The Deer That Swam...........and the Bananaman

There was a strange phenomenum that seemed to happen every deer season. The annual ORI would take place during opening week, even if the deer season dates changed slightly from one year to the next, the ORI shedule just "magically" seemed to follow in-step. Created a lot of heartburn too. So, you'd end up having to hunt on the weekends with the REST of Elmore County, because you couldn't take any leave while the inspectors were here.

Anyway, that being said, 4 of us went up into "39" area, early one Saturday morning. Gary Foreman, Jim Williams, Jeff Smith & me. We were way up above Fall Creek Lodge. Jim & Jeff "sat-in" on one of the fingers" that overlooked the reservoir, while Gary & I hunted slightly higher up about a hundred yards above. I was about 20 feet behind Gary, creeping along in the treeline, when he suddenly stopped as he started out into the open. From where I was standing, I couldn't see what he was looking at.

In a split second, he had his Remington semi-auto 30.06 in his shoulder..........."Bang!" At the shot, I rushed out to join him but saw no deer. Gary says "No hurry, he ran over that little knoll.........I hit him............he won't go far."---------I will never forget those words!

We crested the knoll and started down the gentle slope on the backside. Gary was about 50 feet ahead of me, when I spotted the deer. It was a young 4-pointer who was standing perfectly still and blended-in well with the brush he was standing in front of. Gary had walked right past him without seeing him, and I almost did too, but there he was, off to the left, no more than about 30 yards away. Easy shot, and I had a dead-on unobstructed bead on him. "GARY!".........Gary turned around and now HE saw the deer too.........and the buck still hadn't moved. It was Gary's deer, but I was in the best position to drop him.

"Want me to put him down?" I asked?........Almost in a panic, Gary answered "NO!....NO!, don't shoot him with THAT..........he won't go anywhere!"

Season to season, I usually hunted with my 270, an excellent deer & elk caliber..........but on THIS particular trip, I was carrying a new Model 70 Winchester in 375 H&H Magnum, a "grizzly & above" gun..........WAY OVERKILL for mule deer, but it was a brand new rifle and I wanted to try it out on SOMETHING! Gary was afraid I'd blow big chunks of meat off that deer............he had an '06 slug in the animal and that would surely suffice.

SO..........I clicked the safety back on, eased the big rifle out of my shoulder, and the deer took off! He headed down the slope toward the area where Jim & Jeff were. Again, Gary says, "He can't get far." All of a sudden, it sounded like a WAR down that slope. Unknown to Gary & I at the time-----that deer had nearly ran OVER the spot where our partners were sitting, startled BOTH of them, and they jumped up and opened fire as the deer sped down the slope and into the RESERVOIR!

The 4 of us watched hopelessly as the buck eventually swam to the nearest spot on the other side. But he couldn't make it out of the water. Gary had hit him well enough to where his strength was sapped, plus Jim & Jeff had put a couple of rounds into his backside, so he couldn't use his hind legs to get himself on the other shore. He was caught in a gaggle of tree limbs on the other side.

What to do now?..........that "other side" was part of Area 44, which was off limits to us. Well......we quickly hiked back to the truck, drove around to the fishing docks at Pine, where Gary found a guy with a boat, and paid him a few bucks to take him down to that end. He got to the deer, who was still alive, and he shot him in the head with a 22 revolver. He and the boat owner dragged the deer aboard and brought it back into the Pine Cove, where Jim, Jeff & I were waiting, sipping coffee.

We carried the buck back to the truck, and the deer was STILL breathing (just barely), so Jim pulled his Buck knife and slit its throat. Pretty tough deer! Had three rifle bullets in him, plus the "finishing" head shot.....and we STILL had to finish him off with a knife!

It had taken us the better part of the day to accomplish all of this.......and I told Gary, that "Next time, I won't ask, I'll just put him DOWN!"............Even today, I still kid him about that.

The very next weekend, a "local legend" was born. Gary had HIS deer, but I didn't. Neither had my good buddy Harvey Sarven, so just the two of us went several miles west of Cow Creek. We only had one day to hunt, so we'd got there early and hunted hard all day, with nary a look at anything. We finally got back to the truck, had a bite of lunch and decided to head back to Mountain Home.

We were in my old Ford pickup with a small camper on it. I was driving, Harvey was chomping on a banana, and playing with the radio, trying to pull in a radio station for us to listen to. Hillside on the left, river on the right. Since we were still in legal deer area, I would occasionally glance out my door window and look up the slopes as we went along. All Harvey could see from HIS side, was the river.

Harvey loves bananas. Always has, and while I'm driving down the dirt road looking for deer, HE is glued to those radio knobs, occasionally taking a bite of banana. We came around a short curve, and just up ahead, off to our right, a fisherman had just climbed up from the stream and was walking down the dirt road toward us.

As we closed in on him, his body language seemed to tell a story as he moped along with his pole and tackle box. His facial expression seemed to say that his wife probably just left him, he lost his job last week, they repossessed the furniture yesterday, and on top of everything else.....he hadn't caught any fish today either! He just looked PITIFULLY down-trodden.

Harvey is still playing with the radio, looking for a station and eating that banana.........he had NOT seen this fisherman...........

Just about the time we drive PAST this guy, Harvey finishes the banana and tosses the peel out the window and THERE'S THE GUY! We drove on past and Harv' says........."OH NO! Did I HIT that guy?" I couldn't look back over my shoulder to see, because of the camper, so I quickly glanced in the right door mirror---------The guy had STOPPED, was turned around and staring at us as we drove away.........so Harvey either GOT him, or whizzed it past his nose!

I started busting up..........then Harv' started laughing, and you NEVER want to get HIM started! We drove another half a mile or so, and I was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down my cheeks--------I had to stop the truck and get out for a couple of minutes!

That poor fisherman looked for all the world-----like EVERYTHING bad imaginable had happened to him........and just when it "couldn't get any worse," two knuckleheads in a truck come by and slap him on the side of the face with a banana peel!

Monday morning back on the flightline, some of the guys asked me if we'd had any luck on the hunt. "No, I didn't see anything, but Harvey got a fisherman!"

It didn't take long for the story to get around, and almost overnight, Harvey Sarven became known as the infamous "Bananaman"...............a nickname that has stuck to this day.

Even today, 26 years later, it still cracks me up whenever I think about it. There's a smile on my face right now as I write this. One thing's for sure---------that fisherman (whoever he was), probably hasn't forgotten that day either!

PS............no, all the years we've hunted together, we've always had respect for the land and take all trash home WITH us. Things like banana peels and apple cores however, ARE bio-degradable. The animals will eat them.