Indiana's New All-Time No. 2 Non-Typical Whitetail — 295 5/8 Inches!

Throughout the years, Lebanon, Indiana’s Wes Nicley (pronounced: nicely) has been a fairly casual whitetail hunter. While he and his brother, Caleb, grew up hunting on their family’s farm, Wes wasn’t a particularly obsessive whitetailer like so many folks.

Sure, he’s killed a few nice bucks over the years, but he has been more of a casual shotgun hunter. For years, the only option allowed during Indiana’s November firearms season were shotguns; and to this day plenty of Hoosier hunters refer to the general firearms season as the “shotgun season.”

Wes had never taken up bowhunting in all those years. In fact, up until this past season, he hadn’t even taken part in the previous few gun seasons. As so often happens, life seemed to get in the way of his whitetail pursuits. As a local firefighter, and a coach for many of his kids’ athletic teams, he just didn’t have the time that he’d had in the past to hunt.

Wes explains why this past season would be different: “My son, Carson wanted to deer hunt, so I wanted to do everything I could to provide this opportunity to share my love for whitetail hunting without forcing my son into hunting.” Wes also decided that it was time to upgrade to a different weapon — one that he and Carson could both use and enjoy.

After much research he opted for the Bergara Wilderness Sierra in .308 Win. He purchased the model with the muzzle brake to help with recoil issues Carson may experience. After firing several different brands and weights of cartridges, he found that this particular gun loved the Federal Fusion 165 grain. The Nicleys then shot as much as they possibly could in the summer leading up to the firearms season. Wes, in particular, couldn’t wait to shoot a deer with his new tack driver.

“I’ve always been a shotgun guy, but this would be my first year hunting with a rifle,” he says. “My son and I spent a lot of hours sighting in and testing different loads to be sure we would not miss. This proved to be crucial when the shot presented itself.”

The property that they obtained permission to hunt was one that Caleb was familiar with as he not only lives on part of the property (and can literally see deer moving around on the farm while sitting in his home), but he has hunted it many times in the past. Caleb, also like Wes, hadn’t hunted much the last few seasons. Caleb’s in-Laws actually own this nice piece of real-estate, and it’s a combination of farm and pastureland, between where two homes lie.

The property is about 170 acres total in size, with a variety of crop fields, alfalfa fields, pasture ground and an approximately 35-acre wooded area with a main creek running through it. This is your typical quality Midwestern whitetail habitat. The main field on the property had been sown in soybeans in the spring of ’24. This, in addition to the alfalfa fields that abut the landowner’s home, are the main food sources in the immediate area. With such limited hunting pressure on the property in recent years, it was home to a great number of whitetails. And, beginning in the growing season of last year, a massive non-typical had been showing up at different times.

Caleb’s mother-in-law actually had a camera set up inside their home and on occasion she’d catch the big buck feeding in the fields that are closest to the house. She snapped a great image of the buck in full velvet in August not too awfully long before the buck would shed his velvet. Although the shot was taken at a fair distance, it’s easy to see what all the fuss was about as it pertained to this buck! He was enormous in body size and antler size. After gleaning over the images of this great whitetail, the Nicley brothers decided on a proper nickname for such a colossus: “The Freak.”

Wes recalls, “We did a few scouting trips and planned on where we would sit. We had access to one (stand) on the south end of the property. We knew of a couple good ground spots as well. Another hunter would be hunting on the north end of the property.” Caleb had hunted his in-laws’ property on and off for the last several years, and he knew of the general travel patterns of the deer.

“I was more excited just to be out there with my son hunting, so the focus for me was to get him an opportunity to get a good shot at one,” says Wes. “We knew the big buck was out there, as we had several pictures of him in velvet and a couple from the weeks leading up to the season. My goal was to get Carson a buck and then hunt The Freak hard through the remainder of the season.”

Saturday, November 16th arrived, and Wes and Carson were out hunting. But they didn’t see much action; the wind wasn’t in their favor. The next morning found the duo out once again, and they chose a funnel area where some of the bucks had been known to travel. Although they did see some antlerless deer, none of them presented any kind of shot. Not long after, they heard three shots coming from the north end of the property. They decided to stay put and hunt for another hour or so. After that, they made it to their church for the third service.

While at church, Caleb texted Wes to let him know The Freak was “down.” He explains, “My stomach turned upside down. I couldn’t concentrate, and so I texted him back: ‘Like, down for good?’”

As the day wore on, Wes received more texts verifying that the shots he’d heard were indeed the ones being fired at the buck. While Wes was feeling sick about it, he learned that the other hunter had tracked the buck but had lost the blood trail at 1:00 that afternoon and quit looking thereafter.

