By Lisa L. Price

Mainframe 8-Pointer has lots of bells and whistles!

Photo: Gale-force winds couldn't keep Jeff Foskey of Millsboro, Del., out of the woods on opening day of the '03 season. Juggling two jobs, he didn't have a lot of time to spend hunting, so he wasn't about to let a little breeze rob him of the pleasure. His reward sent shockwaves across Delaware.

By the time the buddies met at midday on Nov. 15, 2003, to discuss plans for the afternoon, the wind had already kicked up enough to rattle the windows and door on the old trailer. The 30- to 40-mph gusts were seriously dampening their opening-day enthusiasm.

Jeff Foskey spent the morning watching a couple of does in a food plot, and he had no qualms about resuming the vigil that afternoon, in the same homemade stand. But when his friend, John Walls, said that he’d been feeling sick and was considering heading home, Jeff offered to let him finish the day in his food plot stand.

John declined, however, so Jeff returned to it.

“It had gotten so windy that I had almost decided not to go myself,” Jeff said. “But it was opening day, and I don’t get a lot of time to hunt.”

The 39-year-old works two jobs, one as a correctional officer at a state prison, the other as proprietor of his own lawn and landscaping business. It’s a wonder he found the time the previous summer to fool with his food plot, a mix of oats, alfalfa and clover.

The land shared by the hunting group had been logged, and the best way to hunt it was to stake out the logging paths that laced through all the thick stuff. Jeff’s vantage point was a 14-foot-high, box-type stand with a roof.

“I was starting to think that I was not going to see anything,” Jeff said of his first afternoon there. “But about 4:45, the wind suddenly died.”

Deer were almost immediately on the move. Soon, a 6-point buck and a doe were snatching mouthfuls from the food plot, oblivious to their audience of one.

“It was very still,” he added. “Then I heard what sounded like somebody was stuck (with a vehicle), trying to wedge through the small trees. It sounded like a bulldozer coming my way.

“I’d heard the guys talking about a big buck with a long drop tine, but seeing is believing. When it poked its head out of the thick stuff across from me, I couldn’t believe it.”

The buck seemed to be staring right at Jeff, who could practically hear his watch ticking.

When the giant deer finally strolled into the field, it was behind the field’s lone tree.

“I didn’t know if it was still in the food plot,” Jeff said. “I was scared that it might have turned around and run back into the woods. When it stepped out from behind the tree, it was only 45 yards away.”

Jeff immediately brought his 12-gauge, bolt-action Savage shotgun to his shoulder, acquired the buck in his scope, and shot. Afterward, the deer took off running, barely gaining the attention of the smaller buck and doe, which were more interested in collecting cud.

Jeff was aching to go look for his deer immediately. Besides, it would be dark in about half an hour. But he somehow managed to wait.

“We always meet at the trailer before we leave, to see if anybody needs help and to make sure everyone is out safely,” he said. “When I got there, I told the guys I’d shot at a buck. They wanted to know ‘what’ buck, and I said, ‘The one everybody has been talking about!’”

All eight of Jeff’s hunting buddies volunteered to help, of course. It did not take long for the posse to find the blood trail, and then the incredible whitetail that had left it. Although some of the hunters had previously seen the buck, they were still in awe when they saw it at their feet.

“None of us would have believed there was something that big in Delaware,” Jeff said.

BTR SCORE: 195 2/8

–Lisa L. Price