Indiana Hunter’s Target Buck Nearly Became Roadkill

A vehicle struck this monster buck Nov. 26. The deer survived, which allowed Chuck Paddock to continue pursuing it until Dec. 12, when he closed the deal. Photo courtesy of Chuck Paddock.

Chuck Paddock of Open Season TV hunts on about 270 acres in Indiana. For three seasons, a beautiful buck has roamed a portion of the property’s timber. This past summer, the buck appeared on trail cameras and really got his attention. But rather than swoop in for the kill come fall, Paddock let his partner, James Blankenbeckler, hunt the timber.

“James was after that buck and another really good one,” Paddock said. “He ended up shooting a different buck, so I decided to start paying attention to the trail cameras and hunt in that area in hopes of seeing the really big one.”

Paddock doesn’t normally hold out for a specific buck. He typically has several shooter bucks in mind, and he’ll shoot one of them and call it a day.

“I’ve been hunting since I was 8 years old,” he said. “I consider myself a pretty hardcore hunter, but I don’t normally pass up bucks that are 150 inches or better. I’ve killed a bunch of them. This buck was different, though. I knew where he lived, and he probably wasn’t going to leave.”

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In addition to the summer pictures, Blankenbeckler got some images and videos of the buck in November.

“Once [Blankenbeckler] was finished hunting, I got a video of the buck on the property’s southern end on Nov. 23,” Paddock said. “At noon that same day, I got a picture of him on the southeastern portion of the property near a highway. He was obviously searching for does.”

On Nov. 24, Paddock hunted but did not encounter the buck. Ditto the next day. On Nov. 26 after dark, the local game warden was waiting by Paddock’s truck when he had finished hunting. The warden explained that a lady had struck a deer on the highway and referred to it as a “big buck.” The warden searched the area of the collision but couldn’t locate the animal.

“Immediately, I started thinking about the buck I was after,” Paddock said. “I was hoping that the woman doesn’t know what big is and that it was one of the other bucks on the property.”

On Nov. 28, Paddock flew to Mexico with his wife to celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary. He worried that the buck he was hunting had been struck on the highway, and he’d seen no trail camera data of the deer since the warden’s visit, which loomed like a cloud.

But on Dec. 5, Paddock was soaking up rays on the beach when his phone issued video confirmation that the buck had been injured but was alive. The trail camera video showed the buck limping into a cornfield on the property’s northwestern corner.

A still image grabbed from a trail-cam video shows the buck favoring its front leg after the vehicle collision. Photo courtesy of Chuck Paddock.

Paddock arrived home Dec. 10. “On Dec. 11, I went hunting,” he said. “The winds were up to 40 miles per hour, and it was really cold. That afternoon, a buck we call Palmer — a 160-class deer — walked out into the field. He was at the edge of my shooting range considering the high winds, and I didn’t really want to kill him anyway. I let him walk.”

The next afternoon, the wind was straight out of the north, which was perfect for a blind in which Paddock wanted to hunt.

“On the way to the blind, a deer ran across the railroad tracks that my cameraman, Hunter Jellison, and I were using to access the field,” he said. “Then another one went across in the opposite direction. We knew we had to get into the blind quickly. We got into the Maverick Blind and left the windows closed. As we were settling in, does began pouring into the field.”

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Soon, there were 15 does and six young bucks in front of Paddock and Jellison. The bucks were fighting with one another. Later, Jellison noticed a buck 400 to 500 yards away in the timber. More important, he noticed that the buck was limping.

“I knew of two bucks on the property that were limping,” he said. “One was a 10-pointer that had been injured while fighting, and the other was my target buck. Meanwhile, the other deer filtered off except for two does and a spike. I looked at Hunter and said, ‘This is when the big ones come out.’ Only five minutes later, out came the buck we were hunting.”

A well-placed bullet from Paddock’s CVA muzzleloader put the 178-3/8-inch buck down quickly and cleanly. Photo courtesy of Chuck Paddock.

Paddock flipped the safety off and asked Jellison if he was on the buck with the camera.

“He confirmed that he was, and then he asked if I wanted the buck’s range,” Paddock said. “I said, ‘Yep, go ahead and range him.’ My muzzleloader is zeroed at 200 yards, and I had the cross-hairs on the buck’s chest. When I heard, ‘191 yards,’ I pulled the trigger.”

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The buck reared up and bolted to the timber. Paddock and Jellison were celebrating and carrying on in the blind, and then Paddock went out and got his hands on the buck, which had flirted with death by vehicle Nov. 26. The impressive rack has 15 points and grosses 178-5/8 inches. The monster is Paddock’s largest whitetail to date.