A collection of rules, regulations, wisdom and stories from Arkansas’s Hunting Grounds.

It’s always hunting season in Arkansas. Blessed with an abundance of game, hunters find ample challenge and bountiful reward for their efforts be it deer, duck, goose, bear, 'gator, turkey or assorted varmints. The following pages give a snapshot of hunting seasons, as per Arkansas Game and Fish Commission regulations, including dates, bag limits and other assorted rules. This is not an exhaustive almanac, so for full hunting guidelines visit AGFC.com. We’ve also included some game trivia and favorite stories from Arkansas hunters about their favorite outing. Here’s to you, hunters!

Best Bang for the Buck

It’s a dangerous mission to start talking about the best hunting rifles of all time, given how crowded the market and how personal the choice. But there are some models so well-engineered and so long-lived they demand a seat at the GOAT table. Here are a few that have stood the test of time and, being still in production, are waiting for your enjoyment. That is, if Dad or Grandpa hasn’t already handed one down to you.

Winchester Model 70
Introduced in 1936, the bolt-action Model 70 improved upon 1925’s Model 54 as a do-everything rifle with greater sex appeal than the modified military models that preceded it. Quickly dubbed the “Rifleman’s Rifle” the Model 70 catered to the demands of sportsmen then and continues to deliver today. (winchesterguns.com)

Remington Model 700
Five million hunters and military snipers can’t be wrong, and that’s how many of this revolutionary rifle have been produced since the Model 700 first rolled out in 1962. Remington’s innovations — which included push-feed action, cylindrical receiver and plunger-type ejector among other features — were so well-conceived, that little more than cosmetic changes differentiate the original from today’s model. (remarms.com)

Ruger 10/22
Ruger’s trim 10/22 fired the shot heard around the gun world in 1962 by offering easy change-out of the barrel as well as a subsequent onslaught of aftermarket 10/22 parts and accessories. The 10/22 also incorporated a rotary magazine that gave the tidy rifle as many shots as other models with awkward tubular or clip mags, while being better balanced and easier to carry. (ruger.com)

Source: americanhunter.org

Trust Gus

I’ve taken my son, Gus, now age 8, deer hunting for about three seasons now. On this occasion, we’d just come back from lunch and had, like, 11 deer cross the path where we pull into the cabin outside of Gillett. So immediately he wants to go deer hunting and we go out into a ground blind at like 1:30 in the afternoon. We have all this time to kill before dusk when the deer start moving, which was way too much time to be out there with a 6-year-old.

Right when it was about hunting time an 8-point walks out and I say, “Gus, look at him.” He sees it and starts flipping out, “SHOOT IT, SHOOT IT, SHOOT IT!” He’s just hammering in my ear, “SHOOT IT, SHOOT IT!”

I get my gun and, a little rushed, I fire the shot. The deer jumps up and I fire a Hail Mary shot as the deer runs off into the woods. I’ve seen this play out before, and as we’re walking deeper and deeper into the woods, I was like, “Gus, I really don’t think I hit him, man. I’m sorry I let you down.” He’s like, “Dad, I know you killed that deer.”

He sees some blood on a leaf and we started walking around until I got to the point I was like, “Gus, I don’t know that we’re going to be able to find it,” and he said, “There it is right there, Dad. See? I told you you killed it.” And we found the deer. We get over there and it’s a beautiful deer, a nice-sized 8-point. Biggest deer I’d ever killed.

I start looking for the bullet hole and upon closer inspection, I’d hit it in the back of the head with that Hail Mary shot when it was running, I just got totally lucky. Gus thought that was the coolest thing, and now he has that skull, much to his mother’s chagrin, hanging in his bedroom.

—Gabe Holmstrom, Little Rock

Turkeys and Tiaras

I was turkey hunting with my friend, Nina Rogers. We were having no luck, seeing no turkeys, hunting hard for three days straight. Finally on the last day, it’s lunchtime and I’m like, “OK girl, we need a break.”

As we pull up to a gas station in the middle of nowhere, Nina says, “Lord, please send us somebody that’ll direct us to some turkeys!” We go get our Red Bulls and come back outside to see this old man in the parking lot, looking at us. I’m thinking we’re about to get abducted. He said, “You girls had any luck getting turkeys?” No sir, we haven’t. He’s like, “I’ve got a property right down the road. It’s full of turkeys if y’all would like to come hunt them.” Nina and me, immediately, we’re like, “Yes sir! We’ll follow you there!’ I mean, this is how you get abducted, OK?”

