Portland’s Craig Meyers gets buck of a lifetime

A friend shared with me that a local Portland man got the buck of a lifetime while hunting recently in Ohio.  I contacted hunter Craig Meyers and he shared the story below with me.  The words are his own.  I was going to try and edit them to sound like more of an interview, but after reading through it I felt that if I made any changes, I may take away some of the excitement of his words.  Other than adding a few spaces/breaks, these are his own words.

If you are not comfortable with detailed descriptions of deer hunting, I suggest you do not read this piece.

There was a lot that went into this than just the hunt. 4 years ago I showed up on this property and there was only 1 shooter buck to now we have 4 over 4.5 years old.  The amount of labor, sweat, time going into this ground the last 4 years is immeasurable. I own a whitetail habitat business so I felt I finally had a place I could express all my own ideas to make a property great. 

I watched this buck for 3 years. 2023 I had multiple encounters with him. One instance He came into 20 yards and I noticed his crabs claws which is when I named him Krabs or Mr. Krabs. 

2024 I had one encounter and that’s when I told myself I don’t wanna pressure this deer and wanted to see what another year does to him since he went from 130-140” in 2023 to 170-180” in 2024. 

I hunted the other side of the property after that moment and took an old 6.5+ year old 8 point.

The day was hot. I took over an hour to go a quarter mile to my stand because I was stopping every 20 steps and checking my wind with milk weed I had in my bino harness. 

I was in a fiber glass blind in the full sun 87 degrees. I had taped every window and even the door shut to make sure none of my scent got out. Even tho the wind was in my favor I wasn’t gonna miss a single detail. It was pushing 115 degrees and I sat there over 2 hours. 

I brought 2 ice packs. One for my chest and one for my back and 2 portable fans I got off Amazon to try and not have a heat stroke in this thing. It was brutal. 

The first deer I seen came a little after 7:00pm. It was a doe. she came into the Food Plot from the West she came in and she didn’t really hang around and I couldn’t tell if she was winding me even though I had everything taped up or if she was just acting like a deer She walked into the Plot hung out for about a minute, and then walked off to the south west. It was only a few minutes later. She came back into the Plot and she started working from West to the east straight across the Food Plot eating. When she got straight south of me, I could tell by her demeanor She was completely at ease and she had no idea I was there.

A couple minutes later from the West steps out a beautiful 10 point I guess him to be in the 140-150 range. He’s standing on the edge of the Food Plot. His head straight up, just looking through the plot and to the south slightly. Again, I am so nervous about getting winded out of these blinds. If he’s not fully at ease, I’m not fully at ease so I got a little nervous when he just stood there looking off into the south. He works his way into the Plot and starts eating which really calm me down. He brings his head up one more time and he looks off to the south so I decided to look to see what he is looking at. An eight point comes from straight south of me out of the CRP and into the Food Plot. This is just a Young 2 1/2 old deer. I look back to the west to admire the 10 point because he really is a beautiful buck just tall tines and a tight frame. The 10 point picks his head up as he was eating looks to the south east slightly harder than he was when he seen the eight point so I looked. Out steps a nice nine point. I age him at 3 1/2 years old. I watched that nine point for a second just to see if I can recognize which buck it is before I go admiring the 10 point again.

At this point there are four deer in the Food Plot three of which are bucks so I’m feeling pretty confident that they have no idea I’m here but also was thinking I hope Krabs shows up next cause I don’t need More eyes or noses in this Food Plot if this all does come together. After watching that 10 point for another minute or so I decided to glance back to the southeast and when I did crabs was already in the Food Plot. He was out about 60 yards with his head down in the tillage radish, rye, oats, clover, chicory eating away, swinging that big left-hand drop tine while grazing. That’s when I said to myself that’s him. It’s time.

I took the ice pack off my chest and set it down along with the fan that I had. I reached behind my back and pulled out the other ice pack and set that on the ground. I turned off both fans one I had on the ground and the one I was holding in my hand. I brought the crossbow between my legs and then looked around to make sure I wasn’t going to hit bump or knock anything over in the next process. I brought up my rangefinder and I thought I wonder if I can use this through these clear windows. It was worth a shot because the last thing I wanted was to open this window in the final moments and get winded. I was worried with thermals my scent would go out, hit that cold air and just sink to the food plot.  I clicked him for the first time at 55 yards through the window. I was surprised it worked!

