Maryland Bowhunter Tags Heavy-Mass Buck Minutes After a Doe Busts Him

The Buck at a Glance

Hastings has spent his life chasing Maryland whitetails. His connection to bowhunting began long before he ever encountered Craig, with a father who taught him both how to hunt deer and how to care for the land they lived on.

“I have been bowhunting for 21 years,” Hastings said. “My dad was an avid bowhunter, and he sat with me in the stand when I killed my first deer with a bow at 8 years old. My dad passed down his passion for land management and growing whitetails to their maximum potential.”

A Warm-Weather Pattern and a South Wind

Hastings began following Craig late in the 2025 deer season. By the following September, a collection of trail-camera photos had given him a better understanding of when the mature buck was likely to move in daylight.

“I noticed that, when this buck did show up in daylight, it was on the warmer days when the wind was out of the south, which would be blowing diagonally across the cornfield,” Hastings said.

On Monday, September 14, he hung the stand and hunted it that evening. A few does and small bucks appeared, but Craig didn’t.

Two days later, the forecast called for warmth and a south wind—the combination Hastings had noticed in his camera photos.

“Two days later, Wednesday the 16th, it was forecasted to be warm and a south wind, so I figured he would show up,” Hastings said.

A Doe Busted Him. Craig Came Anyway.

That afternoon, a 2-year-old 8-pointer emerged from the clear-cut and milled around for several hours. Closer to dark, does approached the cornfield from the timber to the east.

Then a mature doe caught Hastings’ wind. She blew once, stomped nervously, and retreated into the woods. The does lingered uneasily near the edge.

Hastings stayed in the stand and watched them.

Five Minutes Later

“About 5 minutes after her winding me, this buck that I called ‘Craig’ entered the field from the same direction as the does.”

— Will Hastings

Craig walked toward Hastings’ tree and stopped at 10 yards, presenting a quartering-to angle. Hastings released an arrow that passed through the buck and struck the off-side shoulder.

The buck dropped immediately. Hastings lowered his bow, climbed down, and dispatched him.

Up close, Craig was bigger than Hastings had expected. The buck’s large body had made the rack look smaller, but the heavy antlers were unmistakable. The reported score was 153 7/8 inches.

“I was ecstatic that I was able to get him down after just hanging the stand two days prior and only hunting for him twice,” Hastings said.

He had hunted the area for years, running cameras and spending countless hours scouting and hunting in the timber. This was the first year he had tried the field edge. The standing corn, he said, screened deer from the road frontage.

Will Hastings’ Hunt Setup

Hastings’ setup included a Mathews VXR 28 compound bow, G5 MegaMeat broadheads, Victory RIP TKO arrows, Vortex Fury rangefinder binoculars, Ozonics, and Nose Jammer.

An Early-Season Buck and a Tribute to His Dad

Hastings’ first calls were to his wife and daughters. Sharing the excitement with them was part of his usual post-hunt routine.

“I immediately called my wife and my daughters, as I always do, and we shared in the excitement,” Hastings said.

He also took a moment to remember the man who had sat beside him when he killed his first deer with a bow. Hastings lost his father in 2024, but the lessons and opportunities his dad provided remained part of this hunt.

Craig’s antler mass made him a memorable Maryland whitetail. For Hastings, the hunt also carried a connection to the father who had introduced him to bowhunting 21 years earlier.

Photos courtesy of Will Hastings.

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