Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — The last few cold nights have leaves changing and deer hunters double-checking their equipment in anticipation. Make sure a valid hunting license is on that “to do” list as you get ready for the muzzleloader season opener this Saturday.

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Deputy Director Spencer Griffith points out that setting up your new profile on the AGFC’s new licensing system and smartphone app only takes a few minutes and can help keep hunters on the right side of the law when it comes to harvesting their deer this year.

“The new system enables users to buy licenses, check game, and stay informed about hunting seasons, harvest reports and regulations,” Griffith said. “We also worked with the vendor to make sure the site has a familiar feel like those used in popular e-commerce sites like Amazon.”

Hunters and anglers can visit https://www.agfc.com/en/agfc-mobile-app-how-to for step-by-step instructions and videos on setting up their account, checking a deer and adding youth hunters to your account.

Renew your auto-renew
One feature that’s been carried over from the previous platform is the popular auto-renew system for annual hunting licenses. During their purchase, a hunting or fishing license buyer can check a box to have the AGFC licensing system store their payment information and automatically bill the license holder each year when their license expires. It’s a handy way to make sure you’re never caught in the last-minute scramble to make sure you’re legal the morning before heading for your hunt. But Griffith explains that the new system will need everyone to reestablish their payment credentials and automatic renewal options.

“Everyone who previously enrolled in auto-renew should still visit the site to make sure their information carried over,” Griffith said. “If your renewal happened before September, you should be good, but you’ll still need to re-enroll for the future. Either way, it’s smart to go ahead and verify your license is valid before you head to the woods.”

Check with E-tags online
Double-checking your license is especially important if you plan to use the AGFC’s website or app to check your deer in the field. The new system will populate your account with the amount of electronic deer tags your license includes upon purchase.

“Once these show up on your license in the app, you can check your deer, even if you don’t have cell service,” Griffith said. “But you need to make sure you’re ready for success before you leave the house for deer camp. Once you’ve checked a deer, you don’t need to physically tag it as long as it stays with you until you get back home. If you leave it somewhere like a deer camp, a processor or taxidermist, you still need to make a tag with your name, contact information and check confirmation number to claim the deer as yours in case a game warden comes to check on things.”

Renewable Youth CID
Some young hunters aged 6-15 will be hitting the woods with muzzleloaders this weekend, but the real excitement for the young guns is Arkansas’s Modern Gun Youth Deer Hunt Nov. 4-5. No matter what season the youth is hunting, they’ll still need to make sure they have a Customer Identification Number in the AGFC license system to check big game. The number, labeled YCID in the AGFC license system’s hunting license menu, is free, but hunters will need to go through the purchase process to secure their number each year and validate their allotment of deer tags. Once obtained, the youth hunter will be able to check their deer just like anyone else when they’re logged in with their account.

“Their CID number doesn’t change, but it needs to be renewed each year to make sure the tags show up to check your deer when it’s time to celebrate,” Griffith said.

The post Double-check your Arkansas hunting and fishing license online before hunting appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

SPRINGDALE — Thanks to a decades-old partnership, the U.S. Forest Service and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are able to offer over a million acres of public hunting opportunity in the Ouachita and Ozark/St. Francis National Forests. Getting the most out of remote portions of these rugged lands, however, takes a little extra effort. Arkansas outfitter Casey Brewster has discovered the therapeutic power of hunting and relaxing in these out-of-the-way public lands, thanks to some ingenuity and a few surefooted assistants. He and his organization lead veterans and first responders on special multiple day hunting trips using pack goats to get their supplies where they need to go.

ATVs and other motorized forms of transit are not allowed in most of the forest due to the damage they can cause if left unchecked on public land. Many hunters have learned the value of animals, such as horses, mules and even goats, to help them set up camp in Arkansas’s public wilderness. The animals cause much less disturbance and add more to the experience for many hunters and outdoors enthusiasts. 

Brewster is a part-time worker with the AGFC and research scholar for the University of Arkansas who was one of the project leads in the AGFC’s effort to reintroduce collared lizards in restored habitat in the Ozarks. He also founded Snake Mountain Pack Goats, a nonprofit organization that uses specially bred goats to carry the gear necessary for multiple-day getaways, guiding his clients and friends on deer hunts, bear hunts, smallmouth fishing trips and campouts, all at no charge.

