Arkansas elk, like this bugling bull, are magnificent animals. Permits to hunt them are free but extremely limited in number and available only to Arkansas residents. (Joe Mosby Photo)

By Joe Mosby

An Arkansas elk hunting permit surely ranks at the top of great bargains in the outdoors world. It is free. Applying for it is free. No age limits, no qualifying, no tests to be taken.

You just have to be an Arkansan.

Wait a minute. This sounds like something too good to be true, even if we are heading into the 12th year of permit elk hunting in the state.

All right, the basics are just as described. There are no catches to applying for and winning one of these elk permits. But do you really want one? Let’s touch on a few points.

Any Arkansas resident can apply for and possibly win one of the 24 permits that will be drawn Saturday, June 27, at Jasper’s courthouse square during the Buffalo River Elk Festival. The application calls for one of three types of identification – driver’s license number, Social Security number, Hunter Education number. Yep, you aren’t required to furnish a current hunting license number.

No elk hunting experience is required. No deer hunting experience is mandatory. You don’t have to have shooting knowledge even – we’ll touch on this in a bit.

You get on a computer with Internet, go to www.agfc.com, look at Online Services and click on “apply for a permit.” Fill in the blanks, click submit, and you have applied for a 2009 Arkansas elk hunting permit.

If you have the ID numbers, you can apply also for your spouse, your kids, your parents, your relative who is computer illiterate and your best buddy. It is that simple and that open to any Arkansan.

So, you apply then you wait for a phone call soon after that Jasper public drawing. Don’t hold your breath, since you will be one of 8,000 or so Arkansans with their names in the squirrel cage for the drawing. Those are long odds – 24 of 8,000. Two other permits are given out at fundraising auctions of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. You can go for one of those two if your pockets are deep enough – except the time is past for this year.

One rule to keep in mind before you make that application is the permits are not transferable. You can’t win one and put it up for bids on eBay. You can’t swap it to a co-worker for a new tire for your vehicle. You can’t donate it to a charity. Use it yourself is the one and only option.

It has happened before, a few times. Someone wins an elk permit and doesn’t show up. Last year a permit winner died before the hunt. In these cases, the no-shows and the deaths, that permit simply is not used, and there is one less hunter in the field during elk season.

Arkansas elk hunting is a bargain with free permits compared to those costing several hundred dollars apiece in the western states.

Keep in mind that elk hunting is difficult. It’s not a walk in the park, and a misconception persists that all you have to do is drive up, step out of your vehicle and shoot a waiting elk. Nah. Ask somebody who has hunted elk. You work for your elk. You work hard.

Here are some quick questions to ask yourself before applying for an elk permit:

Can I get off work or out of school for a week to hunt elk?

Can I get three or so people as my helpers on an elk hunt?

Do I have the shooting ability with a high-powered rifle to kill an elk?

Am I able physically to hunt elk in the mountains and up and down the valleys of the Buffalo River?

Can I rake up the money needed for lodging, even camping, gasoline, for food and for all the items needed for an elk hunt (ropes, knives, tarpaulins)?

Can I commit to advance scouting, several days and not just a 30-minute drive-around, of the area where I will be hunting?

Do I realize the immense task that follows killing an elk, the task of getting the dead animal out of the field and to a vehicle then to a check station? Remember that the average
elk weighs about five times as much as a deer.

OK, you replied with a “yes” to each of these questions. Fine. Go apply for an Arkansas elk hunting permit. You have through May 31 to do it. Good luck.

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Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com.