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Hunting and fishing is my absolute passion
Welcome to another episode of White-Tail Rendezvous. This is your host, Bruce Hutcheon, and I’m really excited. We’re heading down to Florida and they’re kind of ducking or dodging a hurricane right now so I’m going to invite Meghan Bieberle Hunting and fishing is my absolute passion on the show today.
Meghan: Yes, sir.
Bruce: And Meghan’s got a great story. She’s worked at Bass Pro, she’s involved with Just For Does, Spent Rounds, LTD Outdoors, and she was even a past elk guide in my state, my home state of Colorado. Meghan, welcome to the show.
Meghan: Thank you for having me on, I really appreciate it.
Bruce: Me, too. I’m excited to get into it and share some of your incredible stories. As a young woman you’ve done a lot already so I can’t wait to share it with our listeners. So, without further adieu, let’s start right off with talking about LTD Outdoors and what does that stand for and what do you do there?
Meghan: All right. LTD Outdoors, it stands for “Living The Dream Outdoors” and their main mission is to get people involved, youth, or any beginners who have never been involved in the outdoors and get them involved in the outdoors and teach them all about it. There’s so many people, especially I feel like in today’s society that have never had the opportunity to experience anything outdoors whether it be fishing or hunting or anything. And it’s so much fun and just a great time and so many people never get that opportunity. So their main mission is all about getting people involved in the outdoors which I think is the best thing.
Bruce: Tell me about this guy, Josh, there’s a young man named Josh. He seems to be a pretty special young guy.
young man named Josh. He seems to be a pretty special young guy
Meghan: Yes, sir. So I met his dad, actually, earlier on this year and he was telling me about his son, Josh, who has osteosarcoma which is a cancer. And when he was younger he was having trouble with his leg, he kept complaining about his leg hurting and all the doctors kept telling him that it was growing pains. And long story short they got a fourth opinion and now he had a huge tumor and they had to amputate his whole leg. So he has a bionic leg and he’s been battling cancer now for a couple years and he’ll go through chemo and he’ll be cancer-free and then it comes back. And he told his dad this year, “One thing that I want to do is turkey hunt. I’ve never turkey hunted. I want to go turkey hunting.” And so, of course, I was like, “Oh, we’ve got to get him out there.” So we took him and I brought my 20-gauge shotgun, Remington 1100 which is the first shotgun my dad bought me when I was 10 years old, and let him use that and it was just an incredible experience.
We called in four long beards gobbling their butts off. And I told him to line it up on one and he lined it up and he shot and two long beards dropped. So he got two in one shot and that was just…That was the most incredible experience. I also got it all on film and his dad was there with us. It was just unbelievable. That, to me, is what it’s all about. Getting people involved in the outdoors and being able to experience something like that. Not just for myself but for him and his dad. That’s something that will never be forgotten.
Bruce: That’s a priceless memory and I’d love to see the video if that’s available, that’s for sure. And, listeners, take the time, look around where you live, what you’re doing, and there’s always somebody that can use the experience of the out of doors. And, Meghan, thank you so much for just reaching out and saying, “Hey, let’s get her done,” and you sure as heck did. So, I salute you on behalf of the White-Tail Rendezvous nation, thanks for doing that because you did give Josh a priceless memory and that’s just awesome.
Meghan: Oh, that’s what it’s all about. You know?
Bruce: So, I also see in your bio here American Disability Adventures. What are they up to?
Meghan: Yes, sir. So that’s a foundation…Basically any age group young or old and they take a bunch of disabled people and we take them out twice a year. Once on a turkey hunt in the spring and once in the fall. And that’s also an incredible experience, too. All kinds of people and just being able to get them involved in the outdoors. We had a paralyzed boy one time, a young paralyzed boy and he was in this wheelchair and we took a straw and hooked the straw up to the trigger and this turkey came out and he shot a turkey when he blew on the straw which then went to the trigger and he shot this bird. That was awesome. And then I was also able to take a 10-year-old boy who was born pretty much without an arm, just no…Very small limbs on both sides.
So we also rigged up a shotgun for him and that was just awesome. We went on Saturday the first day and twice that day I called in a long beard within 10 yards and he missed, he shot right over the birds head twice, two different times in one day. And then the third day I called in two more and he finally got one and that was just awesome. That was something that I’ll never forget. And his dad was also with us and able to experience it, too. And stuff like that. You know? That’s what keeps me wanting to come back. You never forget that and to be able to share that with other people, there’s just nothing like it.
Bruce: You’re 100% right and thanks for just being involved and I look forward to staying in touch with you because you’ve got an amazing career ahead of you in the outdoors if you so choose that. Let’s jump right in and talk about where your tradition of hunting came from. Where did the passion for chasing white-tails and turkeys and everything else that you do?
Where did the passion for chasing white-tails and turkeys and everything else that you do?
Meghan: So it’s kind of a different story. Typically people who are into hunting, a lot of them, are brought up that way. And I was brought up hunting. The whole reason I have my passion is because of my father. My father was not brought up hunting. When I was two his dad had a heart attack and died and when he was going through his stuff he went up in the attic and he found an old 12-gauge, bolt action shotgun from Sears and my dad has his own business and so through that he knows a lot of people who hunt. And he just started taking me. And when I was about four years old we started dove hunting. That was the first thing we did and he hunted… His dad never took him hunting so it was really kind of cool because we both started at the same time and then we learned together. And that’s something that’s really neat to see as the years go by from when we first started hunting to now so much that we’ve learned through the years. And he jokes now, he says he’s created a maniac because I love it so much.
Bruce: Let’s talk about lessons learned that your dad or other friends, uncles, or just other gal friends have shared with you that have made a difference and made you a better hunter.
Meghan: I would definitely say just in general having good woodsmanship. I think having good woodsmanship is a key to being successful no matter what you’re hunting. Whether you’re turkey hunting or deer hunting you can be the greatest caller in the world but in my opinion if you don’t have good woodsmanship…And what I mean by that is studying the animal, learning about them, figuring out where they bed, figuring out where they eat, where they sleep, where they go to get water. And if you study that animal and you learn about them and you do your homework you’re bound to be successful. You can be a great caller and have some close encounters but I still think if you have great woodsmanship that’s going to top anything. You’re going to be a better hunter overall if you have good woodsmanship.
Bruce: Let’s talk about an “aha” moment. You know, when you couldn’t figure something out and then all of a sudden you go, “Oh, man. I should have had a V8.” That’s a joke. But it just happens and it pops in, the light-bulb goes off, and you go, “Oh. Why’d I take so long to figure this out?” So share a couple of those with us.
Meghan: Well, last year I had to really try to do my homework and study the deer. I hunt a lot here in St. Cloud and I had pretty much been watching these deer figuring out where they were going, where they were bedding, where they were eating, about what time they would come out, and I went with my sister last year during the archery season and sure enough here come about seven does. And they all came out and it was awesome. I shot the doe, it was a great shot. She didn’t go 50 yards. You know? But I’ve learned so much from that just because when you do your homework and you study and you scout and you learn…Yeah, it wasn’t a big buck that I shot last year. But not so much when the rut is going on but when you study the signs as far as scrapes and rubs and you figure out what they’re doing, that in itself is huge. I really think…I’ve learned so much from that and even from my mistakes I learned way more from my mistakes than I do from my success.