- Well, hey everybody, welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We are going to be primarily talking about the elk season on this week's show.

Jordan and I were each able to spend some time, about two to three days with a couple different hunters just last week for the early elk season.

We had kind of a rough go, but you'll get to see how we did.

And we're also going to have a viewer video from someone who shot an elk a couple years ago, captured the whole thing on camera and actually did it with stick and string.

So you won't want to miss that story.

We're also going to have time for a short bragging board as well.

Make sure you stay tuned.

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

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(sparks crackle) (gun fires) (bright music) (gentle music) - [Jimmy] For this week's show, I was in Northern Michigan for the early elk season.

The DNR recently restructured the hunt into one continuous season, starting in late September.

Elk hunts are always fun to be a part of, as it's truly a once in a lifetime experience for those lucky enough to draw a bull tag.

After an evening of scouting and enjoying some time at our makeshift elk camp, we were all excited to hit the woods on opening morning.

- Yeah, so we're out here in Vienna Corners area.

Just waiting until daylight.

I've got a little piece here where there's an island.

Hopefully the elk are going to funnel out.

We're going to try to come in behind them come into this corner here and hopefully they walk out in front of us and we can make it happen.

It's pretty surreal.

A little bit nervous, but just really excited for the experience of it all.

- [Jimmy] Right out of the gate, we caught a glimpse of a bull, Charlie's first encounter with a wild elk.

He slipped away after just a few seconds, but shortly after, we heard a shot, and were able to help a nearby hunter recover a bull, giving Charlie an up close look at what this hunt is all about.

- The first morning was, you know, everyone trying to calm my nerves because it's opening day, we're just getting started.

And then as soon as we got out of the truck, there was a bull in five seconds and I didn't even have a chance.

I only saw his back end.

I couldn't even see the rack and he was gone.

Now fortunately another person in our group was able to take down that bull, so it was amazing to see one up close.

It was my first time seeing an elk in person.

And since then it's been a lot of learning about, you know, with the season, how it lays out compared to some of the other seasons that we have here for hunting in Michigan, and what effects that has on the elk and the movement.

And so just learning from Joe and the others up here okay, well, because of this season that just ended, let's go try this area.

Let's see if we can work them.

Let's listen for some bugles.

And completely different than whitetail where you're pretty much cemented in one spot, you see them on camera, they've got a pretty consistent pattern, you're just waiting.

Elk, there's a little bit more of that stalk, that chase element, which is pretty exciting.

- [Jimmy] Day one came and went without a shot opportunity.

We saw plenty of deer, but the elk proved tough to find.

Carrying that once in a lifetime tag brings a unique kind of pressure, a built up anticipation that starts the moment that packet arrives in the mail.

- I didn't have a lot of words.

I was I was really in disbelief.

Honestly, I thought it was a gag maybe someone pulled on me just to get at me.

I know how big of a deal it is and just I feel very, very blessed and very grateful for the opportunity to go after an elk here.

And I know a lot of people don't get the chance, so I'm trying to take full advantage of it.

You know, keep my expectations realistic.

I know there's good bulls here.

I just have to be patient and when the moment comes, I need to just, focus on, you know, what I've done to practice and be ready for that, but just enjoy the moment and not get so worked up that it's a, you know, the once in a lifetime opportunity that it really is.

(hunter elk calling) - [Jimmy] I spent three days in the woods with Charlie, but unfortunately, the elk just wouldn't cooperate.

Early season hunting can be tough.

With leaves still on the trees, no tracking snow, and bulls not responding to calls, they can just be hard to find.

Regardless, it was a fun few days in camp and in the field.

Just a little bit to the east of us, Jimmy was in a different area with another bull hunter.

(meat sizzling) For many years, there has been an early elk season and a late season.

This year they changed up the dates a little bit, so here I was last week following along with a hunter in late September instead of late August.

Derick Wright would be the hunter I'd be following.

His guide is Jeff Schaible, the local sheriff.

A group of hunters were gathered in this area and doing some camping, and as we did a little bit of scouting, I asked Derick how he found out that he received this coveted tag.

- Well, it was awesome.

I've only been putting in for two years.

I got lucky on the third year.

I didn't check my tag right away, and I got home from our summer vacation middle of July and me and my wife decided to check the state app, and my bear tag was negative and my elk tag said successful.

So I had my wife double check it and she got up off the couch and ran out to the mailbox.

And by the time I got out there, she was holding the packet in her hand and we were hugging and celebrating.

It was a good day.

It was so awesome, it was awesome.

- [Jimmy] We did see a decent bull the night before, so everyone was pretty excited.

Morning came quickly and as we hit the woods, I had Jeff talk a little bit about what kind of terrain we were looking for today.

- It's pretty different.

You got, certain areas I got big hills and other areas are fairly flat.

