Commissioners approved hunting regulations changes for the 2017-18 hunting seasons, including the season dates for all game at their May 18 meeting.
Opening days for 2017-18 include deer season: archery – Sept. 23; muzzleloader – Oct. 21; modern gun – Nov. 11; private land modern gun antlerless deer hunt – Oct. 14-18; special modern gun youth deer hunt – Nov. 4-5 and Jan. 6-7; Christmas holiday modern gun deer hunt – Dec. 26-28.
The 2018 wild turkey season dates: special youth turkey hunt – April 7-8, 2018; Firearms and Archery Turkey Season – Zones 1, 2, 3, 4B, 5, 5B, 6, 7, 7A, 8, 9, 10 and 17 - April 9-24; Zones 1A, 4, 4A, 5A and 9A – April 9-17.
Waterfowl season dates: Duck, Coot and Merganser – Nov. 18-26, Dec. 7-23, Dec. 26 -Jan. 28 2018; Special Youth Waterfowl Hunt – Dec. 2 and Feb. 3.
Complete season dates are available online at www.agfc.com.
The changes were proposed at the Commission’s March meeting, and public surveys were conducted for the last two months. Commissioners were briefed on the results of those surveys during Wednesday’s briefings.
All proposals had a majority of support, according to Steven Fowler, assistant chief of the Wildlife Management Division. “There was fairly high opposition to one regulation change, which was not being able to carry two weapons during the modern gun antlerless only deer hunt.”
Brad Carner, chief of wildlife management, said many comments in opposition to the regulation were concerning concealed carry firearms. “We had a lot of people worried that we were trying to limit their ability to carry a concealed firearm if they had a concealed carry permit,” he said. “That won’t be impacted by this regulation.”
“Carner says another argument that was heard was that people wanted to carry a gun to shoot antlerless deer, and also carry a bow to go by the regulations of Arkansas archery deer hunt in case a buck came by during their hunt.
“The spirit of these added days of modern gun season is to harvest does and help balance the deer herd,” Carner said. “If they want to bowhunt, I encourage them to do that. If they want to participate in the antlerless hunt, that’s also great. We’re just asking people to choose which one they’re going to do that morning and carry one or the other.”