By Lourie Lounsbury
Staff Writer
OTSEGO COUNTY ----
Chuck Butcher is batting a thousand on his elk-hunting outings.
Twice his name has been drawn for an elk hunting permit, and twice
he's taken an elk
This year was Butcher's bonanza, getting a permit to take an
antlered elk. That's just what he did on this third day of hunting.
Butcher took an 11-point, 575-pound bull elk.
"He's a six-by-five, six points on one side of the rack and five on
the other," Butcher said.
On Butcher's first hunt in 1998, he took a cow about half the size
of his bull elk.
James Donajkowski of Chester Township also had a successful elk
hunt, taking a 425-pound cow on state land near the North Black
River.
"It was a lot of fun, but a little challenging", Donajkowski said.
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Since his permit allowed him to take only an anterless elk,
Donajkowski had to track the more elusive of the genders.
"The cows are really aware of their
surroundings, very attentive, probably because they're protecting
their young", he said.
Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources biologist Glen Matthews said 95
hunters took a total of 80 elk during the hunting season, keeping
with the department's goal of maintaining the herd at current
populations of 800 to 900 elk.
The largest number of elk were taken in Cheboygan County on private
land, in a fringe area of the total designated hunting area.
Nineteen elk were harvested from that area, with permission of the
landowner.
Twenty-eight bulls and 52 cows and calves were taken during the
one-week hunt, from Dec. 9-16.
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