Basically, just kind of watching different cuttings.

Cuttings are big.

They love the cuttings.

Different fields.

Basically, we drive around till we catch a fresh track like we did this morning and go after them, hopefully get a bugle.

- [Jimmy] Yeah, and how has this, what do you think of this, the later dates?

Has that been, I know it's, we're only two days into it, but do you think that's been a hard thing, good thing, bad thing?

- [Jeff] Oh, I think it's going to be an awesome thing.

Now we got the peak route right now, all 12 days.

Nice and cool.

We've had the great weathers, been 30 degrees in the morning.

You can't beat it.

This has been beautiful.

- So he just tears up the ground this, and then he pees in it and then it rolls around.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- So two days ago it was nothing, but I think tonight this might be a good spot to set up.

- Okay, yeah.

That's pretty cool.

I've never seen anything like that.

- [Jimmy] Why haven't you shot an elk yet?

- Oh, well, they're far and few between right now.

(Jimmy and Derick laugh) We're giving it about, we're giving it our best college effort though.

- Yes, we are.

- We're so thankful we're doing it anyway.

- Beautiful day.

- Oh, it's beautiful.

We've had great weather.

Had great weather.

- It ain't raining.

- Yep.

It's not raining, yep.

Great day in the grouse woods or the elk woods, no matter what you're doing out here.

- We still got a lot of time.

- Yes.

- Yes, we do.

- Just happy to be.

- I could stay for only two days and so far we had not seen an elk during the season.

We would sit most evenings, and run and gun during the day.

It made for some long days.

Derick and I are hoping for something big here and as is Jeff the guide.

But again, beautiful morning.

This is my last day.

I can only stay up here two days, so I'm hoping we can get something done yet today.

But either way, it's really fun to be chasing around elk up here in Northern Michigan.

I kept in touch with Derek over the last week as the opener was last Wednesday.

After a long six days of hunting, Derick was able to connect with a good bull.

The hunt was much harder than we were hoping it would be and Derick stuck to it and got this very nice animal.

Thanks to Derick and Jeff for letting me tag along on a once in a lifetime experience here in Michigan's Out of Doors.

Well, as you can see that early elk hunt is no joke.

Congrats to Derick for pulling it off.

What we're going to do right now is show you someone who had a very successful early elk season a year or so back, Brandon Kantola.

He not only captured his hunt on camera, but he did it with stick and string.

(gentle music) Well, we are here today with Brandon Kantola and we are here with this giant Michigan elk.

And I don't know the whole story, but I did see some awesome viewer video that we are going to kind of be rolling throughout this interview.

Let's just start with Brandon.

How long have you been putting in for an elk tag here in Michigan?

- This took me 18 years.

- 18 years.

- 18 years, yeah.

Okay, as we get, kind of get into the video of you hunting earlier this year, walk me through getting the tag and opening up.

Did you, was it online?

How did you find out you got the tag?

- Well, the the results come out the same time the bear results come out and so I got online, checked the, my online portal or whatever you call that, and noticed that I had zero elk points.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

- So it didn't tell me right away that I was successful.

I just noticed I didn't have any points.

I'm like, "That's not right.

There should be quite a few elk points."

And then as I kind of clicked through some of the pages, I noticed that in fact, I did get get the tag.

It said I was successful and the way that DNR handle it, they actually that evening when I got home from work, there was a packet of information already in my mailbox.

- Wow.

- And so it was that quick.

- [Jimmy] So did you call buddies?

How did you get the word out that you got the tag?

- Oh yeah.

I talked to my brother and some friends, and I got a close friend that was on the hunt with us.

His name's Sean.

We've always kind of agreed that if one of us got a tag that we would try to do it together.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

- And so he was one of my phone calls, and my brother who I wanted to be there to try to capture it on video, so.

- Now, how did you decide whether to go on your own, get a guide?

I know we get contacted by a lot of people when they get a tag, you know, should I get a guide?

Should I go on my own?

How did you, walk me through that process.

- I wasn't opposed to using a guide.

But I did want to try to do it on my own.

I wanted to kind of feel everything out, just be, feel like I did my research, and it just seemed like the few guides that I did speak with, what they could offer just wasn't what I was after.

You know, I was really looking for an adventure experience.

This took me 18 years of applying.

I didn't, you know, I didn't want it to be over in a half hour, quite honestly.

You see a lot of folks that, you know, they get out of a truck and they go up to a field edge, and they find a bull and they shoot it, and which is great, you know, they're successful, but I was really after, you know, more of an adventure and that's, you know, why we decided to go more or less a DIY style.

- [Jimmy] Now, some people might think you're crazy to try to do it with a bow and arrow.

Was that a big long decision or was it, did you know right away I'm doing this with a tick and string?

How did you come up with that?