Soon after, Caleb decided on a hunch to go and assume the trailing job on the buck. But after tracking it and following the blood trail the general direction that the other hunter had tracked, he also ran out of blood as the trail dried up.

Wes remembers: “I spent the next day researching blood and blood trails; tracking deer, etc. My brother and I had high hopes and believed that the buck was still alive. My focus was still on helping my son get his first deer. My brother was committed to glassing every night and keeping his eye out for the monster.”

In the meantime, Wes and his son tried to put a shot on a deer, hoping Carson could get his first whitetail. But they couldn’t seem to close the distance. They’d seen plenty of action, and could’ve taken a couple of does, but Wes wanted Carson to take a buck for his first. But before long, the season was winding down with Thanksgiving quickly approaching. With Carson being out of school for several days, their hopes were high. Wes decided they’d hunt hard that week in hopes of getting a buck with the new gun. Then, on Tuesday November 26th, Wes got an unexpected phone call from his brother.

Although Wes hadn’t planned on hunting that evening, this call would change all that. Caleb had noticed about 5-10 antlerless deer, and the occasional young buck feeding in the bean stubble for practically every evening since the opening weekend. He noticed on this afternoon there were about twice as many deer out, which piqued his curiosity. He grabbed his binoculars and started looking them over. He then drove around to his in-laws’ house to get a better look at the field and surroundings. Not long after, he spotted a separate deer, along the fencerow, but not in amongst the others.

Caleb eventually found the other deer in his binoculars and immediately realized that it was The Freak! The buck was traveling close to the others, but seemingly not wanting to expose himself too much. He was sticking to the fencerow but was aware there were plenty of does out feeding. During the phone call Caleb asked his brother, “Are you hunting this evening? The Freak is alive! He’s walking along the fencerow by the creek with 15-20 other deer in the field.” This was about 3:45 in the afternoon.

Wes recalls, “I immediately packed up my gun, grabbed my boots, an orange hat and basically just went in the clothes that I had on. I left to head to his house, which is about 8 minutes away. On the way to Caleb’s house, I called my wife and told her what I was doing. She reminded me that I was supposed to take Adalyn, my daughter, to meet a lady who was taking her to a high school basketball game. But I told my wife she’d have to figure out a new plan, because this was a once-in-a-lifetime buck!” Then Wes sped to his brother’s place, full of anticipation and adrenaline.

“Caleb waited until I was in his driveway to leave his position where he had eyes on the buck. We made the game plan in the driveway as I prepared to stalk,” Wes explains.

Caleb grabbed his trusted old .243 Win. rifle but decided to stay near his house, which sits close to the main part of woods. He figured he’d sit still because he didn’t want to spook any of the other deer. He stayed in a corner spot where he might be able to get a shot on the giant buck, if it came to that.

Wes then headed directly for the pasture that runs parallel with the creek bottom woods. He made sure to stay up against the fencerow to help conceal his movements while traveling through the pasture. The pasture runs east to west and is directly adjacent to the creek bottom woods. He knew the general area that the buck was in, but he had to be very careful. Eventually, Wes had to get down and crawl as he approached the timber. At one point, he decided to ditch his binoculars as they were affecting his crawling.

Wes would crawl a bit, then use his scope to glass to see if he could locate the buck. He finally found the buck’s position. The buck had laid down near the edge of the woods on the opposite side of the creek, where he could feel hidden and keep an eye on the does in the field.

Ever so slowly, Wes continued the stalk. But then, the buck spotted the hunter’s movement as he slowly closed the distance! Thankfully though, he seemed to be preoccupied with the other deer. Wes thinks there’s a chance the buck even confused him with a sheep, as that part of the pasture is used to keep sheep during much of the year.

Regardless, the buck’s pre-occupied demeanor makes Wes believe at least one of the does were in estrus and “casting a spell” on the rutting buck.

We’ll never know for sure why the giant buck didn’t spook from Wes that day. But we do know that Wes was ever-so-slowly getting closer to a spot where he could get a shot.

By this time, Wes was also very cold, as the ground was wet; and his lack of proper hunting clothing was becoming a factor. In fact, he says he couldn’t really feel his hands; they were so cold! But he’d now made it to about 60-70 yards from the buck. The buck, which was still on the opposite side of the creek from Wes’s position, was still bedded and watching the other deer for a moment.

Wes remembers that every so often the buck would turn back to look in his direction, towards the woodlot. Every time the buck snapped his head to look at the other deer, Wes would slowly move closer. This intense standoff was beginning to wrack Wes’s nerves. But he was now more than close enough for a shot.

When the buck looked back into the field, Wes hopped over a dead tree and held a kneeling position. Just then the buck stood up! All of Wes’s pre-season shooting practice had culminated into this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at one of the largest bucks that’s ever existed. The .308 rifle barked, and the giant dropped in his tracks! Wes was overcome with a combination of joy, nervousness and a sort of quasi-hypothermia.

