Michigan elk hunters faced challenging weather and storm-ravaged terrain to harvest 153 elk in 2025. That didn’t deter Bruce Nelson of Hastings, Mich. He applied for an elk license every year Michigan has held a drawing. The state’s first elk hunts were in 1964 and 1965. The drawing was then paused due to low elk numbers. It resumed in the 1980s.
Nelson, now 87, finally drew a tag in 2025 and was able to shoot a cow elk (lower left) on Dec. 13. “Have you ever known anyone who’s waited 61 years to get an elk?” Nelson said with a laugh. “It was an absolute privilege and a thrill to get my elk after all this time.”
Also on the morning of Dec. 13, Brent Henige of New Lothrop, Mich., shot a 559-pound elk on state-managed public land. The wind chill was 10 below zero, but he was able to locate and harvest the elk within a couple hours.
“I didn’t have time to shake,” he said. “It happened so quickly.” Despite the frigid cold, he, his wife, two children and family members gathered outside to join in the celebration (above left). Henige had applied for an elk license for 19 consecutive years before finally drawing the tag in the popular annual drawing.
Gary Whitmire (far right in above right photo) harvested a cow elk the same day on private land near Atlanta, Mich. The Flushing, Mich., resident is 75 and a former biology teacher who grew up “loving and appreciating” elk. He even incorporated hunting into his classroom lessons. With him in the photo are Gary’s son, Tom, cousin Chuck Whitmire of Canada Creek Elk Guides.
“With more than 47,000 applicants for the 260 elk hunting licenses made available, Michigan elk hunting is a highly prized opportunity,” said Brent Rudolph, the deer, elk and moose management specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
“Despite their good fortune, the lucky hunters drawn for this year faced a variety of challenges to harvesting an elk,” Rudolph said. “Those challenges included high temperatures in the early hunt period, blustery cold and freezing rain in the late hunt period, and continued complications from the historic March 2025 ice storm that left significant areas of downed trees and debris in the woods of northern Michigan.”
The DNR uses hunting as the primary method to sustainably manage Michigan’s elk population, which stands at an estimated 1,150 animals. The elk herd is centered in the Pigeon River Country State Forest, primarily in Cheboygan, Montmorency and Otsego counties.
The DNR Wildlife Division has proposed lengthening the elk hunting season for the 2026-2027 hunting cycle. If approved the two hunting periods would provide 45 total days of harvest time, more than double the current 21 days.
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