The Michigan DNR says that earlier this week a Michigan DNR conservation officer located a missing hunter who had become lost after leaving his hunting blind to track a wounded deer in Mackinac County.

The 67-year-old man from Sault Ste. Marie, whose name was not released, had been hunting in Clark Township Sunday afternoon, a few miles northeast of Cedarville.

The hunter wounded a deer sometime Sunday afternoon. In searching for the animal, the man became disoriented. At about 4:50 p.m. he called 911 from his cellphone, reporting he was lost.

Deputies from the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office and Clark Township Fire Department personnel responded to the scene and began searching.

DNR conservation officer Jon Busken heard radio traffic about the search effort and soon arrived to help.

Busken and a sheriff’s deputy sounded their sirens from separate locations to try to signal the lost hunter. Deputies were able to contact the man on his cellphone. He said he could hear Busken’s patrol vehicle siren loudest of the two sirens, as they were turned on and off.

Busken and a member of the lost man’s hunting party were able to position themselves so they could shout to the hunter. He began walking out of the woods toward Busken, but he became disoriented in the swamp. He soon began walking farther away from the conservation officer.

“Cell phone contact with the lost hunter was very poor,” Busken said. “At this point, we decided we needed to go to him before he became more disoriented and moved farther into the very dense and wet swamp.”

Busken and the man’s friend went in on foot and located the lost hunter at around 10:30PM.

“His shoes and pants were soaked from walking through the cedar swamp. He seemed somewhat disoriented, but was very happy to see us,” Busken said.

It took the men nearly two hours to walk back to Busken’s patrol truck.

“His condition and the swampy terrain we encountered required us to walk out very slowly,” Busken said. “It was close to 1AM Monday before we had him safely back at his camp.”

The wounded deer was not recovered.

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