Having grown up in Arkansas and hunted here most of my life I never really had an interest in hunting black bear here until about 4 years ago. An acquaintance owned some property he suspected there were bears on and invited me out to hang some trail cams. Ended up getting pics of several bears and a couple looked really big. That's when my bear fever started. He wouldn't allow any hunting on his property so I started looking for a place to bait and hunt. In Arkansas you can only bait on private property and I soon discovered that finding property and getting permission to hunt it was easier said than done. A year or so later I was lucky enough to get permission to hunt a small property of around 40 acres, really the huntable section was more like 20 acres. I baited and hunted it for 3 seasons, had a bear or two coming into the bait until the acorns fell, usually a week or two before the season opener. If they came back at all after that it was very sporadic.
After last season I decided it was time to find a bigger property and hopefully more bear to create some competition at the bait. I picked up an app that shows aerial photos, topo maps, property lines and names of landowners. I picked out a few properties in good bear country and started writing letters and making phone calls.
Eventually I got permission to hunt 275 acres about an hour and half from my house.
I drove over on a Saturday to meet the landowner back in July. His wife said he was out on the 4 wheeler checking his cattle. Then she told me he'd be turning 104 years old in a couple months. It was an honor and a real treat hearing some of his stories from way back in the good old days, he's lived his whole life on that same property. Guess that's what you call good country living.
After our visit I set out to scout the property. Ended up finding what I thought would be a great spot for a bait. It was on a north to south bench below a bluff line that had very few places to drop off to the bench. My bait site and stand would be directly below one of those openings.
Topic: My Arkansas Bear Hunting Journey (Read 1882 times)
