- Hello everyone, welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

We're so glad you joined us this week.

I'm Jenny Seilick and we have a great show headed your way.

I'll introduce you to a mom here in Michigan who has a couple of great hunting achievements in the record books and we'll also meet her daughter who's following in her footsteps.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And Jimmy and Jordan have some other excitement in store for us this week.

- Well, that's right Jenny.

We do have another story on this week's show, and just as a reminder, we do have a short show again this week because our PBS stations are pledging.

We are gonna kick things off, though, above the bridge on this week's show, doing something that I know all of us wish we could do a little bit more of.

That's chasing snowshoe hare in the Upper Peninsula.

Lots of good stuff on this week's show.

Make sure you stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretsinger, and it's time for "Michigan Out of Doors."

♪ From the first spring rains to the soft summer breeze ♪ ♪ Dancing on the pine forest floor ♪ ♪ The autumn colors catch your eyes ♪ ♪ Here come the crystal winter skies ♪ ♪ It's Michigan, Michigan Out of Doors ♪ - [Hunter] What a beautiful day in the woods ♪ Some day our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ Wonder and the love of Michigan ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering through the trees ♪ ♪ The sweet smell of nature's in the air ♪ ♪ From the Great Lakes to the quiet stream ♪ ♪ Shining like a sportsman's dream ♪ ♪ It's a love of Michigan we all share ♪ - [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by, by Country Smokehouse, a sportsman's destination since 1988, featuring varieties of homemade sausage, jerky, brats, and gourmet entrees.

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(upbeat music) (wind whooshes) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Jay's Sporting Goods, trust the tradition.

(dogs barking) (gentle strumming music) (dogs barking) - Yeah, so here we are, we're in Marquette County, Michigan's upper peninsula.

We're gonna be running snowshoe hare today.

We're gonna have my two dogs.

We got my older dog on the right there, and that Snake, and then we got Buck on the left, seven and a half year old and two and a half year old, and you can hear there that they're fired up, they're into it.

We do this all winter long.

I'm actually a fourth generation beagler.

We've always just kinda had one or two around home and we pretty much grew up running cottontails down in Southwest Michigan, and when I moved to the UP here for work, it wasn't long before I bought beagles of my own and I really got into the snowshoe hare thing.

Majority of the rabbits we have up here in Michigan, in Michigan's upper peninsula is snowshoe hare.

So that's what we're running up here, and we're gonna get 'em on the ground.

There's one other guy coming out.

Should be good.

We're hoping to get some good run, and this is a really good spot for us.

We've been running here for quite a few years.

They've been running here, this camp that we hunt out of, they've been running here for generations and generations, and a lot of jack pine plantations around here, and that 20 to 35-year-old jack pine is really, really good cover for these snowshoe hare, and this particular plantation we're in is around 40 to 60 acres, and it backs up to a swamp and a river, so not only do they have the jack pine for cover, they also have the swamp area.

So it shouldn't be long before we should get some rolling here.

(dogs barking) - [Presenter] It didn't take the dogs long to get on a hare, but getting the camera in the right spot was proving to be pretty difficult.

But as we waited for the dogs to make another circle, we were surprised by a different hare sneaking through the pines.

(distant dogs barking) - [Hunter] Here he comes, you ready?

Ready?

- Yep.

- Got it.

- Yep.

- But wait- - You gotta let him come if he will.

- Way you want it?

- Not right now.

- Let's wait.

(hunter whispering) (gun blasts) (Colter laughs) - That's the problem with hunting and filming.

- Did he get away?

- I don't know.

I threw a prayer in there.

- I saw him come in there, but then I couldn't see him after got behind it.

- [Colter] Yeah.

- [Camera Operator] Just as I was trying to get in better position to see the hare with the camera, it took off.

And although Colter did get a couple of shots, this one got away.

We hunted for a little while longer and called it a night with plans to meet up in a few days to try it again.

During that time, the weather changed and added about a foot of fresh snow to the landscape.

This hunt started at a small cabin tucked way back into the UP wilderness where I'd be tagging along with Colter and a few other hunters as well.

(carefree strumming music) - We're in Central Marquette County, Upper Peninsula.

The camp is called Hortz Hideaway.

So the camp was originally built in either the late forties or early fifties by my dad.

He passed away a couple of years ago, but the camp was originally built then, but then it burnt down in 1978.

Actually when the guys were here, rabbit hunting, they put wood in the fire, and a spark got out, and the camp burnt down when they were rabbit hunting.

But then this camp was built in 1978.

Yeah, it's my favorite place in the world.

We do a lot of hare hunting here in the winter and grouse hunting in the fall, deer hunting in late fall into early winter.

So just a great group of members here.

We've got 10 or 12 guys that come pretty often to hunt and we sometimes fish for brook trout out of this camp too.

- [Presenter] After learning more about the camp, we looked at some old photos and swapped a few stories before loading up and heading out.

The weather conditions were less than ideal for the dogs, but we were hoping for the best as this area is home to some incredible habitat for snowshoe hare.

- What we're gonna do today is we're gonna just walk into the stand.

