Jeff Foskey admires the mount of his amazing new state record, a real hat-rack buck that scores 202 3/8 in the Boone and Crockett non-typical category. Photo by Gary Diamond

By Gary Diamond

It was the final day of Delaware's shotgun season, a day that Chester, Maryland, resident Robert Reeves will likely remember the rest of his life. Reeves began hunting whitetails about 15 years ago while stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. The 17-year United States Air Force veteran was recently commissioned as a lieutenant and moved to Kent Island, Maryland, located on the shores of Chesapeake Bay.

"Dover was my first military assignment, and I stayed there the entire time of my enlistment and was working on a C-5 as a mechanic and crew chief. I was at Dover for nearly 15 years, and didn't really begin hunting until I was stationed there. I've been actively hunting white-tailed deer for the past 15 years."

While his trophy whitetail was taken on the final day of Delaware's shotgun season, he is also an avid bowhunter as well. "I'm would rather bowhunt than hunt with a shotgun, but I never pass up an opportunity to go hunting during any season."

On the day he bagged his record-book buck, Reeves was hunting on the Normal G. Wilder Wildlife Management Area (WMA) with Lynn Byler, an uncle-in-law with whom he frequently hunts.

"I thought the deer I bagged last year was going to be my buck of a lifetime, but I didn't have it officially scored. I scored it myself and it's probably a 140-class typical whitetail. Knowing that I was probably not going to beat it as far as finding a deer with better antlers, I kind of changed my hunting a little bit.

"So the following year (2003), I was back out there with my bow, and I wasn't seeing a whole lot of deer. Essentially, I was getting a little frustrated; I wasn't seeing anything that was very impressive. I almost gave up on hunting for that year. I did hunt all three seasons, the archery, muzzleloader and shotgun, but not as actively as in previous years. In fact, I wasn't even going to go out the last day of shotgun season, but Lynn decided to go out and give it a try.

"The place we hunted was a little swampy, but the area I selected had a lot of holly trees and was fairly dense," Reeves said. "I had a small opening in the holly trees that was probably about 50 yards in diameter. There were a few inches of snow on the ground, which is somewhat unusual for Delaware, and we saw several sets of tracks."

Reeves decided to head in one direction, while Byler took another route in the opposite direction. Both hunters were able to keep in contact with each other by using small walkie-talkies, which when hunting a patch of woods this dense can be a great tool.

Reeves uses a climbing tree stand to improve the odds, often climbing as high as 25 feet above the dense underbrush to afford better visibility over a larger area.

"We were not quite sure exactly where we were going to hunt, and we had already checked out several other areas earlier in the day. We eventually went back to a spot where we had hunted a couple other times during the year. As we walked back, there was a lane that divided the patch of woods, and as we got about a half-mile down the lane we saw some tracks in the snow and decided to follow them. We followed them for some distance into the woods, and then they separated. A large set of tracks went off to the left and the other set went off to the right. At that point, we decided to split up. He followed the tracks to the right, and I followed those to the left."

At this point, Reeves entered the clearing, set up his climbing tree stand on the edge of the clearing and inched his way 25 feet above the forest floor. "The hunt itself was very, very short. I shimmied my way up the tree, pulled up the gun and got it loaded and then rested my head against the tree. I slowly turned my head to the right, then to the left, and just as I turned to the left, a buck came busting through the holly trees. All of this took place within five minutes of getting up in the stand.

"I didn't hear the deer coming at all until it busted through the holly trees, and I believe the snow may have softened the sounds of it coming through the woods. At this point it was only 30 yards away. I had just enough time to squeeze off a shot."

Reeves uses a single-shot Harrington and Richardson shotgun with a heavy slug barrel and shotgun scope. "I didn't have much time to react, and I knew the deer was a real monster when I saw it bust through the hollies. I knew right away that I hit the deer, and it was obvious when I saw it lift up its front leg; he only ran about 30 yards before lying down. He didn't move, but his head was up and I could still clearly see him from my stand, so I went ahead and reloaded my single-shot shotgun and squeezed off another round. At this point he went down and didn't move.

"You often hear of a deer getting up and running off after being shot, and I didn't want this one to get away. I was pretty confident that the deer was down for the count, but I still slid down the tree like a fireman would slide down a pole at the firehouse. I was still in communication with Lynn and once I got to the buck I called him on the radio and said, 'You've gotta get over here and see this deer. I hate to ruin your hunt, but I sincerely believe that this is a record-book deer.' At that point I had no idea if it would have been a record-book deer, but it was by far the largest deer I had ever seen. When Lynn came over, he took one look at the buck and agreed that this one may end up in the record book."

Reeves had his deer mounted by taxidermist Bill Edder of Marydel, Maryland. After the required drying time, it has a gross score of 205 2/8 Boone and Crockett (B&C) points and a net score of 197 0/8. Bill Jones of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources scored the deer. Reeves' buck was never weighed, though it was estimated at 175 pounds dressed weight. Since his buck was bagged well after rutting season, there's a good chance that it would have weighed significantly more if taken earlier in the season.

Reeves says there have been a number of friends who have asked the exact location of where the deer was bagged, but at this point he has kept it a well-guarded secret. Ironically, Robert Reeves' buck would have been a new state record, except for another hunter bagging a bigger deer only a couple of months later in January 2004.