Arkansas bear hunt

[Jakeemt]

Anyone have any luck in quachita national forest? I can pick up pretty cheap tags there as a non resident. Only caveat is that I am not interested in baiting. Either ambush, spot and stalk, or predator calling. I was planning to hit Idaho next June but, this might be a better option. Would appreciate feedback from those that have been there done that.

[Boognish]

I’ve been asking the same question the past couple of days with very little input. I did have one guy pm me back but very limited info on it. I sent a message to Clay Newcomb from Bear Hunting Magazine about a week ago but never got a reply. You can YouTube him if you haven’t already. He’s got some great videos of him bear hunting. He killed one on a spot and stalk hunt in Arkansas and then went to Oklahoma the next day and killed another one if I remember correctly. If you find out any details somewhere else please post something here or send me a pm. Good luck

[Fattony77]

I don't hunt the Arkansas side, but I hunt on the AR/OK border every year. There are definitely bears to be had in there, but they aren't easy to find. I've only come close a couple of times int the last several years of trying. I'm learning more each time, and I'd be happy to share whatever I can to help ya out. I know of a spot on the OK border that has some heavily used trails that I'm sure cross into the AR side. Also, for the type of hunting that you're wanting to do, I would hit the Nat'l Forest hiking trails with my bow & gear in hand. I know someone that did that one year and saw more bears in one day than I have (while hunting) in all of my years of trying. If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me or I can give you my phone number.

[D. Key]

I killed one about 25 miles East and a bit North of Fort Smith a couple of years ago.  The guy that set me up killed one a few years ago that pushed 450#.  I was sitting just on the National Forest line but in a private property.  Mine was about 200# and I was very happy to get it.  Based on information from the Arkansas DNR, NW Arkansas has a lot of bears.

Good luck.

[Hossmiller]

The Northwest part of the state is definitely the place to be for bears. We have the largest concentration of black bears anywhere in the state. Our terrain makes spot and stalk challenging to say the least. I think a majority of our bear harvest takes place on private land over bait(baiting is only legal on private). But even baiting is a dice roll in arkansas, as sometimes our mast crop (acorns) will drop as season opens and bears that people have had on camera everyday for a month will vanish. Ive lived and hunted my entire life in nwa (I'm 33) and have yet to tag a bear, but it is definitely on my bucket list. If you do get a chance to come chase bears here in the natural state, I wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing about your adventure here on tradgang.

[Dave Lay]

I was the same way with not wanting to bait a bear and wanted to kill on public land it took a few years but finally got it done, but it was in the n central part of the state. I know there are bears in muddy creek WMA but your gonna have to burn some boot leather and I would start scouting as soon as the white oaks start developing acorns as the bears will climb to get them and leave sign doing that as well as getting to devils walking stick berries.. as said before you might get your maps out and look for isolated flats or where a old cutover borders good oak timber. Also think about accessing the area around lake ouchita by boat, it can make a easier hunt. Also the kill quotas fill pretty quick with probably 80% if not more of the bears intentionally killed here are killed over bait on private land now days.