It's a large jack pine red pine plantation, a mixed plantation.

It's about 30 years old, but there's a lot of wind throw from the storm last year, which really creates great hare habitat, especially when those stands are starting to age out 'cause they gotta have that low lying conifer.

It's really important for snowshoe hare.

But generally, the UP is very good habitat, but not like it once was, and that's because of the way we manage our forests, primarily.

So if you have plantations, because the survivorship in plantations is much better than it used to be because they're using containerized stock, they're using a broader spacing in plantations.

Hares require thousands of stems per acre, just like grouse do in Aspen, hares demand the same thing in conifer stands, either young jack red pine stands, balsam, fir, black, white spruce.

So that's the prime habitat.

We don't have that much habitat anymore, and as you know in the Northern Lower Peninsula, hare numbers are not what they once were.

So, and a lot of people don't pay attention to that, and you know, I wish they would, I wish we'd spend more time managing for low-lying conifer, for snowshoe hare, and many other game and non-game wildlife species depend on that particular habitat type.

(dogs bark) - [Presenter] As expected, the conditions were tough, but after a couple of hours of hunting, one of the guys managed to catch up with the elusive white ghost.

(carefree strumming music) - Ty, my beagle, went in the woods, and with all this fresh snow, it's kind of hard to get a track going, and she's swimming in it 'cause it goes right to the ground.

And about 80 yards out, she started to bark.

And watching her on the GPS, I knew she was coming right at us, and Colter was about 80 yards away, and saw a flash, and it stopped for me, so I didn't have to take a running shot.

So a couple shots to knock it down and call it good for the day.

- [Hunter] It's been a tough one out here.

- [Kevin] Very tough, very tough, yep.

Yeah, dogs are 80 yards and you can barely hear 'em 'cause all the snow on the trees, so, and the wind and the cold, it makes it hard, yep.

But good times, as always.

Great group of guys.

- Filming hare hunts can be pretty difficult and that's something Colter knows all about as he's been trying to film his own hunts over the last few years.

- I film for "TKZ Outdoors," it's the kill zone.

It was actually something that was started in 2009 in the thumb of Michigan with a group of seven to nine guys, all family and friends, and one of those guys is one of my really good friends and coworkers up here in the UP.

So I started to hunt with him, hang out with him, and I just kind of became interested in filming just because I thought it was a good way to, you know, kind of capture the experience.

And I guess, you know, I love deer hunting.

I'm a pretty decent deer hunter.

I'm not a very good filmer of deer hunting, I've noticed.

I miss a lot of great opportunities, but I figured my niche and kind of in our... You know, we're not trying to get rich doing it, we're probably not, of course, but my niche, and kind of this, you know, the "TKZ Outdoors" has been the small game because I'm the most experienced one with it in the group, and I have the dogs, and I do it the most.

So, and I really realized that, you know, and I've shot a lot of cottontail rabbits, and already, in the few years that I've been hare hunting, I've shot a lot of hare.

So to me, it's becoming more and more important to just share that experience with others and less about me, in particular, shooting.

You know, I love hares getting shot because I think it is an awesome experience for new hunters and people to experience that, and it's really been cool to try to capture it on film, and it is very difficult to do, but I'm lucky enough to capture the moment.

It's something that those people can take with them and they can view for, you know, hopefully forever.

- [Presenter] Deep snow, high winds and frigid temperatures made for some tough hunting conditions, but it was still a fun couple of days above the bridge.

Special thanks to Colter, Kevin, and the rest of the crew for letting me tag along on a fun couple of days here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

(carefree strumming music) - [Hunter] Come up, come up, let's go.

(carefree strumming music) (dogs barking) (carefree strumming music) - Here in Michigan, Dawn Pratt is the very first woman to ever achieve the hunting grand slam for big game.

We caught up with her a couple of weeks ago to hear how her passion got started and to meet her daughter who's following in her footsteps.

- Well I started hunting when I was 19 with my dad and my brothers, and then I just fell in love with it.

Especially bow hunting was my thing, and I initially, in '96, I shot a record book turkey in Crawford County, which was the record for the county.

I didn't know that.

And then I met my daughter's dad during that time, and him and I kinda hit it off and we started hunting together.

So he got me hunting for bear, and I shot my very first bear with a bow in 1997 and put the very first record book bear, taken by a woman with a bow, in the record books for Michigan Commemorative Bucks in Michigan.

So I shot my bear.

The night I shot my bear was so awesome.

He came in, he was not really quartering very well.

I wanted to wait for a really good quartering shot, but I was afraid he was gonna run out because there was a smaller bear in earlier, and he ran.

So I took the shot.

It was a wonderful shot.

We heard him go down about 20 yards away from the bait.

He ended up being 343 pounds, and he scored 19 and 15/16ths.

That was in Masaki County.

The following year, I ended up grunting in a 17 point, non-typical buck, and I shot him with my bow and I watched him go down, and he scored, I think 167 and some change.

That was just magnificent.

That was my best deer ever, of course.

(laughs) The Michigan Grand Slam includes record book turkey, bear, elk, and white tail.

