A Year Later

Billy Crutchfield of Bel Alton, Maryland, is a professional firefighter who always makes plenty of time to get in the woods during deer season. On the afternoon of November 27, he was hunting on a tract in Charles County not far from the Potomac River. Billy decided to hunt a ladder stand, the "river ladder," because it's close to a tidal marsh.

Facing a cornfield with his back to the marsh, at about 2:25 p.m. he turned to look back at the marsh behind him just as a massive buck was bedding in high grass about 100 yards away. He had seen the same buck bed near the same spot during a driving rain the year before. Now all he could do was wait and hope.

At about 3:45, Billy sighted another big buck walking through the grass. Within moments the bedded trophy stood and Billy made a perfect ninety-eight-yard shot with his 870 12 gauge.

With twenty-eight points, Billy's buck officially scored 268 1⁄8 nontypical points. Not only was the massive buck a new Maryland state record, it's also the largest whitetail ever taken by a hunter on the entire Eastern Seaboard.