PHOTO CREDITS: Field photos by Paul Lyles Wildlife Creations
A red moon and an advancing cold front helped an Ohio hunter harvest an Indiana state record buck carrying 266-plus inches. Stephen Crowell was on stand, hemmed in by poison ivy, on October 2, 2026, in Wayne County, IN. His discomfort was rewarded when a 27-point trophy buck came into view.
“My main goal that day originally was to observe where and how this deer was using the property,” Stephen says. “I had no trail cam pictures of this buck, but I knew he was in the area from a brief encounter when I jumped him up earlier in the year. So I wanted to do a sit, and I’d strike if and when the time was right.”
Stephen, 35, was hunting on a friend’s 100-acre farm that had been double planted. After the wheat was gathered in, the field was replanted in soybeans that offered deer a late green crop. “Without the double crop beans, I don’t think that buck would have been there,” he says.
Stephen says that the trophy buck taught him not to rely too much on cameras: Smart bucks survive longer because they recognize that cameras are, somehow, a danger. He says, “This buck would rather expose himself by moving through wide open areas than walk by my camera. He skirted my five cams instead of walking along fencerows or using natural close-to-cover movement. When I saw him come out the evening I shot him, he actually walked out in the middle of a field to evade and go around my camera.”
With a favorable 12 mph wind, a red moon and a cold front coming in, Stephen knew this early October day offered the best chance for success.
“There was a NE wind, which was the same wind as the day when I was scouting and saw him before season at 120 yards as I was setting the cameras. Also, morning rain had cleared out and a cold front contributed to the deer moving in daylight. Finally, the position of the red moon likely caused deer to move earlier. Last year (2025), I harvested a 217-inch deer in Ohio under a red moon.”
The Indiana buck first came to Stephen’s attention in 2025 when he received a photo from a friend with a general location. Stephen nicknamed the buck Rumor because the picture originally came from a UPS driver he didn’t know, and it could have been photoshopped. Was it real or a rumor?
He spent December and January driving around after work, looking for Rumor. There was record-breaking cold, so deer were moving and he glassed fields. About a week or two after getting the photo, he first laid eyes on it from his truck as it fed 300 yards away in a cornfield.
Stephen works two jobs: one indoors creating custom plastic sheets, and the other outside with Chuck’s Guide Service guiding for walleye on Lake Erie and Brookville Reservoir Lake. He happened to be hunting on Oct. 2 because his crew canceled a trip.
“I left my job at 2 p.m. I had already pre-washed my clothes and was prepared to hunt at any moment’s notice. I knew the position of my stand was important. I’m not an aggressive hunter. I treat the property with kid gloves and put as little pressure on it as possible until I feel the time is right to hunt. And I felt that time was right because of the green soybeans. I had a hunch he would feed there. That’s when I picked the area apart. I needed a tree with enough shooting lanes and also cover for me.”
He selected that particular spot, he says, “because I didn’t want to trim branches and this was the only tree that didn’t need trimming. The tree happened to be covered in poison ivy, but I hung my Lone Wolf stand in it anyway. It took me 45 minutes to hang the stand being very, very careful not to clank any metal. I got in the tree at 4 p.m. The vines were everywhere; I even leaned my back against poison ivy.”
At a certain point, three does came out and fed in the beans, and so did a small buck. Right about 7 p.m., it stepped out at 80 yards, and right behind it was “Rumor.”
Stephen stood up. Now the hunt was on.
“It took Rumor 25 minutes to cross 30 yards,” says Stephen. “He was browsing and raising his head, like mature bucks do. He would stand like a statue for up to a minute. I had no intention of shooting and missing, so I controlled my breathing, focused on my shot when he turned broadside at 51 yards. But almost as quickly, he started to quarter away. I saw the writing on the wall — I had to shoot.”
Fortunately, Stephen had been practicing shooting his bow out to 80 yards. He had reached accuracy with the distant target, so he felt confident in success at 51.
“When he turned his head to scratch on the opposite side from me, I shot. My arrow struck his spine, which brought him down immediately. Although a spine shot wasn’t my preferred target, it worked out.”
Stephen says he sat in the tree to process everything, in disbelief. After five minutes, he lowered his bow and carefully descended.
“I could see him down in the field, and he wasn’t breathing. I’d shot a trophy using the longest bow shot I’d ever made in the field. I highly recommend that 80-yard practice.”
Buckmasters scorer Rick Busse taped the Crowell buck at 266 4/8 inches. Its right side is recorded at 17 points and left side at 10 points, placing it in the Irregular category in Buckmasters Trophy Records.
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