So I had the turkey initially, then the bear, and then the deer.

And then in 2009, I was fortunate enough to draw an either sex elk tag, and I could not believe it.

It was in December.

My daughter was two years old.

Finally connected with two really decent bulls, and I wasn't willing to shoot a bull without someone trying to score 'em, you know, on foot.

And so that elk ended up making the book, allowing me to be the very first woman to achieve a Michigan Grand Slam.

- [Jenny] Dawn's hunting achievements are amazing and her 17-year-old daughter, Autumn, is following in her footsteps.

- When Autumn turned six, I bought her her first crossbow, and she went hunting, and she was fortunate enough to bag a six point buck at six years old, and she was just hooked from there.

She wanted to hunt and hunt, and she loved it.

- [Jenny] Autumn is quickly catching up to her mom's achievements and aspires to join her with a commemorative Bucks of Michigan Grand Slam one day.

Autumn definitely has a passion for the outdoors and hunting.

- I love being in the outdoors.

I love being able to see the wildlife in their natural habitat.

I love being able to harvest my own food and learn about all that goes on in the ecosystems and outside.

I just love it all.

My earliest memory of hunting is, when I was six, I shot my first deer, which was a six point.

So it was kind of cool having the points correspond with my age.

I remember sitting there, and I remember taking the shot and looking through my scope, and I remember the drag out, and my mom and my uncle were just so elated and so excited to see that.

The first time I was on "Michigan Out of Doors," it was for Big Buck Night, and I was going out every year, and I was really hoping to get a record book dear because I really wanted to be on Big Buck Night.

That was like a super big goal of mine when I was younger.

And I finally got to do it one year, and I ended up getting two really nice eight points, and tagging out, and my mom had to come up and help me hold one of the mounts and it was awesome.

(laughs) My turkey, I got it in the spring of 2023.

It was really cool because my mom got to call it in for me.

We could hear it gobbling and getting closer and closer, and it finally peaked over the edge and I was sitting against a tree, and I got on the bird, and I let freedom ring, and here we are.

(laughs) My mom and I had discussed that I had some pretty lofty goals to take away her record of her bear one day, and match her Michigan Grand Slam.

Oh my gosh, my bear hunt.

It definitely gave lots of adrenaline.

I don't think I slept like the entire night before my hunt.

I was so excited to get out there and see a bear because before my hunt, I had really never seen a bear in the wild besides on trail cam pictures.

So seeing the bear walk in for the first time was amazing.

I heard no noise, it was completely silent, and this big, gigantic, black blob comes walking towards me, and I don't think I've ever, like if you see the video, I don't look like I'm shaking, but I feel like I was shaking so bad in that moment.

The bear came in.

I had to use so much patience to wait for a great broadside shot, and finally, he turned and he started going after our logs, and I got an amazing really good shot.

And hearing the whack of the arrow hit the bear was like victory bells for me.

- [Jenny] Victory of a trophy Michigan black bear, and one step closer to a Michigan Grand Slam.

- Yeah, I am really, I know some people apply, and they never get one, and I really hope I have the opportunity to be able to get an elk.

We'll have to sharpen up on the bow skills and see if that's possible, but if not, it's the elk that counts and not really what I take it for.

For me, the experience is worth more than what I get the job done with.

- At just 17 years old, Autumn is quite an accomplished and disciplined hunter.

In 2022, she bagged two more record book bucks, and her bear that scored 20 and 9/16th inches broke her mom's record that stood for 26 years for a bear taken by a female with a compound bow, here in Michigan.

It's worth mentioning that Autumn wore Dawn's old camo suit for her bear hunt too, making it quite the good luck charm.

I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Autumn Pratt here on "Michigan Out of Doors" TV.

Thank you so much for joining us this week for "Michigan Out of Doors."

In the next couple of weeks, make sure you come back and check out the show.

We'll be sharing our Big Buck Nights, East and West, over the next two weeks.

And as always, if you'd like to check out anything to do with the show, you can always do that online.

- Well, that's right, online is a good way to kinda keep track of us.

Probably Facebook and Instagram are the two best ways to see what we're up to on a day-to-day basis.

We are excited to start airing our Big Buck Nights.

Those are always a lot of fun, a lot of big stories.

You won't wanna miss that.

Make sure you are getting out and enjoying everything our state has to offer, and if we don't see you in the woods or on the water, hopefully we'll see you right back here next week on your PBS station.

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(carefree music) - [Presenter] Closed captioning, brought to you by Double D Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit 501C3 foundation, working to make hunting and fishing accessible for those with disabilities.

(carefree music) ♪ When I wander far away ♪ A dream stays with me night and day ♪ ♪ It's the road that leads to my home state ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ Changing seasons paint the scene ♪ ♪ Like rainbow trout in a hidden stream ♪ ♪ The whitetail deer in the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man.

♪ I am, I am a Michigan man ♪ That's where I'm from and I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above, I love this land, I am a Michigan man ♪ (carefree music) ♪ From the Keewenaw down to Saint- (music fades) ♪ (bright theme music)