He explains, “When I realized he was down for good, it was bittersweet! I was super excited and proud that I had killed him the way that I had. I was also proud of the shot I made. And I think I had a bit of adrenaline dump from the tension of stalking him for that long. I also remember wishing that Carson was there with me.”

Wes recalls, “I knew he was dead but wanted to wait anyway, just to give it some time. About that time, my son called asking where I was for his ride home. He was done with basketball practice and didn’t see me at the school. I told him the situation and that I’d killed the monster.”

Wes then arranged for a friend to pick up Carson and bring him home. At that point, Wes called Caleb to let him know the giant was down. Caleb got his Ranger side-by-side and drove it around to get ready for the pick-up.

Then, celebrations ensued! And soon after the men were headed to the butcher that takes care of Wes’s deer, who lives just a short drive from their home. After convincing the lady who runs the butchery to cape the buck that night, Wes prepared to take the cape and antlers to Schmeltz’s Taxidermy in Bloomingdale the very next morning.

It didn’t take too long for word to get out that Wes had killed a world-class whitetail. Boone and Crockett measurer Gary Howard from Kingman, Indiana, would be tasked with measuring the colossus. He says, “I was actually measuring a deer at Schmeltz’ shop when Wes called and asked me if I could measure his deer. I asked him if he could send me a picture, and we set up a time for him to come so we could measure it at the shop.”

Gary continues: “I was kind of busy when he called, but after I looked at the pictures, I told him he was going to be bored to tears because it was going to take me a while to measure the buck. Wes sent me two pictures of that deer, and when I saw them, I decided to call Ron Cunningham (another measurer from the Covington, Indiana area) for assistance.

It would end up taking both men about four hours to get the final numbers tallied up. The results were nothing short of spectacular.

Whenever you have whitetails that are approaching 300 inches of antler, it goes without saying that you have a combination of all the attributes that will get a score to go that high: mega mass, multiple tines going every direction, an enormous typical frame — you name it, this buck has it. There are only a handful of bucks that score higher than the Wes Nicley buck, and they’re all somewhat similar with what they offer.

One thing that really jumps out about Wes’s buck is how the right-side main beam seems to have a twisted look to it. Many of the tines that are near the end of that side’s main beam seem to continue to twist in some fashion. The rack is massive, with 60 4/8 inches of gross mass measurements. And it retains its beautiful chocolate color throughout. The left side features a very long tine that juts out similar to a Caribou shovel. This same side also sports a very pronounced drop-tine with shards of velvet still attached.

In all, the non-typical rack has 35 scorable points. And get this: there are several tines that’d broken off at some point! It’s not hard to see that this buck would have pushed fairly easily to over 300 inches had it not broken those tines.

The 6X6 typical frame gross scores 198 6/8 inches with 17 4/8 inches of side-to-side differences, for a typical portion net of 181 2/8 inches. When we then add the 23 non-typical tines that measure collectively at 114 3/8 inches, we come up with a net non-typical score of 295 5/8 inches. This obviously puts the Wes Nicely Buck into some very exclusive company.

It’s worth noting here that this is something of a preliminary score, as the buck will no doubt be panel measured for Boone and Crockett at a future date. But, assuming this score holds up, it will be the top non-typical from the Hoosier State for the 2024-25 season and will rank as the No. 2 non-typical for Indiana all-time, trailing only the 303 7/8-inch Tim Beck Buck. And, as of this writing, it is the largest non-typical killed in all of the world for the 2024-25 deer season.

Wes Nicley’s trophy will most likely find its way into only a handful of non-typicals that approach and/or hover right at the 300-inch mark. At its current score, Wes’s buck will be sandwiched between Tony Fulton’s giant 295 6/8 Mississippi buck, and Scott Dexter’s 295 3/8 Illinois monster, in the top-10 all time for hunter-taken non-typicals.

If you’ve read any of my past articles, you know I’m an unabashed fan of some of the cool nicknames that many of these colossal bucks obtain, such as the 291 1/8 (Jerry) Bryant Giant from Illinois; or the (Shaun) Harvey Wallhanger, the super palmated 192 0/8 typical freak (not coincidentally, also from Indiana).

When I first heard about this buck and found out it was taken in Boone County, Indiana, my brain immediately made the “Boone” and Boone and Crockett connection. Perhaps this central Indiana county was named after our American hero soldier, explorer and frontiersman Daniel Boone in 1830. How fitting that one of the all-time B&C greats was taken in this county. Here’s to the Wes Nicley Buck, or as I’ll call it, “The Boone County Booner.”

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