool and it so happened to be a Red Moon Day which Chuck says which he is a firm believer in. Having taken his then best buck the previous year on similar conditions in Ohio which gross scored 215 4/8”. Knowing the big buck was in the area Chuck was on an observation hunt, “I wanted to see how the deer were using the area he says” and knowing there was a late green soybean field on the farm I hunt I knew I’d better be watching it. Not usually a hang and hunt hunter, the bowhunter carried his Lonewolf and sticks and stood in that afternoon.
“I decided to go back to the area I jumped the buck from only 12 days prior. I figured he’d be using the area again or at least I’d get a look to see where he was coming and going from.”
Settling on the only tree he liked Chuck reluctantly placed his stand in a tree covered with poison ivy (which he is highly allergic to). After working on it for nearly 35 minutes the stage was set and the evening hunt began.
At around 6 p.m. a group of does came out and fed around in the soybeans eventually feeding out of sight. One small buck made his presence shortly thereafter but soon left reappearing at 7pm with another buck, a much bigger one.
It was the giant; “I spotted him at 100 yards and even then, he looked incredible.” Deliberately cautious in every step it took the buck thirty minutes to cover just 30 yards Chuck says “it was nerve racking to watch but it gave me time to settle myself down. I just kept telling myself don’t look at the rack, don’t look at the rack.”
As the buck continued to feed on his current route it looked as if that was the closest, he was going to get Chuck says, “so I decided to take a shot at 51 yards.” Calming himself down, and taking careful aim, the bowhunter cut an arrow loose. The hit was high, dropping the buck in its track, a second follow up shot was administered from the stand quickly thereafter.
As I walked up to the buck Chuck said it just got bigger and bigger, “I couldn’t believe what I’d just shot, I just sat there and took the moment in.”
A few days later Indiana Hoosier Record Book director and official Boone and Crockett measurer Tony Wright taped the giant at 266 ⅜” gross with a net of 251 4/8” green score. After the mandatory 60-day drying period the Crowell buck will likely be the Hoosier states new number 2 archery non typical of all time setting behind the Rex Milspaugh buck taken in 2020 which scored 259 2/8” net non-typical.
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