We follow this old man on Easter Sunday to his house, his wife’s cooking in the kitchen, his grandkids are dying Easter eggs, his son’s eating lunch. They’re like, what’s going on? He told them, “These girls would like to kill a turkey.” As the son finishes his meal, I get to talking with the wife, and before long I am holding hands with this family and praying over them at Easter lunch.

The son takes us out to a field and we see five turkeys. We Army crawl on our bellies for 400 yards to the tree line and I can feel the vibrations of this tom, he was so close. He steps out from behind the tree line and I get a shot on him at like, four steps.

I’m excited, “Oh my gosh! We did it!” And the son said, “Oh, we’re not done yet. We’ve got to get your friend one, too.” I’m like, we’ve been hunting for three days trying to get one bird, you’re going to get us two in one afternoon? It sounded ambitious.

We get in the vehicle with this man we’ve never met before and we start going deeper into the woods. I was like OK, this is it, y’all; we killed a turkey, it’s our turn now. It probably wasn’t 30 minutes we had a tom responding to our calls and 30 seconds later, he came into view. He comes sprinting at us and Nina gets him at 75 yards with a 20-gauge. So impressed.

We’d both closed on birds in one afternoon with complete strangers, strangers who got Christmas cards that year. They’ve become family friends.

—Maggie Williams, Piggott, 2019 Miss Teen Arkansas

GOBBLER GUNS

“The right tool for the right job,” has never been wiser advice than when it comes to choosing your hunting equipment. Ultimately a shotgun is a shotgun, but certain features are preferred for use on one quarry over another. Here are some top-rated models to consider before turkey season rolls around:

Browning Cynergy
Boasting a lightweight design that helps cut down on fatigue during long hours in the woods and a matte finish that helps keep you hidden from sharp-eyed toms makes the Browning Cynergy a top-rated turkey gun. Add to that minimum kickback and you have your new favorite hunting buddy.

Mossberg 835 Ulti-mag
Turkeys don’t get enough credit as prey, but their sharp vision, keen hearing and speed make them challenging quarry. This Mossberg model helps level the playing field by reducing knock-back and allowing for smooth additional shots, should the first one miss. A nice extra: The gun comes with several chokes to customize your scattergun to your liking.

Benelli M2
Benelli is known for making a dependable, durable gun and the M2 lives up to that reputation. The system depends on inertia to operate, meaning the shotgun can be used in any prevailing weather condition. That technology doesn’t come cheap, but if you can stomach the price tag, Benelli makes a honey of a gun.

Source: NationalTurkeyHuntingChampionships.com

Tame vs. Wild, It’s a Matter of Taste

I’ve heard many times from non-hunters, “Why go to all that trouble of hunting wild turkey when you can go to the grocery store and buy one?” I’ve harvested more than 50 gobblers in my career and to me, there are few things more exciting than the chess game played out in the woods.

That aside, there are considerable benefits to eating wild turkey over farm-raised birds, mainly, they’re free-range feeding on all-natural forage. The hunter can feel fairly confident he or she is partaking of a food source near that enjoyed by our ancient ancestors.

My two favorite ways to prepare a bird are whole deep-fried and Southern-fried. Done properly, few delicacies can compare to turkey cooked by either method.

For deep-fried, pluck all the feathers and remove head, feet and innards. Inject the meat with your choice of liquid seasoning. Then, using a Cajun cooker big enough to submerge the whole bird, lower the turkey into a pot of hot cooking oil. The greatest benefit of a wild bird over store-bought with this method is that wild isn’t butter-injected, as butter can burn in the deep fryer.

Deep frying requires about three minutes per pound to cook to perfection. Remember, that’s dressed weight, not harvest weight; I made that mistake the first time I deep-fried a gobbler and when I lifted him out of the pot, his drumsticks looked like two factory chimneys spewing steam.

For Southern-fried, split open the skin on the bird’s chest and filet out the two breast portions, which will usually make a meal each. Unlike many forms of wild game, it isn’t necessary to soak turkey breast in salt water overnight to reduce a wild flavor but it won’t hurt either, as it helps draw out residual blood in the flesh.

Most important is to remove all the membrane found along the outside of turkey breasts — better to slice off too much meat in the trimming than leaving any membrane, which is chewy and carries an unfavorable flavor.

Once trimmed, slice the breasts across the grain in ¾-inch thick strips and tenderize as you would chicken breasts. Batter those pieces, drop them in a skillet of hot grease and prepare yourself for one of the greatest treats you’ll ever behold.

—Richard Ledbetter

Ridin’ The Storm Out

We had a lease around Clarendon, flooded fields and sloughs and things of that nature. This particular Saturday I took my son, Heath, down there along with a good buddy of mine, Bruce Tidwell.

