Guide Life: Nate Meyer
Jacob Morris for SPLIT REED
Cover Photo: Alex Diecidue
Have you ever wanted to hunt geese in a pond surrounded by oak trees? It’s about as close to timber goose hunting as you can get. It is so close quarters that when the geese do come in, you can hear their wings cutting through the wind as they hoover above water on the way down. You might even get the chance to hunt in the back yard of a million-dollar home, on a pond that is holding thousands of large Canada geese, soon landing inches from your face in the ice-hole that is open thanks to the tireless efforts of the ice eaters.. These are the kind of unique hunting experiences you could undergo with Nate Meyer and crew of Valley Oaks located at Grain Valley, MO. This is truly the suburban guided goose hunt unlike any other- where you can kill your limit of geese and be downtown Kansas City eating some amazing BBQ in a matter of minutes.
Photo: Triston Hillyard
Nate Meyer was born, raised, and still lives in Missouri. He owns and operates Valley Oaks Outdoors. When he is not guiding waterfowl in Missouri, Nate Meyer is also on the video team for Heartland Waterfowl, which is associated with Heartland Bowhunter. Both shows are on the Sportsman’s Channel, Outdoor Channel, and even on Amazon Prime. That’s where he got his start in the guiding business he said.
“It kind of started when I began doing the tv show for Heartland, traveling all across the country and hunting all over I started to realize what we had here at home. It was always hard to be gone in January when I would be getting calls from my buddies saying, ‘hey your stuff is loaded’. When I was home my spots would be saved and loaded! I would always invite everyone I could but I only had a short window when I could get out with the people I wanted to hunt with. I still had my obligation with Heartland to film our home episodes, so we would run 10-15 guys on a Saturday morning. After shooting our birds everyone kept talking about how this was badass way to hunt. I started seeing how other people ran their operations knowing that I can operate at that level and through that I finally got the courage to start. I went to my partners who I have a long relationship with and have been hunting their grounds for 30 years. They are land developers who have bought land right outside the city limits, which are some of the best hunting grounds around. So, I pitched them the idea that there is potential here, and they ran with it, so we have been slowly building the business.” Nate started Valley Oaks just two years ago, and like many new outfitters that don’t have a large established cliental, 2020 hurt more than it helped. However, they are working through the kinks associated with starting a business, and growing Valley Oaks one limit at a time.
Like many industries and even in everyday life, but especially the waterfowl industry, it is all about connections. Those connections can either help you or hinder you. Nate has been blessed with some great connections from the land developers that are now his partners and getting his start with Heartland waterfowl. It was fate and being at that right place right time scenario. “My start with heartland started back in 2012 or 2013 when the guys were struggling to film an at home episode, and I had access to some ground that had a bunch of geese. Heartland called and asked if it was okay if they come out and filmed a hunt with me. I was like ‘Hell Yeah, that would be cool!’ They came out and of course that day was the worst day I have had hunting in a 10 day stretch, we maybe killed 4 geese, I was pretty embarrassed. It’s the same thing you have to deal with when you have clients in- you can’t control the birds. You may have been shooting them good, and you hit that one day when they change up on you. I had them out a couple more times that year and we did really well. After that, they invited me to go on a North Dakota trip. They needed an extra gun. That’s when I saw the film side of it and got involved with that. I picked up a camera and learned how to take pictures and film. I liked running a camera. I went to the heartland bowhunters film school and got invited to come on full time for the show and it has kind of gone on from there!”
The rest is history for Nate, and if it wasn’t for that phone call, he would never have had the experience to start and hit the ground running with his own business- where he gets to call the shot, both with the business and in the blind. “I thought that the direction I wanted to go was to be a content creator, and the more I got into it, I realized I hated not being able to hunt. I love filming it, but I dislike not like being able to control the spread and give my input. We do and we don’t in our schedule with Heartland. We film and hunt every other day of the trip. It’s hard for me to let go of my passion for the hunt, that’s where my passion is at, is with that bird and the strategy behind the hunt- no matter if it’s ducks or geese.”
Nate also has a mentoring heart. He believes in teaching young kids the right way to duck hunt; they are the future of the sport after all. I think we can all agree that social media can influence the younger generation, and it can be in good ways but also in bad ways. A lot of people are more concerned with killing limits of ducks and geese for a picture on Instagram and would screw over anyone that gets in their way and are less concerned with the comradery and enjoyment of this sport. Nate is passionate about giving back to the sport, and as he said, “I like to give back as much as I do take from the sport, I think that’s where a lot of people give up on, what hunting really is. It’s a business at that point and I don’t ever want to look at it like that! Yeah, I need to make money in order to keep going but I also want to be able to give back as much as I can. To introduce and mentor as many people as I can. I have young local kids that call me all the time to pick my brain. I won’t tell them where to go but I will tell how to do it and let them figure it the rest out on their own.” So, if you’re the type of person like me that looks at a company’s ‘why’ before you do business with them, well then you should consider Valley Oaks. They a company that not only gives back, but also offers a truly unique goose hunting experience.
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