“I get some strange looks leading a string of goats on hunting trips and plenty of questions from curious hikers,” Brewster said with a smile when we caught up with him at the World Champion Squirrel Cook Off in September.

Brewster was wounded in combat in Iraq before his current career with the AGFC and the University of Arkansas. While he had loved the outdoors before his deployment, engaging in the outdoors and focusing on his education were pivotal in his adjustment back to civilian life.

“When my former spouse and I first got our farm out in West Fork, the property was overrun with non-native invasive weeds,” Brewster said. “I’d wanted goats for a long time, and using them to clean up that area of invasives was a great excuse to get a few. Then I started seeing some videos of people using goats for elk hunts out West, and I started making contacts to learn more. When I learned I could incorporate the goats and the outdoors into helping veterans and first responders, it just sort of all came together. ”

The goats aren’t just pack animals on the journeys. Working with them often becomes part of the experience for his guests.

“We call it, ‘mountain therapy,’ Brewster said. “We take people who may be having some difficulties and let them get away from everything, relax and just immerse themselves in the experience.”

The goats even help raise funds to continue the group’s mission. Staff lead day hikes and participate in other events to raise funds. 

“Yes, some of our staff lead some goat yoga experiences to help with fundraising, too,” Brewster said.

Goats may not be for everyone, but they are essential to Brewster’s style of outdoor adventure.

“If you hunt or hike on leased or private land where you could get a side by side or ATV or only spend an hour or two on your hunts, maybe a string of goats isn’t for you,” Brewster said. “But a lot of public land in Arkansas has terrain and regulations that prevent the use of those things. If you’ve ever looked at some of those remote places and just knew that you could have the place to yourself if you could figure out how to get in there, goats can be a real game changer.”

In addition to their go-anywhere abilities, goats are much more agreeable than llamas, mules and other pack animals. The larger pack animals often require more effort to stay on lead, but goats are much more dependent on their owners. Brewster says most goats won’t wander out of sight of their team, and practically any tame goat will want to follow you, so they can be used without much training.

“They’re just a lot easier,” Brewster said. “I don’t really have to bring in food because they’ll eat pretty much whatever is available, and they don’t need much water. Even then, they’ll drink water right out of a bottle I carry and dip down in puddles and creeks to collect along the way.”

The standard rule for any pack animal, or people for that matter, is to keep any loads around 20 percent of their body weight. Where mules may carry 150 to 300 pounds of gear, most pack goats top out at 40 pounds of added baggage. An extra 80 pounds of gear distributed between two goats can make for a nice small camp, but Brewster’s team often works with a string of a dozen happy animals to create a full-blown base camp in their adventures.

Visit Snake Mountain Pack Goats for more information on Brewster and his team’s mission. To contact Brewster directly, email snakemountainfarms@gmail.com.

The post Quirky pack animals aid public land experiences appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — Biologists and staff from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will host a live Arkansas Deer Update on the AGFC YouTube channel beginning at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 for hunters heading into the meat of deer season.

Ralph Meeker, the AGFC’s Deer Program coordinator, will kick off the event with an overview of Arkansas’s deer population and harvest trends from the last few years. He’ll be followed by AJ Riggs, AGFC wildlife health biologist, with an update on chronic wasting disease in Arkansas’s deer herd and ways hunters can help monitor and slow the spread of this fatal neurological disease in Arkansas. Jeremy Brown, the AGFC’s Deer Management Assistance Program coordinator will follow up with instructions for the hundreds of deer camps enrolled in DMAP to ensure they tag and check their deer properly and work with the AGFC to maximize the potential of their property for hunting season.

An additional presentation on the new AGFC hunting license system and smartphone app will familiarize hunters with how to create a new account, check their deer (even without a cell signal) and add youth hunters to their account.

Viewers are encouraged to email their questions to deerinfo@agfc.ar.gov during the show to be asked and answered on air.

“We want to hear from everyone going into deer season and help them out,” Cory Gray, AGFC Research Division chief said. “We’ll try to address all of the general questions about Arkansas’s deer and deer hunting being asked by a lot of people. If it’s a question about a specific place or person, we’ll follow up with a direct reply the following day.”

Anyone interested in the state of Arkansas’s deer herd can click this link at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 to watch. You can also subscribe to the channel at www.youtube.com/@ArkansasGameandFishCommission, From a laptop, click the bell and select “All Notifications” and you’ll be reminded when the AGFC starts a new livestream or posts a new video. You can also change your notifications setting on a mobile phone by clicking your account icon and clicking “Notifications” to select your preferences. 

