Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Offers North Manitou Island Deer Hunt

Date: September 5, 2008
Contact: Steve Yancho, 231-326-5134

Permits are now available for the North Manitou Island special deer hunt within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The season begins with the bow hunt occurring from October 1 thru October 31. The firearm hunt will then occur from Saturday, November 1 through Sunday, November 9 in accordance with Michigan Department of Natural Resources regulations. There is no bag limit for the North Manitou Island hunt and the deer taken on this hunt do not count against the hunter’s mainland bag limit. Applications are now being accepted for:

• Bow hunt                   October 1-31
  
• Firearm Season       November 1 to 9

If you think you would enjoy a late fall, wilderness hunting trip where you truly can “get away from it all,” the North Manitou Island deer hunt might be just the experience you are looking for. With the recent changes in the hunting regulations, the firearms hunt now falls after the last Friday of October. This year’s calendar puts the hunt a little later in the season. The regulation changes also allow for the hunters to track and take more than one animal.

Information about the hunts, ferry service, and island camping, as well as the permit application form, is available from the North Manitou Island web page on the park’s web site.  Click here to view the NMI page.  Applications are also available by calling Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at 231-326-5134.