Foskey entered a dense stand of hardwoods adjacent to an Ellendale farm located in the heart of Sussex County on opening day of the state's 2003 shotgun season.

"The area we hunted was cut over by loggers about 10 to 15 years ago, and there were dirt logging roads bulldozed throughout the area. Some friends and I lease the farm for hunting, and in this particular area we planted feed plots to attract wildlife in many of the open areas. Most of the feed consists of oats, which seems to attract deer more than anything else. We're been hunting here for three years now."

Foskey surveyed the area he intended to hunt well before the season opened, and decided early on as to the exact location he would hunt.

"I built a homemade box stand about 15 feet above the ground and it's sitting atop 4x4 posts. I can look over the underbrush, which mainly consists of holly, sassafras and lots of loblolly pines mixed with the holly. It's really pretty thick in there so the deer seem to do well here," Foskey said.

"I hunted the area with a muzzleloader in October and passed up a lot of deer, sometimes as many as 10 to 15 every night, mostly just waiting for something bigger to come along. It was late afternoon when this deer came out into the food plot, and just before he came into view, I had a 6-pointer and a big doe standing out there feeding. I guess I watched them for about five minutes, and then I heard something in the woods that sounded like a bulldozer coming through the brush. All of the sudden the noise stopped, and he poked his head out of the brush. There was a tree between the buck and me. When he stepped behind the tree, I raised my gun. Then when he walked past the tree to the opposite side, I had a clear shot and squeezed the trigger."

At the time, Foskey was shooting a 12 gauge with 1-ounce Winchester rifled slugs, and the buck was approximately 50 yards off when he fired. "I knew I hit him good, but he turned and ran back into the thickest part of the woods just as if he were never touched. He must have run about 80 yards into the brush before stopping, and I waited nearly an hour before coming down out of the stand to begin looking for him."

Foskey says the deer was right in the middle of the 4X scope's cross hairs, which is specifically made for shotguns. The shotgun he uses is a Marlin Slugmaster fitted with a 26-inch slug barrel.

"I was almost afraid to go looking for the deer, mainly because I was afraid that if it wasn't dead, it may spook and I might not be able to pick up its trail. I was pretty sure I had hit it, though, as the buck had scrunched down a bit right after the shot, then took off running like nothing was wrong. You're always afraid that you may have missed the deer of a lifetime. I figured that I had better not mess with him for at least an hour because I didn't want it to jump up and run off again. You always hear stories of guys who have this happen, and you sure don't want it to happen to you."

By the time he climbed down from his stand, the sun had already dipped below the western horizon and it was nearly pitch dark.

"When I went to the location where it was shot, there was blood everywhere and I knew it must have been a clean shot. At that point I just began following the blood trail. A few minutes later, I found it lying in the brush. When I found the deer, I knew that it was big, and in order to drag it out of the woods I got some help from some of the other guys who lease the farm with me," Foskey said.

"I kind of kept quiet about the size of the deer until the other six guys I hunt with got to where I was standing. Then I told them that I think I just shot a new state-record whitetail. Some of them had seen the deer a few times earlier in the year, and when I told them I thought I killed the deer they had seen, at first, before they saw it, they thought I was just kidding around. When I told them I was serious, that's when we all walked back into the woods where the deer was down and at that point, they were convinced."

Foskey's deer tipped the scales at 235 pounds live weight, and has 19 scorable points. His deer was not scored during Delaware's Wildlife Expo held at Delaware State Fair Grounds. Instead, the deer was scored two weeks later, but still in time for the 2003 record books.

"I called Bill Jones, set up an appointment at his office, and then went there and had the deer officially scored." While Foskey's deer officially scores at 202 3/8 B&C points, Foskey said three drop tines had been broken off, likely during the early stages of rutting season when it battled other bucks for dominance in that particular territory.

"The other guys that I hunted with said they had seem the deer a few months earlier and it still had the drop tines. One of the tines in the front was big, probably 6 to 8 inches long, and that would have really increased the score had it been intact," Foskey added.

Delaware wildlife biologist Bill Jones, who scored both the Reed and Foskey bucks, said, "The ending date for the contest was July 30 and Foskey showed up on July 29. Consequently, I didn't have time to rewrite the records yet, but now the Reed buck has been bumped down to the No. 2 deer for Delaware's non-typical whitetail record book."

Jones went on to explain the habitat where both deer were bagged, and talked about some of the reasons behind the incredible size of both bucks. "There is a lot of sweet pepper bush in the understory, as well as viburnum, holly and other dense forage in both locations. There were a lot of white oaks killed off by the gypsy moths in this region of the state about 15 years ago, and what this did was open the forest canopy and allow the growth of dense understory plants.

Interestingly enough, not too far away from where Reeves' buck was killed is an area called Black Swamp. Evidently, there was a monster non-typical buck seen there during the summer of 2003. As the crow files, this would not be far from where Reeves' buck was taken. Whether or not it was the same deer, no one really knows, but the potential is there."

Biologist Jones says deer with antlers of this proportion are usually older bucks, whitetails that range from 4 to 7 years of age. Additionally, the deer are usually found in areas where there is reasonably high hunting pressure, and there is sufficient natural food available to support the herd size. The added ingredient is dense areas of forest with equally dense understory plants.

"We know there are always some big bucks in these areas, even on state lands. What makes the antlers take on those non-typical spreads is usually a combination of genetics and injuries to the antlers during the early stages of development. Most of all, a majority of bucks bagged are usually much younger, averaging just 3 or less years of age. Both of these deer were significantly older."

What are the odds of bagging two record-book bucks during a single season in Delaware? Jones says in all the years he has been scoring deer, it has never happened before.

"Russell Bowdle bagged his buck in 1960, a deer that scored 190 4/8 Boone and Crockett Points. It's a record that has been intact for nearly a half century. We've had several big bucks killed since his, but only a few were close to being record breakers. Now, in 2003, we have a pair of monster whitetails that beat Bowdle's deer by a significant margin. The odds of being struck by lighting in mid-January are probably a lot better than this ever happening again, but you just never know."