The post AGFC plans Arkansas Deer Update for hunters appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — Join host Trey Reid and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Deer Program Coordinator on this week’s episode of Arkansas Wildlife Podcast as they talk about all things deer. Listen in as they go in depth on Arkansas’s deer population and some of the recent harvests to explain how Arkansas hunters may just be living in the golden years of deer and how the AGFC is working to maintain high-quality habitat and deer hunting in The Natural State.

Click here to watch on the AGFC’s YouTube channel, or download the podcast through your favorite podcasting platform here.

CUTLINE:

AGFC Deer Program Coordinator Ralph Meeker (left) and Arkansas Wildlife Host Trey Reid talk all things deer on this week’s episode of the AGFC Podcast

The post Arkansas Deer and Deer Hunting Featured on Arkansas Wildlife Podcast appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’s archery deer season opens Saturday, Sept. 23, and hunters are busy making those last-minute preparations for success. Double-check your license purchase and electronic game tags on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s new mobile app or website before you hit the field so things run smoothly when you seal the deal on that trail camera stud you’ve been watching for the last month.

According to Page 43 of the Arkansas Hunting Guidebook, immediately after shooting a deer, the hunter is required to tag it with a self-made tag listing the hunter’s name, customer identification number, the sex of the animal, the hunting zone, the time and the date of harvest. That tag remains with the deer until it is officially checked, which must be done within 12 hours of harvest. Of course, with today’s cell phone reception and smartphones, in many places, you can forgo tagging altogether if you can check the deer where you shot it. Here are three easy ways to check your deer and stay legal this season:

Download the App

The AGFC recently launched its new, streamlined smartphone app with its license system refresh, but there are a few steps to take to make sure you get the full benefit of the application. The first step is to delete any older AGFC app from your phone and download the latest version, which is available on the Apple Store and the Google Play Store. Once it’s downloaded, you’ll need to create a new account using this handy guide.

Once downloaded, be sure to check your license and the electronic tags that accompany it to ensure they are activated. Once activated, electronic tags on the app will work to check your deer anywhere, even if you are not within a cellular signal, but it’s important to make sure your tags are available before you head to the woods in case you don’t have a cell signal to download them later.  

Go to the Web

If you don’t have the app, you can still check your deer electronically with a few simple steps on your phone, as long as you have a signal. Visit www.agfc.com and click the “Buy Licenses | Check Game” button at the top of the homepage. From the main license page, click “Report a Game Check” from the menu and you will be taken to a login page. Once logged into your account, you will be taken to a page titled “My Surveys” that has electronic tags available to complete for each deer your license allows. Click on the tag you wish to use and complete the survey to finish the checking process.

Phone It In

Of course, you can always call 833-289-2469 to check your deer once you have a phone signal. A staff of operators will be available to walk you through the checking process. With up to 300,000 hunters in the woods this year, a short wait is inevitable during high-traffic times, so checking via website or app will likely be a faster, more user-friendly experience for many.

Once checked, a deer does not need to have a physical tag attached unless it leaves your immediate possession (i.e. at a processor, taxidermist or deer camp freezer). At those times, you will still need to tag the deer with your name, customer identification number and check confirmation number to ensure the deer can be traced back to the proper hunter if a game warden drops by to visit with the camp and how their hunting season is going so far.

The post Log in to new AGFC app, website to check your deer this year appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — According to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s recently released “2023 Hunting Incident Report,” Arkansas hunters last year reported the fewest number of hunting accidents requiring medical attention since 2010. Sixteen incidents were recorded, including two resulting in fatalities.

“With nearly 307,000 licensed hunters in the woods last year, that’s one serious injury out of every 20,000 hunters and one fatality out of every 150,000 hunters, which is lower than most outdoor sports, but one injury or death is still too many,” Joe Huggins, Hunter Education Coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said.

Far and away, falls from treestands remain the leading cause of hunting injuries and fatalities.

“Ten of last year’s 16 injuries were falls from treestands, and one of the two fatalities was from a fall,” Huggins said. “It doesn’t take a huge height to make a fall fatal, we’ve had fatalities and major injuries occur from as little as 8 feet. If you land on your head or neck or fall on your hunting equipment, bad things can happen.”

