LANSING – Michigan elk hunters would have longer harvest periods for the 2026-27 hunting cycle under draft proposals by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The proposals would lengthen both elk hunting periods in the northern Lower Peninsula, home to Michigan’s elk herd.

Hunt Period 1 would run from the second Saturday in September through the second Sunday in October – a 30-day, continuous period. Currently, Hunt Period 1 is broken up into three, four-day hunts stretching across August and September – 12 total hunting days.

Hunt Period 2 would run from Dec. 1 through Dec. 15 – a 15-day period. Currently, Hunt Period 2 runs from Dec. 13 through Dec. 21 – a nine-day period.

Combined, the two hunting periods would provide 45 total days of harvest time, more than double th

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