Indiana Buck with Double Brow Tines Tagged After 2-Year Chase

Prior to the Indiana archery opener in 2023 Maranda Nichols and her husband, James, each formulated plans for target bucks on the family property in northeast Indiana. The buck Maranda hoped to arrow was a wide mainframe 9-pointer with a kicker off its right brow tine. James was after a mainframe 10-pointer with matching forked brow tines.

Last season, Nichols had targeted a buck she had been chasing for two years, only to have a neighbor take it during firearms season. All images by Maranda Nichols

Maranda had hunted her buck for two seasons, but could never seem to close the deal. The ‘23 archery season brought more of the same cat and mouse games between the hunter and the wary whitetail. “He would come into the swamp like clockwork at 5:30 every evening and just tease me,” she said. “He would be 70 yards away and just hang out there showing off his beautiful rack. One night he finally came out of the swamp but was still 50-55 yards away. I just didn’t feel confident in taking the shot.”

After that encounter, Maranda decided to tweak her setup and build a makeshift ground blind, hoping to be closer to the buck when he stepped out. “The night I decided to move closer, I heard something crunching through the leaves and looked out into the soybean field to see him standing right there! He walked directly behind my (previous) stand that night and made his way to the bean field. I just couldn’t win with him,” she said.

Unfortunately for Maranda, a neighbor shot the big buck she was after on opening afternoon of firearms season. “I was in disbelief at that point. I watched this deer so many times while also getting hundreds of trail cam pics of him,” she explained. But, she also knew that it’s part of the game. “I couldn’t make it happen and he had the chance to. I still continued to hunt day after day, all the way up until the last day of late bow season in January. I saw plenty of little bucks and does, but nothing that I felt was mature enough. I would rather them grow to their full potential than take them out early just because I was itching to let an arrow go. I still very much enjoyed all the things I learned that year.”

James never saw the big deer he was after, either, and so the 2023 season fizzled out. Eventually the warmer spring temperatures found the Nichols running their trail cameras to see what bucks had survived. As summer gave way to the upcoming bow season that new sense of anticipation began to creep into Maranda’s mind. The buck that James had been hunting in ’23 was still around, and he’d blown up into an exceptional deer. James told Maranda to shoot the buck if she got a chance. The deer showed up often on their cameras throughout the summer, and they were even lucky enough to get an image of it when he was shedding his velvet in early September. Then, two weeks prior to the October 1 season opener, he simply vanished.

As spring turned to summer, the buck her husband had been after the season before showed back up and had blown up into an exceptional deer.

“With high hopes I started the year off strong hunting mornings and evenings mostly every day. As the days went by—passing on smaller deer—I started to get a little worried. A lot of other hunters were finding multiple dead deer in their areas due to a suspected outbreak of EHD. I hoped and prayed this wouldn’t happen to us. I still continued to grind day in day out with switching from a stand overlooking a cornfield and my go-to spot near the swamp,” Maranda said.

On Oct. 14 she hurried home from work, got all of her gear and headed out. The first hour and a half proved uneventful, but eventually she heard a crashing noise come from the swamp. She grabbed her binocular and saw a good 10-pointer hooking some tree limbs. Soon after he started pushing a couple of does, so she stood up to get ready for a possible shot.

Don’t Miss: 4-STEP DEER BUTCHERING: THE PATH TO AMAZING VENISON

The does ran out of the swamp and Nichols lost sight of the buck. She decided to lightly grunt in hopes that he’d reappear. Meanwhile, both of the does were heading toward her stand and finally the buck showed itself. Maranda drew her bow once, but had to lower when the buck wouldn’t step out of the thicket. She grunted a few more times but still, the buck wouldn’t budge. Eventually, the does underneath her stand got nervous and began to leave. “I was still hoping the 10- pointer would give me a shot but then I see the one!” she said. The buck with forked brows from 2023 stepped into view, and it had grown into a definite stud.

Maranda drew her bow, and one of the does started blowing. She figured the game was up but the buck stopped and looked around for a minute before it began walking toward her. She said, “He made it about 35 yards away and was quartering hard. He just wouldn’t turn broadside for me. I had no choice but to try to pull this off. I took a deep breath, set my 30-yard pin just a tad high and let her fly!”

As the buck wheeled and ran, Maranda saw her lighted nock flashing and her stomach sank. The arrow was sticking out of the deer, but it appeared to be in the right spot. She then heard a crash. After a 20-minute wait in the tree she got down, hoping to find some blood at the point of impact. Instead she saw the glowing nock 60 yards away.

Maranda Nichols made the shot at 35 yards and watched as the buck dashed off with her arrow, only to hear a crash soon after the shot

“I just figured it fell out of him,” she said. “I went to where I shot him and couldn’t find any blood. I followed where he ran and still had no blood. At this point, I went to get my arrow to see how much penetration I’d gotten. I was about 10 feet from my arrow and I saw a tail. I walked just a foot further, realized my arrow was still in him and he’s down!”

CHECK OUT OUR LATEST CAMO PATTERN: REALTREE APX

Maranda Nichols’ buck is still a mainframe 5x5 typical with forked brow tine, in addition to three other non-typical tines totaling 15 scorable points. The buck has heavy pearling around its bases and brow tines. Excellent symmetry on the typical portion of the rack in addition to approximately 17 ⅝” of non-typical growth will push its final score easily into the 180s as a non-typical after the 60-day drying session.