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Hunting
Stories
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Making
Memories on the Banner Ranch
| by Jim Autrey
This hunting trip...... would be like many of the others, but was I mistaken. I had met Jesse Banner while hunting on another ranch in Southwest Texas and he invited me to come over to his place about 30 miles away, as the crow flies. After a few adjustments, a date was set and soon Lance, my youngest son and I were off on another adventure with the Texas Deer Hunter Camera. After a seven hour trip, we were met by Jason Davenport, who was to be our guide and was the new deer program manager. He led us down this dirt road along the top of a ridge in SW Texas just like any other road in this part of the country. We stopped at a rim and he pointed to a place he thought might be good for us to hunt and I couldn't see how any deer would fancy such a sparsely covered canyon. We continued on and dropped off the rim into a large valley, unlike any I had ever seen, with "green" fields and tickets of oaks and other tall trees not normally found in SW Texas. He drove us past fields of Bio-Logic that was a foot tall andsuddenly I realized that this was not just another SW Texas Ranch. We unloaded our gear and Jason took us for a late afternoon hunt in a small draw where he had constructed a small ground blind. He had told us that we could see turkey and deer out of this location, as he drove off leaving us to see all of the above and then some. Turkeys, Does, Small Bucks, Large Bucks, Medium Bucks and more, none of which were overly concerned about the new blind or anything else. These were the calmest whitetails, I have ever hunted. It was soon dark and Jason returned to pick us up, so we could start to experience what was a highlight of the trip, Sandy Banner's Cooking. Every evening, every morning and even at lunch this lady had some of the best tasting food Lance and I have ever eaten. The homemade cinnamon rolls were heavenly. Thanks to her for the fabulous food and hospitality. That evening we talked about the next morning hunt, and Jason was going to take us to a rim rock area where we could watch a large draw and opposite rim leading down to a valley floor. Morning soon arrived and we were lugging our gear up a steep ridge covered with loose rock about the size of softballs. After settling in we started glassing the area and saw a deer moving our direction. It was a little early to tell but it turn out to be a nice 8-point that came up to within about 20 yards of our location. Next, we saw some deer in the valley area and as it got lighter we were seeing other deer in every direction. Then a four point came within 20 yards, just like the eight point had done earlier. It was going on 8:00am when the morning sun had cleared the opposite rim and was shining right on our location, I told Lance that we were going to have to move. I decided to glass the area well before we moved because a horizontal line between two trees on the opposite header wall about 350 yards away didn't look right. It was a deer and when it turned its head, I handed the binoculars to Lance saying " it's a buck and the horns are about two foot wide", but the deer walked down into a small draw and I felt we would never see it again. Time passed as we search for signs of the wide spread. Was it real? Had I really seen what I thought? Would we ever know? Lance was beginning to think it was not real and that I had grossly over estimated the width of the deer when all of the sudden there it was walking up out of the draw on to an open flat no more than a 150 yards away. It was real and it was wide and it was not going to stop walking except behind bushes that blocked any shot possibility. It finally came up to a feeder where it fed behind a large bush for 5 minutes or more.........seemed like a lot more, giving us just a peak now and then of the wide rack concealed behind the bush. I normally don't get nervous and don't really know if I have ever had buck fever, but this did get my heart to racing and created worries about the new gun, I had only fired twice. The deer is still there and my heart is still racing when he finally began to move from behind the bush. Lance told me that the camera was ready and I was about to have a nervous break down. Maybe you can understand that this is the widest buck I have ever seen while hunting, I had fired the new gun only twice and the CAMERA is rolling. What, if I MISS? It would have to be......... another day. The gun reported and the deer dropped. It was almost like a dream, it was a dream, a dream come true. The widest spread buck I have ever seen while hunting was mine to share with all of you (see picture under Photo Gallery). Dreams do come true and I guess that is why many of us love to hunt, because as long as you are in the deer woods, you always have a chance of making memories, that will stay with you forever. The deer was a main frame 8 point with 3 kickers with an inside spread of 23 1/4 inches. It will not score well according to the Boone and Crocket rating system, but that is OK, because it scored well with me and isn't that what really makes a trophy. For information about booking a hunt on the Banner Ranch: Contact me and I will put you in touch with Jesse or Jason. About
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