It was really, really cold; all the water was frozen and there were no ducks. We took poor Heath out to a spot and got him situated and then Bruce and I proceeded to break the ice in the hopes of opening a hole. We broke it, but it was so cold it was refreezing. It was miserable and there’s nothing flying, not a bird in the sky. It’s one of those “Tell me when I’m having fun,” scenarios. And poor Heath, he was probably 8 or 9, sitting there like a snowman, frozen to death. After a couple hours we’d all had enough, and we hadn’t fired a shot.

The next day was the last day of the season, so Bruce and I felt this crazy obligation to go. Well, it’d warmed up the previous afternoon and that night, so when Bruce and I got to the same spot there was still ice, but a hole had melted in the field. It wasn’t very big, maybe half the size of a football field, but that’s all they needed. It was the only open water in the area.

Holy cow, we’re putting decoys out and there’s ducks landing in the water while we’re doing it. This one hole is all that’s open and the birds would come in, we’d kill a couple and 10 minutes later the birds would come back. We literally just sat there and had our pick. I mean, nothing like I’ve ever seen.

The cherry on the sundae was, there was a mallard coming down the slough really, really low. It was coming to Bruce first, and I thought he’s going to annihilate this bird. Well, for whatever reason, he never saw it. So I shoot it and it was banded, which was kind of neat.

That was one of the better days I’ve ever had, killing our limit in just a matter of minutes, getting our mallards and topping it off with a banded bird. Just an illustration that you’ve got to keep going; 24 hours made all the difference.

—Hoyte Pyle, Little Rock

Quack Manners

As Bobby Martin, chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, prepares to enter his 65th duck season, his enthusiasm for the sport has never been higher. Having turned hundreds on to duck hunting in that time, we asked him for some duck-hunting etiquette.

• Number one, and everybody knows this about me, don’t be late. If you can’t be on time, be early.

• A new hunter has to be extra careful about safety, particularly in a duck blind where you’re in close proximity with other hunters. Ask questions and make sure you know your shooting lane. Be aware where the dogs are at all times.

• Learn how to conceal yourself. It’s not important what brand of camo you have, it’s about concealment. A new hunter is also at higher risk of making sudden moves that give them away; learn to be slow-moving in a fast-action sporting experience. Same thing in timber; I always say, “Be the tree.”

• New hunters yield to the experienced hunter in the group. Don’t shoot first; wait for them to call the shot. That way, you don’t raise up and shoot at a pair when an experienced hunter knows there’s 15 right behind them, which gives the whole group a chance to be successful.

• Here’s one for experienced hunters: I think a lot of people take themselves way too seriously, and that actually hurts the young hunters in the group. Being able to watch the birds is part of the enjoyment, but a lot of people just say, “Keep your head down!” Watching the birds is how a young hunter learns, so teach them how to look up with their eyes instead of cocking their head back or turning side-to-side.

• I’ve heard the duck blind called the new golf course as far as business deals getting done. One of the key successes in closing a deal is having a relationship and the best way to strengthen a relationship is to enjoy something where you’re on common ground. Don’t try to close a deal or get into the business side when you should be connecting over the outdoors and Mother Nature and the success of an outdoor experience in the waterfowling world. I’m pretty hard-nosed about that point.

• The biggest ‘do’ for me is just go. The fact is, every one of us was a first-time hunter, so don’t miss out on experiencing one of the great hunting opportunities that a sporting shooter ever has out of intimidation. Find a hunting group that will help you learn; if you’re patient and give yourself a chance, you’ll have some really memorable moments.

Hog Heaven

A couple years ago, we were deer hunting in Cleveland County. We were up in a climber stand, my dad’s beside me. We see these hogs come in to our right, maybe six or seven of them, and they stopped to feed in front of our stand where there’s usually some corn. Dad’s like, “They’ll come in. Just wait.”

They started coming in and I shot a spotted sow and got a pass-through on her. Saw the arrow down on the ground and my dad climbed down to get it. He got back in the stand and a little hog came back within shooting range so I shot him.

Then, there were some more hogs that came in behind us, another group of 10 or 15 probably, but they didn’t come in for me to get a shot. Then right before dark, maybe five, 10 minutes of shooting light left, yet another group of them comes in and I got another big sow with a good shot right at dark. I killed those three hogs within an hour, which is kind of crazy. Dad thinks we probably saw 40 or 50 hogs within that time.

We pulled up to camp with those hogs and my son, Knox, was there. He kept on saying, ‘Oh Mama, you killed a hog and a cow.’ He thought the spotted one was the Chick-fil-A cow.

—Blair Cook, Jonesboro