Squared Away
Team work makes the dream work. Watch Pete Alfano, owner of The Box Ranch in Kansas, as he joins his wife Christie for her first whitetail hunt.
Straddling the Kansas and Oklahoma state lines, The Box Ranch is one of the oldest original ranches in the area. These sprawling acres were used exclusively for cattle ranching prior to owner Pete Alfano’s purchase of the property five years ago. Nowadays, The Ranch is prime whitetail hunting land during the fall and winter months. Equipped with Winchester firearms and ammunition, outdoorsmen are able to set their eyes on the prize. Trophy bucks.
The outdoors lifestyle offers opportunities for people to establish connection. Pete Alfano enjoys helping first-time hunters with the process. Today, he is sharing the stand with a hunter he also shares his life with: his wife, Christie. She has never experienced the thrill of dropping a deer. The husband-and-wife duo hope to change that here at The Box Ranch.
Teamwork makes the dream work. Pete and Christie prove this adage true as the two work together to prepare for the hunt. With Pete by her side, Christie sights in her Winchester Model 70. With Deer Season XP hitting its mark. She’s ready.
But new experiences can bring challenges. As the pair prepare their position, Christie is intimidated by the towering tree stand poised 18 feet straight in the air. With her husband’s encouraging words in her ear and adrenaline running through her veins, Christie completes the full climb into the stand. Pete joins her, and they wait. But not for long.
After two hours in the banks, Christie has her sights set on a buck nicknamed BF10. Pete and ranch manager Rylan Woolfolk have spotted BF10 with binoculars and on trail cameras before, but were doubtful they would cross paths with the buck during Christie’s hunt.
Yet BF10—all 160 inches of him— is here. Now is the moment Christie has waited for. With her husband by her side and her Winchester firearm in her hands, it’s time for the Alfano’s to make a memory.
Up close with the Host:
Christie Alfano is no stranger to the outdoor lifestyle. Unlike her husband Pete Alfano, who was introduced to hunting as a teenager, Christie grew up in a family of hunters. But as a young girl, the world of whitetail hunting was one she only witnessed. She was sidelined by her family’s “men only” hunting trip criteria. But the ways of the Winchester Life aren’t easily forgotten. It is ingrained in your mind. Imprinted in your heart. And it is these memories that instilled an itch in Christie to experience the hunt herself as an adult. Armed with her Winchester Model 70 and memories of the hunters she grew up around, Christie took the shot—and her first buck. She finally experienced the excitement of the hunt that she had only heard about from family. Goal achieved.
