Amelia Abshire got her target buck on Oct. 19, 2025, in Hackberry. It was six years to the day from when she took her first buck.
“It was the 19th of October 2019. At just seven years old, my daughter Amelia Abshire found the love for deer hunting. We set out early that morning to hunt for her very first time. It wasn’t long after getting her gun set up that the sun started to rise. Within an hour, a small buck made his way to the feeder. We sat and watched him for a few minutes before she settled behind the rifle and made a perfect shot. Her first deer ever was down. He was a 5-point, but that didn’t matter because it was her first deer and she put meat in the freezer. She ended the season with a beautiful 10-point. The next three years she shot a couple small bucks. On Oct. 20, 2022, she shot an 11-point buck that was bigger than the 10-point she had taken.
We also traveled to Sonora, Texas, where she shot a really nice axis buck and a very big ram. Over the next couple years, she managed to continue to shoot small bucks and keep our freezer full of meat. In January of 2025, we traveled to Ohio and hunted with a very good friend of ours, Mr. Josh Slone. It snowed the entire time we were there, and she ended up shooting a nice 8-point with a crossbow.
Our deer season opened in Hackberry, and she had her heart set on one buck and one buck only. We only had him on camera twice the year before. Rifle season opened Oct. 18, and we set out the evening of the 19th to go after a spike that had been showing up every evening, because we were out of ground meat! We got settled in the stand and had only been set up for about 45 minutes when my daughter tapped me on the leg and said, ‘there’s a deer.’ She had been messing with me, so I was like whatever. I turned to look and to my surprise there he was, her target buck! Within 35 seconds of him stepping out, she took the shot and it was perfect. The deer went less than 30 yards before he went down.
This journey I call “The Love for Hunting,”started on Oct. 19, 2019 and she shot her personal best to date on Oct. 19, 2025. Six years to the day from
first buck to trophy-buck! It’s been an amazing adventure, hunting with my daughter/best buddy for the past seven years. May the memories and love for the sport continue for a lifetime.”