- [Brandon] Well, it did help that a couple years ago, I shot a cow elk in Idaho with my bow.

And it was a DIY type hunt.

And so I, I felt like, you know, give me 12 days, which is what you get here, three hours from home, and you give me the ability to scout, and kind of do this that I could figure it out.

I could do it.

And so, you know, I wanted to do with my bow, that was the objective, but I also knew that this was once in a lifetime, so if it really came down to it, you know, I would use a rifle.

And I did have both with me.

- Okay.

- The second segment that we, the segment that I shot him in.

So I did have a rifle with me, but, you know, luckily I didn't have to use it.

- [Jimmy] So did you go up and scout one time, two times, several times?

How did that, how many times did you go up?

- Oh I think we were up there four different times probably, to scout.

And we, countless phone calls.

I spoke with a number of different outfitters that were, or guys that were, you know, they knew that I was trying to do this on my own, but they were willing to give up information and that was so helpful.

You know, without that information, you know, I probably wouldn't have been successful, at least not to this extent.

So I certainly thank them for being willing to give out information that they didn't have to.

I think they just felt like, hey, they could appreciate a guy that's trying to, you know, kind of do this on their own with, you know, with a bow and arrow.

- Nice.

- And certainly way different than what you'd expect, from a deer hunting standpoint.

Usually that stuff is kept close to the best.

- Yes.

Well, so walk me through the actual, the hunt that you got him on.

That was a morning or midday hunt, or what was that?

- [Brandon] It was a morning hunt.

It was the first day of the second segment, which was September 15th.

And so we, we knew it was going to be warmer that day.

We had a bit of a south breeze, so we kind of came in from the north, planning on trying to just keep our, knowing that the elk were likely going to go south and bed in some darker timber, we decided to try to get in behind them so that they weren't going to wind us.

So we just worked our way, I guess it was probably 10 o'clock in the morning when things happened.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- [Jimmy] So he was, did you know that bull was in there then or you had him on trail camera in that same general area or?

- [Brandon] We knew he was there.

He was one of the bulls that were in the area.

We didn't know whether he had cows, or we didn't know whether or not he was actually in that area that particular day.

It was just kind of a guess.

You know, we were just more or less just through the research that we had done, we knew that they were going to end up in some darker timber through the day to kind of stay cool.

And by this point in the morning that they were likely, you know, at that point, betting and they weren't out feeding any longer.

- [Jimmy] So walk me through the actual shot itself.

He was kind of coming through.

It looked like he had quite a bit of junk in the way, but were you able to pick a window pretty easy?

- Yeah, luckily my buddy had his wits about him and he threw out a cow call, stopped him.

And when he stopped him, it gave me enough time to get my arrow knocked, get drawn back on him and get ready for the shot.

There was a little tree that was kind of hiding his vitals and I just kept thinking to myself that, you know, there's a lot of shoulder there and do I have enough room?

- [Jimmy] And how far was he at that point?

- 22 yards.

- Oh, gosh.

- Yeah, 22 yards.

So I drew back.

I had to kind of tip back or kneel back to kind of get a different angle, away from that little tree and I let it go.

(elk rushing) (hunter elk calling) (crossbow fires) - Yes.

(hunter elk calling) As soon as it hit him, he kind of wheeled around, and I could see arrow sticking out of him.

It didn't get full penetration or at least didn't get a pass through.

So my immediate worry was, did I get enough penetration?

Is it lethal?

- Yeah.

- [Brandon] And I'm thinking, did I get too much shoulder?

And so all these other things start going through your head.

- [Jimmy] So at that point, so you pulled the trigger, you felt pretty confident about the shot, you weren't sure what kind of penetration, but you knew it was this bull.

I mean, did you know it was a seven by six at that point or you just knew it was a good one?

Did you know it was that one or?

- [Brandon] No, I didn't know it was that one.

I just knew it was a good bull.

- Okay.

- I wasn't really good to be picky.

Going into this, my hope was that I would, you know, I was hoping to shoot something that was- - Decent.

- Decent, you know, but I wasn't trophy hunting.

- Okay.

How long did you guys wait before you tracked?

- We waited about an hour.

My buddy Sean, he wanted to go right away, start tracking the blood and I said, no, no, no, we're not doing that.

And we called the DNR, told them that I had shot a bull and we were going to wait a little bit.

We waited an hour and we had gone up to the spot where I had shot, paced it off, investigated, noticed the arrow there, found some blood, kind of examined what the arrow looked like as far as the blood.

I figured I had a pretty good penetration.

So I felt pretty good about it, but it's until you to walk up on him.

- [Jimmy] So you track him and when you guys find him, I love, I mean the audio just goes crazy and you guys are just yelling and screaming, and that was awesome.

- One, two, three, four, five, six.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven by six, baby.

