Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Black Bears In Arkansas.

I grew up there in the southern Ozarks and only saw one in all the years I was out hunting, camping, fishing, etc. They'd been almost all shot out at that time. Now through reintroduction by Ark. Game & Fish, there are over 3,000 Black bears in Arkansas. They have a hunting season on them.

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/pdf/FSA-9087.pdf

Any Arkansas hunters here ever killed one?

L.W.

I will soon (hopefully) be in Arkansas, and I'd love to just see bears.

There are reports of mountain lions remaining there too.... it's possible, I suppose.

Sometimes those Arkansas and Oklahoma bears wonder into NE Texas where I live but they don't stay long. They are usually young male bears and until a female locates here they won't stay.

We have a hunting season on Black Bears in OK too.

Like coyotes, fishers, and a bunch of other stuff. They were exterminated for a reason. I promise you that the novelty wears off, and fast.

For me the “novelty” never wears off. I prefer living in places that are still wild enough for top tier predators to thrive. I’d rather share the space with animals rather than humans. I’m used to bear, cougar, wolves, etc….. they’re easier to teach and manage compared to people…they’re also less dangerous and more predictable than people. The novelty of living in the country has not gotten old yet and I’m trying to get to get something built in much more “wild” environs with far more animals than people. 👍

What's the date on that publication? The population pushes 6,000 now. Have had bear hunting for about 40 years now. Growing up in Arkansas in the 70s, they were here but rare. Now they are almost anywhere within the state. Hunting season is concurrent with deer season. No spring hunting though.

The last confirmed wild red wolf in Arkansas was in the early 70s. No coyotes back then at all. Now we are overrun with coyotes.

I'm in north central Arkansas, LOTS of old growth woods.

Sylamore 30 miles south is a good size WMA. I had two game cams running from mid summer into Bow season and didn't see much of anything. VERY FEW DEER, no bears, rarely see a coyote/bobcat/fox track.

Someone traps the hades out of the place, I see the orange flags and the sets spaced out about every 300ish yards.
More often than not there's a dirt-road about every 1/4 mile, that goes maybe a mile then connects to another dirt-road.
Did see some hog sign here and there.

Same story west of here Bull Shoals area, but only left game cams out 2 or 3 weeks.

Spent a lot of time scouting the places out my first year here >june 2020 and enjoyed it, but there isn't much for deer in old growth areas, and never saw a bear or bear track.
Last year I didn't hunt at all and I doubt I'll hunt this year.

Kodiak Island, I pulled the article up again but could not find a publication date on it. Now up to 6,000 Black bears?! That's a lot of bruins. Maybe if I were still there I'd be able to see more than the one I saw around 1950.

Ol' Mike, you must live close to where I grew up: Mountain Home. BTW, I and my buddies have camped in the Sylamore Forest a number of times. Beautiful country.

L.W.

It's fun to see them, but hunting them is actually a let down. You can bait on private property, but most are killed by deer hunters from a stand. No spring season. Very little opportunity for spot and stalk type hunting. I still go out west most springs for bear hunting. Was in Idaho this year in the Lolo area, but got there a week or so too earlier and all I saw was snow.

We have a bear season in the Missouri Ozark's now also. Elk too. We are covered up in hogs. And going on 90 something confirmed mountain lion sightings to the point that hearing of a confirmed lion sighting isn't big news any more. Where I am I see elk, hogs and the occasional bear. Here is a Missouri Ozark bear...




This bear climbed into a hog trap to get a pork chop for dinner...



Damn hogs...



I put the sneak on this rag horn 4x5 elk and got to 25 yards. It was super windy that day and this bull was busy feeding on acorns.

KodiakIsland,

Howdy.
My younger brother and I were travelling back to Ohio from Houston area to visit friends and Grandparents and saw a wolf in 1979. We were about 150 miles out of Texarkana, don't remember the country highway.

Broad daylight, I was driving and saw it going under a barbwire fence crossing in front of us 200 yards ahead.
Brother was dozing off, I said look at that wolf, his exact words were 'it is a wolf'. It crossed into another field stopped and gazed back at us as we had nearly come to a stop.
I'll never forget it.

There's an ol timey Youtube video of Missouri, the coon/fox hunters speak of their dogs chasing a wolf from time to time.

A Missouri guy on Long Range Hunting sites says there are definately a few wolves in Missouri.
I'm a believer in peoples wolf sightings< I also saw a wolf in Florida.

Saw and photographed wold tracks in deep SW Idaho in 2008-2009.
I measured the distance via google earth from the SW Idaho corner to California's NE corner, just over a couple hundred miles.
I proclaimed there were wolves already in California because and old ranch-hand I got to know down there told he had seen wolves all over that region for years.
Over.

Nathan, the reason the Black bears were shot out in Arkansas was back before the Civil War, there was an huge market for bear oil, a fine lubricant, cooking oil, lamps, and many other uses. Hunters in Arkansas killed bears by the ton and rendered the fat, in a tiny town that sprung up on the White River, named "Oil Trough." The rendered oil flowed through troughs into wooden barrels and were loaded onto boats and floated downriver to the Mississippi River. There, north and south in steamboats to various markets that sold the bear oil. Over the years, the bear oil hunters really decimated the bears, and then the market for bear oil fell apart.

Oil Trough is still there and I think the census I saw listed a population of 280 people. It is about 30 miles s.e. of Batesville on the White River.

FWIW.

L.W.

I fly over the southwest corner of Missouri quite a bit and can usually pick up an elk herd near an old olympic training center. Have to circle a bit but can almost always find 10-20 of them.

Yep, Sylamore is a beautiful place, the whole region is.

I'm moving back to Idaho, maybe soon, >Challis.

They know not to mess with Texan hunters.

3,000? Maybe in one county. There are so many bears they are damned nuisance. There are some cats too. I’m pretty sure I saw one in February of 2006. It was about a quarter of a mile away and it got out of there in a hurry, but when it turned I could see the long tail. As for wolves, I don’t know. Maybe red wolves. But those aren’t that different than coyotes anyway.

I have hunted for bears in the.Ozark National Forest and in Sylamore. It is no problem finding sign in either place. I saw 2 while hunting never shot one.
The place I hunt now is private in N Central AR and we have bears travel through our place. Had Pictures of 3 different bears last year The smallest one was killed on a place that joins us by a bowhunter. We have had a large male the last 2 years. I may try to bait him this year. Problem is he usually leaves before season. I live 70 miles east of the place I hunt and people are starting to see bears regularly where I live.
Our game and fish commission denies there are Mt Lions in AR but I have seen one for certain cross the highway in front of me and know several people that have seen them too.

There is no bear season in Louisiana, but when I was a young chap, there was a couple of parishes in S. La. that had a bear season. That season was done away with sometime around the mid '60's, IIRC.

There is a proposal to start a bear season again, but I doubt it will go anywhere.

I live in the Ozarks in Arkansas. Bear are a nuisance here. You have to hang deer feeders from trees. They tear everything else up. Yep. Gardens are really taking a hit right now. We have the big cats also. Not anywhere close to the bear population though. Lots of pet food comes up missing. Folks put out cameras and there is Yogi lapping up whatever is in a feed bowl. It's fun seeing them cross roads I guess.