Huggins points out that the number of injuries might be more if you count preseason preparation. The report only counts injuries when a person is hunting, and many people preparing stand locations face the same danger of a fall when clearing shooting lanes and hanging stands before the season begins.

“A lot of people will leave hang-on stands up all year, and the strap that holds the stand to the tree gets weathered, gnawed on by rodents and otherwise compromised,” Huggins said. “It may look OK until you put your full weight on it; then it snaps. We also have stands where metal components rust and weaken, causing catastrophic failure at some point during the season.”

Huggins stresses that the best way to avoid injury from treestand falls is to always use a full-body safety harness. In every treestand injury reported last year, the victim was not wearing a safety harness at the time of the fall.

“You need to be connected to the tree from the time you leave the ground until you are back down,” Huggins said. “Probably two-thirds of falls occur when people are climbing into the stand or getting back down, and we’ve had many people who were wearing their harness but only had it connected to the tree when they were sitting in the stand.”

Huggins says a lifeline running up to the stand enables hunters to have that constant contact with the tree to be secure throughout the climb.

“It’s also important to have at least two people present while placing a stand to help secure it, and use all the braces that come with the stand according to the instructions,” Huggins said. “Take some extra time to practice using your stand at home and get familiar with it before heading to the woods. The more time you prepare for the hunt, the safer and more comfortable you will be when it’s finally time to get in the tree.”

Treestand safety is one of many topics covered in AGFC Hunter Education courses. Hunter education is mandatory for anyone born after 1968 to hunt in Arkansas. Children under 16 may hunt without hunter education as long as they are under the direct supervision of an adult who is 21 years old. Visit www.agfc.com/huntered for more information. 

The post Arkansas hunting injuries hit 13-year low appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — As hunters’ minds start focusing on the outdoors, many parents begin to ask what age is right to start their children off in the woods. In Arkansas, the minimum age to legally harvest and check a deer is 6 but it’s ultimately a decision each parent must make based on their own judgment. In the case of Arkansas hunter Shawn Conder, he was fortunate and dedicated enough to not only introduce his son and both of his daughters to hunting with successful seasons, but also lead his youngest, Callie Ann, to a Triple Trophy Award in her first year deer hunting. She is one of four 6-year-olds to claim a Triple Trophy Award last deer season, harvesting a deer with a modern gun, muzzleloader and archery tackle within the same deer season. According to AGFC records, Callie Ann may very well be the youngest female to accomplish the feat.

According to Shawn Conder, preparation for Callie Ann’s first deer season began last summer, when she expressed interest in wanting to harvest a deer at 6 years old like her sister had. They started with a .22 rimfire rifle, and worked their way up to her older brother’s deer rifle. By the opening day of the 2022 youth deer hunt, Callie Ann was enjoying making milk jugs full of water explode from distances up to 100 yards.

“We had deer in front of us that morning as well as that evening, but I knew there were a few different small bucks coming to that area, so I asked her to be patient and wait for a buck,” Conder said.

After reaching the deer stand well before daylight for the second day in a row, Callie Ann was able to connect with a buck within 20 yards of her shooting position.

“I whispered to her and reminded her to breathe out, hold her breath at the respiratory pause and squeeze the trigger and she had her first deer down,” Conder said.

The second deer came only a week later, when Callie joined her father on her first muzzleloader hunt. After another patient morning and evening, Callie Ann took her second deer, a doe, within 30 yards of the ground blind she and her father shared.

“Since she was so close to her very first Triple Trophy, I explained what it was and asked if she wanted to try for it,” Conder said. “She said yes.”

Callie Ann proved just as accurate with a crossbow within 30 yards, practicing from mid-November until her next hunt.

“By now she was a little reluctant to wake up so early to hunt, so I let her tell me when she was ready to go again,” Conder said.

He didn’t have to wait long. On Dec. 1, Callie agreed to join him on an afternoon hunt after he was able to get off work early. The pair found themselves in the same ground blind as when she harvested her deer during muzzleloader season, and once again she was able to make an excellent shot on a deer that came within 25 yards of her stand, wrapping up her Triple Trophy in her first year in the woods.

According to AGFC records, Conder is likely the youngest female to ever achieve the Triple Trophy Award since its creation in 1984. David Hamilton from Hope is the youngest Triple Trophy recipient on record, having completed his Triple Trophy in 2009 only 48 days after his sixth birthday.

