A walking bit means you did not use a good sharp bit made for maple tapping. This will happen a lot using old dull bits. Likely for future your best investment will be to invest in a real tapping bit, then keep it to use just for tapping, never use it for any other holes. It will require a cordless drill, I don't think they still make tapping bits for a bit brace. A tapping bit and enough practice to drill straight in and out without stopping the drill and with no wobble will end the leaks as long as you don't "hammer" them in too hard. Put the taps in with a light hammer (like a "ladies hammer" or tack hammer type) or use the side of a pair of lineman's pliers. You may have driven it in too far, splitting the bark at the hole. That is often the case with new producers, especially those hanging a bucket on. I did some of that in my early days. Not my first years, at that time I ran little tubing systems into a 5 gal jug on the ground, 1-3 taps each, a few years later I got a lease where the trees in the yard had to use buckets. At that time I got 99 buckets hung in the large farm yard and a few had leaks from driving the taps in too hard.