Nick Winchell’s easy smile and unabashed enthusiasm for whitetails has opened a lot of doors. Since 2021, he’s won over four landowners’ hearts to gain access to their holdings, even one tract that had previously been off-limits to Bambi killers.
The 22-year-old lineman apprentice’s first yes came prior to Indiana’s 2021 deer season, when he got the okay to hunt a small tract with big promise. While scouting that summer, he came across a communal deer scrape the size of a car hood.
It had obviously been used for years.
“I set up a camera and left it alone for a few weeks. As the season drew closer, I snuck in to check it,” Nick said. “To my surprise, numerous deer were hitting the scrape, including a very nice buck. They were showing up almost every night, mostly after dark.”
Eager to learn more about the resident whitetails, he put out a second camera and even hung a couple of treestands.
When conditions were conducive to an incursion a little more than a week later, Nick snuck in to check the cameras. The largest buck from the first photo collection hadn’t returned.
Its disappearance soured Nick’s opinion of the spot, so he hunted elsewhere that year. He didn’t return to collect those two cameras until after the season was in his rearview mirror.
“When I looked at the images, I was surprised to see the nice buck had frequented the scrape numerous times in December and January. That’s when I named him Daniel Booner,” he said.
During the summer of 2022, Nick broadened his search and knocked on the doors of every property owner whose holdings might be home to the deer. He gained hunting rights to two additional tracts, but far more people sent him packing.
Clearly, deer in the vicinity had thousands of acres of sanctuary. Not unexpectedly, very few stepped in front of his new cameras.
“I fared no better in 2023.” Nick said. “And since I was getting no trail camera pictures of the buck, I assumed he had been shot by another hunter or had died of EHD.
“By July 2024, Daniel Booner was gone from my memory,” he added.
Later that summer, Nick and his girlfriend spent an evening driving in the country to look at deer in bean fields.
“As we drove past the field where I had seen the big one in the past, it was full of deer. As I slowed, I saw a buck with a giant rack lift its head, way in the back by the woods line.
“When I stopped and looked through my binoculars, I told her, ‘Holy hell! That’s Daniel Booner!’
“I was so excited!” he said.
His girlfriend thought Nick had lost his mind when, after he took one blurry picture of the buck, he continued driving around, taking notes of what was planted and where.
“The crops were in the exact same rotation the year I had daylight photos of that buck in October,” he explained. “I knew from that moment on, I would have a lot of sleepless nights.”
The following weekend, he secured access to a gnarly 10 acres for which he’d originally gained a firm no. The landowner mentioned he had seen a large buck in his yard, but the land had been ravaged by storms.
As advertised, the Vigo County tract was unbelievably thick. After walking it numerous times, Nick had no idea how he would hunt it.
“As far as I could tell, there was no spot on this property that I could access without blowing every deer out of the county,” he said. “Aside from bringing in heavy equipment, I honestly believed it was almost unhuntable.”
On Sept. 10, Nick retrieved his first picture of DB standing by a mock scrape at 8 p.m.
“I was so excited that I was worthless at work. All I could think about was that deer,” he said. “I didn’t know what my chances were of actually getting him, but I knew there was a chance.”
His camera batteries died about a week before the opener. Rather than risk bumping the deer, Nick decided he wouldn’t return unless the wind was perfect.
While surfing social media three days before the season opened, he came across video footage of Daniel Booner in one of his huntable cornfields.
“My heart dropped when I saw it for two reasons. One, this deer was no longer my secret. Also, he was much bigger than I’d thought,” he said.
“I later learned the footage was posted by the local drone deer recovery business owner who had been practicing his craft that summer. After he located Daniel Booner, he contacted the landowners and attempted to get permission to hunt him.
“The landowners let him know they already had others hunting the property. Fortunately, I had already knocked on those same doors,” he added.
“I was suddenly worried about so many other things than just harvesting the giant buck. Deer of this caliber make people do really stupid things, and my mind immediately conjured the worst-case scenario,” Nick said.
“I just prayed that even if I did not have the opportunity to shoot this buck that he would be taken ethically and legally by another hunter.”
Nick’s chances took a further nosedive when he landed a job that might require him to work nine- to 13-hour stretches, seven days a week.
“After suffering several mini panic attacks thinking about everything that could go wrong, I finally came up with a plan. I categorized the properties according to when I’d most likely encounter the deer.
“One property was an early-season spot; a second and third were best suited for the rut; and the fourth tract was perfect for the late season. I’d just have to show up whenever the weather was right for the days I had,” said the bowhunter from Terre Haute.
The first week of October, he got off work at a decent hour and took advantage of the strong wind to sneak in to hunt and replace the batteries in a camera overlooking a mock scrape at the end of a fence line between two standing cornfields.
He saw several nice bucks and countless does that day.
A week later, he finally got one close-up photo of DB in the middle of the night. It wasn’t much, but it was comforting to know the deer was still in the area.
On Oct. 20, Daniel Booner showed up on Nick’s newest ground. After a coupe of unsuccessful sits, he pinned his hopes on a predicted cold front set to arrive Halloween night.
The wind was supposed to start out of the northwest — perfect — before shifting and blowing out of the north, which was not good.
“I woke up early and arrived at the property well before shooting light. I knew it would take me a very long time to crawl under all the honeysuckle and over downed trees,” he said.
“About five minutes before shooting light, I heard a single crack of antlers about 75 yards distant, followed the sound of a deer running.
“As the sun came up, I impatiently waited and noticed a doe feeding on honeysuckle 20 yards behind me. When I turned around to film her, I noticed a second deer a few yards beyond her. As the deer stepped into somewhat of an opening at 20 yards, I saw he had a big frame,” he said.
It was Daniel Booner, and he bedded right in front of the vibrating hunter.
The doe, meanwhile, fed to within 15 yards. She got a noseful of something, but not enough to send her to the moon.
“I was just praying for the buck to stand,” Nick said.
It did, eventually, and both deer began coming even closer, 10 yards apart.
“When she was only 5 yards in front of my tree, she stomped her foot and looked up at me,” Nick said. “In response, the buck began nervously skirting me.”
When the doe stabbed the ground with her front leg a second time, DB stopped behind some brush. There was a basketball-sized opening, however, through which Nick threaded an arrow.
After the thwack, the buck mule-kicked, spun and ran 75 yards, paused, and then walked onto the neighboring property.
Nick waited two hours before getting out of his stand, as much to allow his nerves to settle as to give the deer time to expire. The front half of his arrow was on the ground about 10 yards from where the buck absorbed it.
Nick then left the woods and called the neighboring landowner to ask permission to retrieve his deer. After he got a yes, he went home to shower and change clothes.
He returned to look for the buck around 1:00, and it didn’t take long.
“I sat on the creek bank in silence for probably 10 minutes before I ever walked up to him. I was and I am so grateful that I accomplished something that I never thought possible,” he said.
Daniel Belwood scored the tall-tined 19-pointer for Buckmasters. The mainframe 5x5 has four uprights exceeding 10 inches in length. Altogether, including 30 inches of abnormal growth, the antlers tally 204 1/8 inches.
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