- [Brandon] Thank you, thank you, thank you.

- He went nowhere.

That was a 60 yard track.

- [Jimmy] How long did it take you to calm down before you could actually, you know, like, gut the elk?

- [Brandon] Oh, it took hours.

(Brandon and Jimmy laugh) You know, when your mind's racing, it's like, you know, all these things happen and at the same time you want to do things the right way.

You need to call the DNR, you're supposed to do all these different things that they ask you to do and we wanted to make sure that we did what we were supposed to.

- [Jimmy] Well, it's kind of a blur.

You're not even sure what happened.

- Yeah, it really was.

And it really wasn't until the end of the weekend.

This happened on a Friday.

It wasn't until the end of the weekend that we had made it back home, and got him all caught up, and finally kind of put a tape on him to kind of see, you know, where he ended up.

I didn't care, but then he started to look at, you know, the measurements and I'm thinking that's better than I expected.

- [Jimmy] Yeah, where does he fall in the bow hunting or non-typical elk here in Michigan?

Do you know even?

- [Brandon] Yeah, he has been officially scored.

So he's been scored for both Commemorative Bucks of Michigan and also Pope and Young.

- Okay.

- [Brandon] From my understanding through Pope and Young that nobody from Michigan has recorded or registered a Pope and Young bull from Michigan.

So he'll be actually number one through Pope and Young in terms of a, you know, Michigan standpoint.

- For bow and arrow elk?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- Yep.

And then for Commemorative Bucks, he will, I guess he's going to be in the, right around the top 20 of all time.

- Wow.

- With any weapon.

And certainly because it was, nobody's, from my understanding, registered a bull with archery equipment.

I know they don't keep that type of record specifically, but nobody's registered one with Commemorative Bucks with a bow.

- [Jimmy] That's awesome.

So you have a spot picked out on the wall at the house or you getting a shoulder mount, full body?

- No, full body.

Wife certainly wouldn't allow that taxidermy bill, but- - She doesn't even want your full body in the house.

(Brandon and Jimmy laugh) - Right.

I opted for a pedestal mount.

- Nice.

- So I've got a guy up north that's got the cape now, and he'll start working on that.

So yeah, we'll be in a pedestal mount, I can kind of move it around the house, the room.

- Well, it's a heck of an accomplishment.

We appreciate you sitting down with us, and that reaction of both you, and your buddies and family, whatever, was just priceless.

So thanks for letting us put it on the show and share it with the state and congratulations on a elk of a lifetime.

- [Brandon] Appreciate it.

Thank you.

- Yep.

- Can you believe this?

- Oh my word.

Oh my word.

(Brandon laughs) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Well, hey everybody, thank you so much for watching "Michigan Out of Doors" this week.

If you miss part of this week's show or if you want to see something again, you can always check us out online.

You can do that at michiganoutofdoorstv.com.

Full episodes of the show are there.

We're also on Instagram and Facebook if you want to see what we're up to on a day-to-day basis and make sure you are joining us over the next several weeks.

What a time to be a sportsman.

The bow season is kicking off, small game is going, fishing is great.

Get out and enjoy everything our state has to offer.

And if we don't see it in the woods or on the water, hopefully we see you right back here next week on your PBS station.

- [Narrator 1] Michigan Out of Doors is presented by - [Narrator 3] Get away from it all to your own place.

With GreenStone's recreational land loans, we'll help you finance acreage of any size so you can own your own place in the great outdoors.

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- [Narrator 1] By Morgan Composting, a family business located in Michigan.

Morgan Composting offers a variety of products all powered by Dairy Doo Organic Compost for homeowners and farmers.

To learn more about all the product options available for your food plots, visit dairydoo.com.

(machine rattling) (bright music) - [Narrator 4] At Boss Shotshells, we make all our shot shells right here in Michigan and deliver them direct to your door.

- [Narrator 1] By Saab, providing defense and civil security products and services for over 85 years and now part of the Grayling community with our new advanced munitions facility.

Career opportunities are available.

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(bright music) (bright music continues) ♪ When I wander far away ♪ ♪ A dream stays with me night and day ♪ ♪ It's he road that leads to my home state ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ ♪ Changing seasons paint the scenes ♪ ♪ Like rainbow trout in hidden streams ♪ ♪ The whitetail deer, and the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ ♪ I am, I am, a Michigan man ♪ ♪ Ask where I'm from and I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above, I love this land, I am a Michigan man ♪ ♪ From the Keweenaw down to St.

Joe ♪ ♪ Kalamazoo east to Monroe ♪ ♪ Sault Saint Marie and back again ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ ♪ I am, I am, a Michigan man ♪ ♪ Ask where I'm from and I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above, I love this land, I am a Michigan man ♪ (bright music) (soft music)