The Banks Farm Booner

For 10 minutes the buck was in sight around Jeff Banks’ deer stand. The first day of gun season, and evening hunt, and Jeff was about to shoot a buck—and that’s saying something. This is a man who has already killed and passed up bucks that would gross near 150. Pulling the trigger on a buck is not taken lightly on the Banks Farm, about 3,000 acres of family land hunted by a select—and selective—few.

The buck was tending a doe, a week or two early for this behavior in Morgan County. Jeff’s permanent stand sat high up a hardwood tree in a natural bottleneck, a creek bottom between thick bedding areas and a feeding area. In his hand, Jeff held a bow, but he also had his rifle in the tree.

Jeff Banks put this giant Boone & Crockett buck on the dirt just a few miles from the GON office in October 2001.

“He was tending a doe, king of herding her around,” said Jeff. “He was about 40 yards away when the doe turned and came closer to me. All he had to do was turn and follow her and I would have had a 20-yard shot. Right then another doe came across farther out, and he turned toward her., I thought there was a good chance he would go after that second doe.”

Jeff hung this bow in the tree, grabbed the rifle and sighted down on the buck. The 17-pointer in his scope was the one club members called “Horn Donkey.” One club member, Carl Wilson, of Covington, had actually passed up the buck the previous season, when guesses were it would gross in the 150s. When he showed up in a few trail-camera photos this season, his rack was significantly bigger. Everyone knew about “Horn Donkey,” and they were all about to meet him up close and personal.

Until a buck is officially scored, which can’t be done until 60 days after it is killed, it is rare for GON to call a buck a “Booner.” But the 17-pointer Jeff killed on opening day is so impressive, it is worthy of such early accolades, regardless of whether it officially scores above the B&C minimum of 170.

Green scores indicate the rack will have a gross score, before deductions, right at 200 inches. Side-to-side deductions and several abnormal points will bring the net score down almost 30 points to the mid to low 170s. Plus, any rack is expected to lose an inch or so as it dries.

The hunter who killed the buck is a good friend of GON. Jeff Banks appeared on our cover in 1994 with a 12-point Morgan County buck that grossed 160. Also, Jeff and his hunting club, the Banks Farm, were featured on GON-TV last season,

That the Banks Farm produced a record-class buck is no accident. The group of hunters have been dedicated to improving their deer since 1990. Their management plan has evolved through trial-and-error, and ever few years they turn it up a notch to get to that next level. Now that they’ve grown a 200-class buck, you might wonder what’s left.

Said club member Bill Young, of Rutledge, “You always hear a 170 is a freak of nature, but we’re now wondering why we can’t grow one every couple of years. We started trying to grow 140-class bucks. The last five or six years we’ve had four or five killed each year. Now the last couple of years we’ve had guys passing up high 140- and 150-class bucks. A 150-class 10-pointer on our place has a good chance of walking,”

Jeff said when they started managing full throttle in 1990, “We didn’t want to do a spread or point rule because all deer are different. We’ve killed 140-class deer with no spread.”

“We went with gross score, basically saying a buck needs to go 140,” Jeff said. “That made us learn how to score, Instead of looking at width, we have to look at the entire rack. One of the biggest teaching tools that has helped us judge bucks is the video camera. We look at footage of bucks that were passed up, and we talk about what the deer scores”

The video cameras, as well as trail cameras and summer scouting, help the members know their deer herd well. This is vital for a new element to their management—taking out older bucks that don’t show the genetic potential to reach top-end scores.

“We contacted Dr. Grant Woods (a deer management expert and biologist) and got him to look at our farm. We wanted to know what we could do to get a little better. Grant talked about ‘management’ bucks. We have a lot of bucks, and some have potential, and some don’t.

“We decided to start taking out a few management bucks—3 1/2-year-old  bucks that don’t have the antlers we’re looking for. We can judge 3 1/2-year-olds by body size and horn mass, and that comes from knowing your property and your deer herd. It’s taken us a long time, 10 or 11 years, to get to this point of understanding, which 3 1/2-year-old deer have the potential and which ones don’t.”

The Banks Farm management plan doesn’t stop with improving the age structure of bucks and culling bucks with less potential. This deer there eat better than most of us. There are about 100 acres of food plots, which are limed and fertilized based on a soil analysis.

“As we’ve progressed, we’ve learned the importance of protein,” said Jeff. “We started having the protein content of our food plots tested through the county extension agency. Last year, we planted about 20 acres of Pennington’s yuchi clover (also called arrowleaf clover). It came out at 38% protein, which is super high. This is protein when they really need it for antler growth, from January to August. This year we’re going 100 acres in yuchi, and we mix it with oats and kind of protect it as it gets started.”

They also run up a pretty sizable tab at Godfrey Feed and Seed in Madison, which is where they buy high-protein goat feed and Godfrey Deer Minerals. The goat feed is used in feeders instead of corn, which is very low in protein and nutritional qualities. The Godfrey mineral mix is very high in phosphorous and calcium.

“We don’t know exactly what it took to produce that buck,” said Jeff. “We know they’ve got to have protein, age, genetics. We’re giving a buck every opportunity to reach the top end.”

Another thing it took was a group of hunters working together.

Said club member Bill Young, “one of the best things was how Jeff handled it after he killed the buck. Before he moved the buck, he got on the phone and had everyone come out to the woods… everyone who had been on a tractor that summer and passed up bucks for years. He wanted to make sure everyone that was part of all the hard work was a part of that buck, too,”

Morgan County Best Bucks Of All-Time