The Arkansas Triple Trophy Award was created in 1984 to promote archery and muzzleloader seasons in the state and begin to shift public perception toward harvesting female deer. At one point, deer populations in the state had grown so thin that harvesting does was strictly prohibited. As deer populations recovered, managers recognized the need to shoot a balanced number of does and bucks to maintain healthy herds in line with the habitat.

Visit www.agfc.com/tripletrophy for more information about the Triple Trophy Award and how to apply this deer season.

The post Conder claims triple trophy award at 6 years old appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission named Rock Creek Ranch in Franklin County as the Deer Management Assistance Program Club of the year at the second annual Natural State Landowner Conservation Awards banquet held at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in downtown North Little Rock July 19.

The evening, which was sponsored by the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, offered the AGFC the opportunity to recognize landowners in The Natural State who have gone the extra mile working with the agency to improve aquatic and terrestrial habitat for game and nongame wildlife.

Rock Creek Ranch is a 1,400-acre deer club that has been involved with DMAP since 2001. They have collected valuable biological data, observation data, CWD samples and winter herd health data and does an excellent job of maintaining and submitting annual herd age information to keep track of biodata trends.

“We have been in DMAP for many years,” Eugene Post, club representative, said. “This program has assisted us in maintaining a healthy, balanced deer herd. By collecting detailed biological data through time, we help increase our opportunity at harvesting does and mature bucks alike.”

Hunters at Rock Creek Ranch use antlerless deer tags in coordination with the management guidelines provided by the AGFC to keep their local deer population below the carrying capacity of their habitat to promote a productive deer herd and meet their goals of having opportunities to harvest mature bucks (3.5 years and older). They have consistently harvested at least two mature bucks each year and have had opportunities to harvest more. Youth and guests have been very pleased to observe and harvest does and bucks alike each year.

In addition to harvest management, the club has made a large push into habitat management to improve the health of the wildlife on their property, including deer and ground-nesting birds.

Eugene Post and other Rock Creek Ranch hunters enrolled their property in the AGFC’s Acres for Wildlife program as well as the Arkansas Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry’s Forest Stewardship Program to increase the amount of native grasses and low-lying vegetation on their property. These seed- and insect-rich plants provide excellent food and cover for white-tailed deer and other wildlife.

This DMAP club is working on a plan to complete timber stand improvement throughout their property with the assistance of the AGFC, Quail Forever, Partners for Fish and Wildlife and the Division of Forestry.

To date, the club already has completed 45 acres for mulching undesirable species to increase sunlight to the ground to boost food and cover for wildlife. They also completed about 400 acres of prescribed burning to promote highly desirable plants such as ragweed, partridge pea and asters. Nearly 180 acres of native warm-season grasses and forbs have been planted to increase the amount of fawn bedding cover and high-protein forage for deer. The plantings included 15 acres of food plots, including sunflowers, mixed clovers, chicory, alfalfa, brassicas and winter wheat, to offer supplemental food during summer and winter. These habitat manipulations have contributed to success in their secondary goal, seeing an increase in eastern wild turkeys on the property.

“By increasing native food and cover on the ground, we have witnessed an increase in the amount of does with fawns on the property,” club member Kody Rudolph said. “We are excited to see what the future holds as we continue habitat management.”

The Deer Management Assistance Program is a component of the AGFC’s Private Lands Habitat Division supported, in part, by the AGFC’s cultivating partner Greenway Equipment. The program assists landowners and hunting clubs manage their local deer herd through voluntary management plans, which are customized to each club’s habitat and goals. Participants may request free site visits to improve not only the harvest structure of the deer on their property, but also to learn how to improve the habitat on that property to increase its potential to meet the desires of club members. Visit www.agfc.com/DMAP to learn more.

CUTLINES:

AWARD

Members of Rock Creek Ranch in Franklin County were honored at the AGFC’s Natural State Landowner Conservation Awards banquet.

DEER IN FIELD
Deer and other animals have shown excellent results from the DMAP club’s efforts.

FIELD

Native vegetation that provides cover and forage for quail, turkey and deer is abundant on Rock Creek Ranch thanks to hard work by club members.

FIRE
Prescribed fire is an important tool in Rock Creek Ranch’s success story.

The post Rock Creek Ranch named Arkansas deer club of the year appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will sell 106 WMA Deer Hunt Permits that were left over after this year’s application and draw period this week. Permits will be available for purchase beginning 8 a.m., Friday, Aug. 4.

