Michigan OKs 'does with bows' UP hunting, punts on coyote plan

• Michigan Natural Resources Commission votes to lift restrictions on bow hunting does across Upper Peninsula
• Hunting antlerless deer with bows was prohibited in the UP in 2015 after a few harsh winters but reinstated in some areas in 2019
• Commission declined to vote on a controversial plan to allow year-round coyote hunting

For the first time in a decade, hunters this season will be able to kill antlerless deer with bows throughout the entirety of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

The Natural Resources Commission approved the “does with bows” change at a meeting Thursday in Lansing.

Archery hunting for female and male deer without antlers was prohibited by the NRC in 2015 after a series of particularly harsh winters led to a decrease in the UP’s deer population. In 2019, bow hunting antlerless deer was reinstated for the south-central part of the UP, which experienced less severe winter weather and had a higher deer population than other areas. 

“This is a very big deal for those guys in the UP,” said Justin Tomei, policy and government affairs manager for Michigan United Conservation Clubs, a group that represents hunters but remains neutral on this issue.

Several of the public commenters at the meeting who spoke on the issue favored the change.

“This is a moment ten years in the making,” said Jordan Hoover, who argued archery hunting antlerless deer should be allowed because pregnant deer take more food away from already struggling deer in the winter. “We cannot carry more deer than we can handle in the UP.”

Related:

• In antler-obsessed Michigan, the state begs hunters to shoot more does 
• Amid legal challenges, Michigan considers reinstating year-round coyote hunting

At the same time Bryan Reynolds with UP Whitetails of Marquette County and Big Bay Sportsman Club said the UP can’t afford to lose any additional deer to hunting.

“If you take them out of the picture, we’re going to end up with what I feared my whole life since I first started hunting: you might walk all day and not find a deer track,” he told the commission.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said that between 2012-2014 an average of 1,275 deer were killed by bows during archery season in the UP areas currently closed to such hunting.

Liberty, Independence hunt rules

Another change that came out of the meeting is that participants in the state’s Liberty and Independence hunts — special hunts for youth 16 and under, veterans and people with disabilities — can now kill an antlerless deer or a buck. Previously they could only kill an antlerless deer.

Commissioner John Walters had drafted a proposal to require youth participants in the Liberty Hunt to only take antlerless deer, but he told Bridge Michigan he decided not bring it forward. Instead, he made a motion recommending the DNR talk about the importance of shooting antlerless deer at its hunter safety class. That motion passed.

“We'll see how 2025 turns out,” Walters said. “If we're at a 90% buck-ratio-to-does on youth harvesting… we will reconsider that in 2026.”

Researchers say maintaining the right buck-to-doe ratio is an important part of keeping a herd healthy.

Large deer populations in the Lower Peninsula, where deer have fewer predators and live in a more favorable climate, have prompted Michigan officials to urge hunters to kill more does in an attempt to limit breeding. 

Michigan’s 2025 archery season begins on October 1.

No coyote vote

Commissioners declined to vote on a controversial proposal that would have changed the coyote hunting season to year-round. Regulations currently prohibit coyote hunting for three months of the year, in order to allow for coyotes to raise their newborn pups.

The amendment, which was introduced at the March meeting but tabled in April, was “postponed indefinitely.” The MUCC is suing the NRC for shortening the season, arguing the move was not based on science.