Harry Daisey can credit his pooches' bladders for the world-class whitetail he tagged in 2012.
"I was walking my dogs in my back yard when they jumped a bunch of does and a buck that had antlers out past its ears," Harry told John Phillips, who's writing the story for Rack magazine.
When his dogs jumped another deer near the same spot a half-hour later, the deer hunter from Seaford, Dela., decided to hang some trail cameras in the woods behind his house. The photos revealed his land was the corridor for deer traveling between his neighbors' properties - 15 acres of pines on one side, and 6 acres of hardwoods on the other.
Harry wound up leasing all 21 acres.
He chose to hunt the piney woods on opening day, which taught him that most of the deer seemed to be bedding in the hardwoods.
A few days later, Harry carried a climbing stand into the 6-acre strip and shot a doe - twice - before he'd even ascended the tree. With an hour of daylight remaining, he chose to climb rather than go to the doe or to another spot.
After he was aloft, more does filtered into the area and milled around the downed one. A nice 8-pointer arrived soon afterward, and it browsed very near the tree in which Harry was holding his breath.
The 4x4 kept glancing back toward a nearby holly thicket, which didn't go unnoticed by the man holding the muzzleloader.
Eventually, a much bigger buck walked out of the thicket, and Harry fired his inline smokepole for the third time that evening. The buck ran and fell within 20 yards of the dead doe.
The Sussex County 11-pointer has a BTR composite score of 180 3/8 inches.