Most highly sought WMAs were completely filled by the special draw, but there are four WMAs with permits remaining:

George H. Dunklin Jr. Bayou Meto WMA
Muzzleloader Hunt, Oct. 21-25, 2023
27 permits left

Dr. Lester Sitzes III Bois D’Arc WMA
Muzzleloader Hunt, Oct. 21-29, 2023
35 permits left

Harold E. Alexander Spring River WMA
Youth Modern Gun Hunt, Jan. 6-7, 2024
19 permits left

Freddie Black Choctaw Island WMA East Unit
Mobility Impaired Modern Gun Hunt, Oct. 21-23, 2023
25 permits left 

Each permit will be sold for $5. A hunter may purchase one permit for each of the remaining WMA permit hunts, and there is no limit to the amount of permits a person may buy. However, many hunts are on the same days, so hunters should pay attention to the dates as well as the location before purchasing.

The leftover permit sale is on a first-come, first-served basis, and remaining permits will be gone quickly after the online sale opens. Visit https://ar-web.s3licensing.com and click “Special Hunt Applications” to get your permit.

The post Leftover WMA Deer Hunt Permit sale August 4 appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Jim Harris

Managing Editor Arkansas Wildlife Magazine

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas’s 2022-23 deer season concluded Feb. 28, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s deer program coordinator expects the final harvest totals to finish higher than last year’s 181,379 total, but likely down about 15,000 deer from where the state has averaged during the last decade.

“I’d expect around 185,000 deer harvested when we have our final totals,” Ralph Meeker, AGFC’s deer program coordinator, said. “There’s a variety of reasons why we will be down (from our average). We had a record harvest in 2020, so we may have impacted some carryover. Add to that some inclement weather during muzzleloader season, the warmest Arkansas winter on record, and a phenomenal mast crop (which is known to greatly affect deer movement), and it’s easy to see where we landed.

“So, it was not one thing, but probably a combination of a lot of things,” he said.
And, in the grand scheme of numbers, a harvest of 185,000 deer is not a significant difference from a typical 200,000-deer harvest.

“If you have a severe weather event on opening weekend or a rainy muzzleloading season, that will make up that difference of 5,000-7,500 deer easily,” he said. “So, 15,000 less deer may look significant, but it’s really not. It is typical to see fluctuations in harvest from time to time.”

In 2017-18, Arkansas hunters took 210,065 deer through modern gun, muzzleloading and archery methods; in the next season, the number fell to 188,151 harvested, then it bounced back to the record 216,835 harvest for 2020-21 (which also was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The most updated harvest numbers for 2022-23 indicated that 89,855 antlered deer had been harvested, 85,936 does were taken, and 10,884 button ducks were harvested for a total of 185,675.

Meeker and AGFC staff have been doing some winter herd health checks this past month. “What we are finding is that deer are in super condition for this time of year,” he said. “The amount of energy and nutrients they were able to store, they were able to carry it all through this winter. And now with the greening up of the landscape, there is more vegetation available.”

Weather issues were definitely not a factor for opening modern gun hunting weekend this season, he noted. “It’s very possible the opening weekend was the highest harvest we’ve had for modern gun in modern times,” Meeker said. “I haven’t gone back that far in our records, but I know we harvested close to 39,000 deer in two days this year, and that number is typically 33,000-35,000.”

“We had cool temperatures, no wind, and a significant portion of the state got snow that opening weekend of the modern gun season. That type of weather puts our deer hunters in the mood to get out. That’s in contrast to the opening weekend of muzzleloader season when we saw rain, wind, and bad weather.”

Are we worried with the season’s deer harvest? “I’m not worried whatsoever.”

“Arkansas deer populations have been subjected to severe ice storms, outbreaks of buffalo gnats, historic droughts, and prolonged flooding events. And all those populations have rebounded quickly,” Meeker said. “It’s nothing to be concerned about. We strive to manage deer populations in such a way that they are able to rebound from such events.”

CUTLINES

Deer
Arkansas hunters harvested more than 185,000 white-tailed deer during the 2022-23 deer hunting season.

Deer hunter in stand
Hunters harvested close to 39,000 deer in the first two days of the 2022-23 modern gun deer season.

The post 2022-23 deer harvest up from 2021-22 season appeared first on Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.