For most of her life, the idea of shooting a deer was unthinkable to Amy Rush. An animal lover who once believed hunting was cruel, she grew up watching her uncle bring home “beautiful, free animals” and couldn’t understand why anyone would kill a deer instead of buying meat at the store.
Even though she heard countless stories from her uncle about hunting the Maine woods, she thought he only did so to bring home the biggest, most impressive bucks.
Her perspective began to shift when she got her hunting license to support her son Jenek in the woods and provide food for her family. During the process, she developed an appreciation and admiration for hunters.
She stopped being a vegetarian in 2007, when she became pregnant and wanted to ensure the healthiest pregnancy possible, which included consuming more protein. After reading books and watching documentaries she learned more about the conditions in which farm-raised animals are often kept. She and her children began raising their own chickens and pigs to ensure the animals lived a free-range, humane life.
Hunting soon became another way to connect to her food in a way that matched her values, and she discovered she enjoyed the taste of venison.
Rush grew up in Limington, before attending the University of New Hampshire. She now lives in New Hampshire, where she has harvested one doe and one buck.
She returned to the Maine woods in 2020, when her son began hunting turkeys and then deer later that fall. She was by his side on Thanksgiving Day that year when, at age 10, he shot his first deer.
This year, she harvested her first Maine deer only 200-300 yards from where her son got his.
Since taking up hunting, she said, “I have had a dream of being able to hunt Maine and hang one at the same deer camp my uncle and father hung theirs.”
That moment came on Saturday, Nov. 29 — the final day of the rifle season — when a large buck stepped into a Limington field. Rush felt her heart race. She thought of her late Uncle Gary, whose hunting lessons still guide her.
“I talk to my Uncle Gary every time I go out and I know he was with me Saturday,” Rush said.
She calmed her breath, steadied her shoulders and took a controlled shot. The buck, a 178-pound, 10-pointer, ran about 50 yards and dropped.
Only later did she realize just how large he was. Friends and family estimate he may qualify for the Boone and Crockett record book based on an early rough score of about 181.
“Everyone keeps telling me that people pay big money and travel all over in hopes of coming across a buck like him — a buck of 1,000 lifetimes they say.”
Her 15-year-old son said he was glad she got the buck. If he had shot a deer that big, he told her, he might never be able to top it — and now he still has something to strive for.
Rush and her children hunt for meat and herd management rather than trophies. They avoid harvesting does with fawns, pass up young bucks and shoot only what they plan to use.
Before this year, she never even had the chance to pass up a buck. She had only hunted in New Hampshire, and only saw a single buck in the woods.
For her, hunting has become far more than the moment of the shot. It has changed the way she sees the natural world.
“I know now it’s not about getting a wall hanger,” she said. “It’s about providing for the family, being in nature, appreciating and observing the beauty of such noble animals.”
She said she now notices the smallest details. “I have learned that a leaf drifting down from a tree makes a sound. I know how a crow’s wings create music as they move the wind in flight above my head. I love being unplugged and in the moment, clearing my mind and just watching the woods or fields.”
Rush’s daughter has also youth hunted and shot her first deer — a six-point buck — on the same Limington property on the last day of the season a few years ago, in a snowstorm. She plans to return next year after completing hunter safety.
As for Rush, she’s still reflecting on how far she has come from the vegetarian who once opposed hunting entirely.
“I cannot say enough about what hunting is to me now,” Rush said. “Crazy since I was so against it in the past. To say I am grateful is an understatement.”
