Teenage Texas girl drops massive buck, likely new state record

BOWIE COUNTY, Texas — Reili Brewer, 14, was standing in the cold Texas rain talking on her phone at about 6 in the morning when she looked up and saw a deer come out of the woods, according to KLTV. He was the big one with the gigantic rack she and her dad had been watching and trying to harvest for three years, the news station reported.

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She said that she was more than a little starstruck. This deer was enormous. She knew they were closing on the animal; her father had trail cam footage of him climbing out of his bed in the morning, according to KTLV. They both knew they were in an area where they might see him.

Reili saw him.

“My nerves were shot,” she told KLTV. “But my dad’s words were with me. I just took a breath and slowly squeezed the trigger.”

Her dad, Rickey, was in the truck still shivering from the morning chill, trying to warm up, when he heard the shot, according to the news station. He said he hurried back to his daughter. She was trembling, too, from excitement and relief.

She kept saying, “I shot the big one,” pointing to where the deer had stood, KLTV reported.

Her father found it about 35 yards away.

Reili has been hunting for about three years, her father said, and she’s a devoted hunter. She spends all the time she can in the woods.

The Brewers hunt at Red River Army Depot, which is part of an Army base. Rickey Brewer is a civilian employee and is allowed access to the land. It’s about 12,000 to 13,000 acres of heavy timber. It’s built for deer. The land is managed to encourage growth among the whitetail population, but the deer are free range and not held in by fences, according to KLTV.

“I’ve been in the woods since I was little,” Reili told the news station. “I’ve loved it ever since.”

Her father said he was glad it was his daughter who made the harvest.

And what a harvest it was — a 31-point buck that Rickey Brewer said a taxidermist scored at 238 1/8, which would easily beat the state youth record of 209. But nothing is official for 60 days, when the buck will be officially scored.

“I owe everything to him,” Reili told KLTV, speaking about her father. “He sets me up on everything. He’s been with me my whole life. It’s incredible.”

“I’m super proud of her,” he told the news station. “Just hearing her hollering and screaming, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”