Autumn Pratt from Grayling, Michigan, is actually following in her mother’s footsteps as a hunter. In 1997, Autumn’s mom, Daybreak, killed a black bear with bow and arrow that proved to be a state report within the ladies’s archery class. Roughly 26 years later, throughout the fall of 2023, Autumn used her bow to tag a bear that scored even greater than her mother’s, etching her personal title into the state’s big-game information e book.
In 2009, Daybreak turned the primary lady to say a Commemorative Bucks of Michigan grand slam by tagging a deer, bear, turkey, and elk that certified for state information maintained by CBM. And to at the present time, she stays the one lady to realize a CBM slam. However Autumn is making an attempt to vary that.
Photograph courtesy Daybreak Pratt
The 16-year-old already has deer, turkey, and bear information, and he or she is making an attempt arduous to acquire a coveted bull elk license by way of the state’s annual lottery draw. She has seven desire factors towards acquiring one of many hard-to-draw licenses. (Daybreak says she utilized for 23 years earlier than drawing her personal bull tag.)
Photograph courtesy Daybreak Pratt
Each of Autumn’s dad and mom, and particularly Daybreak, are rooting for her to get a state-record elk and full her grand slam. If she is lucky sufficient to acquire the tag she wants, they may do no matter they will to assist her succeed.
The applying interval for elk permits runs from Might 1 by way of June 1 annually, and hunters are restricted to 1 utility. (Solely 80 bull tags have been issued by the state in 2024 and there have been greater than 40,000 candidates.) A separate drawing is held yearly for what’s known as a Pure Michigan Hunt, and the few hunters who’re drawn annually get tags for all the state’s restricted entry hunts, together with elk and bear. Hunters can apply as many occasions as they need for a payment.
“I’ve been placing Autumn’s title in for the Pure Michigan Hunt yearly to extend her possibilities of getting an elk tag,” Daybreak tells Outside Life.
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In any case, Daybreak helped Autumn get a bear tag for the Purple Oak bear administration unit within the northern Decrease Peninsula in 2023, when she collected her state-record bear. It takes greater than 10 desire factors to acquire a bear tag for Purple Oak, and Daybreak had 12. When Daybreak drew a bear tag for the unit in 2023, she transferred her tag to Autumn. (The DNR permits profitable draw candidates to switch their tag to an individual of their selecting or to somebody on the DNR’s listing of disabled hunters.)
Getting Began within the Deer Woods
Since each of Autumn’s dad and mom are avid hunters, it’s not a shock that their daughter has change into obsessive about the game. She began deer searching with a Parker Crossbow on the age of six, and he or she’s caught with it ever since.
“I took my first deer, a six-point buck, throughout the youth hunt that 12 months,” Autumn says. “I used to be hooked and I’ve continued to deer hunt yearly with fairly good success.”
Photograph courtesy Daybreak Pratt
4 of the whitetails Autumn has taken with a crossbow are state information. She tagged two of these deer in 2023, together with her highest scoring buck, an 8-pointer that scored 119 ⅛. (The minimal rating for typical archery bucks within the state’s big-game information is 100.)
When it got here time to graduate to bear searching, Autumn wished to ditch the crossbow and hunt with a compound bow like her mom had. Her father Jerry purchased her a compound in 2021. She shoots a Bear Legit mannequin with a launch, and makes use of Victory VFORCE arrows tipped with 125 grain Tuffhead broadheads, with a 100 grain brass insert to get the burden to 225 grains.
“I might observe with the bow usually, however I simply wasn’t ready to attract sufficient poundage to make a clear, deadly shot from an affordable distance till late fall of 2022,” Autumn says. “I shoot within the college archery league and with continued observe I used to be capable of dial the draw weight of the bow as much as 35 kilos by the spring of 2023. That was the draw weight I hunted bear with that fall.
“I spent most of my summer time months training every single day in my grandfather’s yard. My mother was like a drill sergeant. If it rained, I had to attract my bow in the lounge a number of occasions to maintain my muscle mass toned and my type constant. She informed me the rigorous observe would repay, and he or she was proper.”
Tagging a State-File Black Bear
“When bear season opened, I ended up sporting a polar fleece predator camo outfit that my mother wore in 1997 to kill her report e book bear,” Autumn writes in an article about her bear hunt. “It match nicely and I felt it could convey me good luck.”
Photograph courtesy Daybreak Pratt
Jerry was sitting along with his daughter in a tree stand 15 yards from an energetic bait when bear season opened final fall. Though anticipation and pleasure ran excessive as a result of recreation digital camera images they’d of bear exercise on the web site, they didn’t see a single bear on opening day. They returned to the identical spot the next day. Autumn writes:
As soon as we received within the stand and it quieted down, a sow and two cubs slowly approached the bait. They sniffed round briefly, however appeared barely on edge and moved on.
I patiently remained immobile hoping that one other bear would present. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than I noticed a black determine transferring in the direction of me with no sound. Because the bear approached the bait, I might inform he was nervous. He was consistently scent-checking the realm and got here out and in of the thick cowl twice.
I used to be centered on taking a shot the following time he walked into the opening, so I stood and ready to attract my bow. The bear slowly reappeared and went to the bait. He turned and uncovered his vitals. At that second I drew my bow with ice in my veins. I zeroed in on my goal and let the arrow fly. I heard the loud ‘whack’ and knew I had hit the bear in a great spot as I watched him barrel out of sight with a growl.
My dad and I waited and listened for the sound of the bear to get his path. We waited about 45 minutes earlier than sneaking down and out of the woods to get assist. We retrieved my bear with a whole lot of assist from buddies and a protracted haul out of the woods. He had a dressed weight of 330 kilos and had a cranium measurement of 20 9/16 inches.
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Along with being a brand new state report, Autumn’s bear was entered into the Pope and Young record book. The minimal rating for black bear skulls within the P&Y e book is eighteen — the identical as Michigan information.
Her mom’s bear scored 19 15/16, however was a lot older and just a little heavier than the one Autumn received. Daybreak’s bear had a dressed weight of 343 kilos and was aged by the DNR at 21 years outdated, whereas Autumn’s bear was solely six years outdated primarily based on an examination of its enamel. Autumn was 15 on the time.