As I watched him move slowly more into the Food Plot. I was checking out the other deer to make sure they were all occupied eating. Every deer’s head was down into the Plot and eating. As I kept watching Krabs work his way slowly in I clicked him at about 48 yards. I told myself at 40. I’m doing this. I click in one more time the rangefinder says 43 and I gave myself the OK to finally open that window. I glanced the plot one more time to make sure all their heads were down or no focus was on me and I undid the latch slowly. I swung the window open as slow as I could, and at that point I’m finally seeing Crabs with no interference between me and him, I knew this was about to get real.

I bring the crossbow up to my shoulder and rested on my thigh while holding my rangefinder in my left hand. I click him again just to verify what I was reading through the window was accurate and it says 42. At this point, he is very slightly quartered to me so I told myself just wait for a full broadside shot to make this all worth it. He takes another couple steps and I click him and it says 41 and at that point I say OK we’re doing this so I put my rangefinder down which was attached to a lanyard on my left shoulder so it kind of went under my left armpit and on my left side while I brought the crossbow and looked through and put the sight on him I said from the top down 20, 30, 40. 20, 30, 40. 20, 30, 40. In my head, I said third pin down as I was getting settled on him.

There was a brief second I almost squeeze the trigger, but I told myself take your time. He’s completely broadside at this point so I tell myself 20, 30, 40. I rest the third pin right behind his shoulder and as I finished exhaling, I squeeze the trigger. He goes down immediately face planting because I took out the opposite side shoulder so he was only operating on three legs.

He turns north and he comes straight towards me using one front leg up, hit the ground antlers and face in the Food Plot. Ripping up the food plot, his rear legs cannot get traction. There is tillage radish leaves, rye, clover, flying everywhere not just behind him, but in front of him from dragging his face and antlers through the Food Plot. He gets within 5 yards of the blind and he turns east.

My head is literally out the window watching this all unfold. He can only get up and then fall. Up and then fall, but every time he fell, it sounded like a bag of water hitting the ground with the amount of blood that was coming out. He makes it a little ways and he actually goes north again up the two track we use to get the tractor and Honda and such into the Food Plot. I turn around to get the door open so I can listen to hear what’s going on and I can’t open the door. I forgot in the split second I had latched myself in from the outside, so I had to rip off the tape on the left window, stick my arm and head out to get the latch undone to unlatch the door to get myself out of that sauna of a blind.

I’m standing on the deck and I hear him get up and fall one more time get up fall one more time and then it got very quiet.  At this point, I knew he wasn’t going to go far, but I wanted to be sure so I reloaded the crossbow through a Bolt in and went down the steps. I walked about 30 yards and turned to the left to look at the two truck and there’s Krabs laying there barely alive. He goes to try to get up one more time and falls and there is blood all over so which I knew it was a vital shot, but I wanted to be sure and wanted to make sure it was as quick as possible for him so I sent a follow up shot to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. It wasn’t just a couple seconds later. I watched him take his last breath standing no more than 3 feet from him.

I broke down in tears. I can’t breathe. I call my wife. She was actually in a haunted house at the time with her friends and she still answered the phone because she knew something happened because It was before last light. I can hear in the background the chaos of the haunted house on her phone and all she can hear is me hyperventilating and not being able to stay a word. I have tears rolling down my face. All I can get out is I freaking got him. Krabs is down. I was only on the phone with her for a few seconds because I had to gather myself. I called my father, thinking I could talk to him, and all I did was reset the overwhelming rush of not being able to breathe hyperventilating and even more tears falling. He knew just by the way I was acting that it had happened. He kept saying, did you really? did you really? To which I said, I can’t believe it. It actually happened.

He said you need to catch your breath and slow down. You’re going to have a heart attack at 33 lol. He asked me to FaceTime him and I said I can’t at the moment. I need to gather myself and take this moment but yes, Krabs is down. I got off the phone with him and I just stood there looking at Krabs. What a rush of emotions. everything put into this property and into this hunt has came together. I had a fast moment of thoughts . Just looking back to all the tractor work the side-by-side working the discing.  The spraying. The bag lime spreading. The fertilizing. The seeding. The protein fills. The watering hole. The mineral rocks. The trail cameras. The cleaning of blinds. The hanging of stands. The obsessive Watching his pattern and weather correlation.

The hours spent on my phone trying to pieces together. 

I will be forever grateful for the ability to do all this. For the people I’ve met.  For the land I’m on. For the health I have. 

Krabs is down 

Mike Rex scored him. 

Official green score 

Gross 225 1/8” 

Net 217 4/8”

Pending Perry county Ohio record 

Photos by Phoenix Media LLC