Blind Teenager Successfully Hunts 300-Pound Bear

Through Youth Outdoors Unlimited, a blind Washington teenager was able to live out a dream when she bagged a 300-pound bear.

Blind Teenager Successfully Hunts 300-Pound Bear

Maegan Weiler’s determination to bag a black bear in June was impressive, but adding that the 14-year-old Washington native is blind makes her story even more amazing.

Weiler waited 13 consecutive hours, the Yakima Herald reports, before having the chance to get a bear. When the opportunity arose and a 300-pound black bear appeared about 85 yards away the high school freshman came through.

The hunt was organized by Youth Outdoors Unlimited (YOU), the Yakima Herald reports. YOU is a non-profit organization that plans hunting and fishing trips for kids with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses.

For Weiler’s hunt, her rifle was set on a tripod and a video camera run through the scope so a guide could see what Weiler was unable to. Yet, it took only one shot for her to get the bear.

“It was kind of like a video game,” Weiler told the Yakima Herald. “They told me right or left, but I got to aim and everything. It was awesome.”

Weiler’s father, Matt, expressed to the Yakima Herald his gratefulness to YOU for allowing Maegan to go on the three-day hunt.

“We’ve always hunted as a family, but how we’ve done it in the past for deer hunting is her grandfather or I held the rifle and she pulled the trigger, but this she did holding it herself,” he told the newspaper. “It really helped her boost her confidence and show her she can do stuff by herself.”

According to the Yakima Herald, Weiler’s story is a perfect example of why YOU’s founder Cindy Carpenter and her husband started the organization in 2011.

“We try to specialize in adapting situations to accommodate kids with different medical conditions and mostly what we’ve seen with kids with disabilities is that they are able to continue to hunt with what they learn from us,” Carpenter told the newspaper.



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