Relocating to LR. Where to live and what about bird hunting?

[claydouglas76]

Hello All and Happy Holidays,

I wanted to get a little insight into the Little Rock area. I viewed the States DNR website but didnt see much information on upland bird hunting. Work is relocating me next month and I will be looking to live somewhere around the LR area. I am moving from South Dakota and as you can guess pheasant hunting has been a big part of my whole life. What can I expect for upland bird hunting? (My English Setter and Weimeraner would go nuts without a bird season!:confused: ) I noticed AR DNR site listed a quail season but no mention of any other upland birds. Are there not any others? Is there alot of access to public lands that are not pressured to bad? I am however excited to come down to AR. From what I have read and visits to Beaver Lake it is a beautiful State with all kinds of hunting opportunities. Any extra hunting info you could give me would be great! Up here I hunt upland birds, turkey, duck, goose and deer.

Also, Could you give me some suggestions on towns to live in? I dont think we want to live right in LR but a surrounding city. My wife and I would not want to have a commute any longer than 45min. I think we will rent a house our first year until we decide where we want to settle in. I am going to be flying in to LR next week and have 3 days to find a place so any suggestions would be wonderful!

Thanks for your input! I am excited to of found this website. I look forward to "talk hunt" with everyone!

Thanks again!

Clay

[DODGEMAN]

Clay welcome to the forum, glad to have you.

I live in NE AR and we have some quail around here, but not alot. I did just meet a guy that has Britts and did alot of bird hunting and they were wanting him to start a QU chapter in this area. Let me know and I will let give you his number.

Maybe some of the other guys on here can tell you more.

[Sylamore]

Welcome cd76! Glad to have you join us here at ARHunting.net. I live in the North Central part of the state so I cannot help with the task of relocating decisions.

Some parts of the state still have huntable populations of Bobwhite Quail. I think the best bets for quail are going to be West and SW of Little Rock. There is quite a bit of public hunting land in Arkansas, but finding some good quail will take some effort. Arkansas is also a big duck hunting state and for ducks the best hunting will generally be East of Little Rock. Deer hunting is pretty good state wide.

What kind of job are you moving into?

Again Welcome!

[reflex1]

Clay - where in LR will you be working - would give us a better opportunity to suggest a small town to live in but here goes -

Conway - about 45 minutes northwest of LR (Faulkner County)
Benton/Bryant area - about 20 minutes southwest of LR (Pulaski County)
Jacksonville - 15 minutes northeast (Pulaski County)
Lonoke - 30 minutes east (Lonoke County)
Cabot - 20 minutes northeast (ditto)
Beebe - 30 minutes northeast (White County)
Searcy - 1 hour northeast (White County)

Each of these is served by four-lane divided highways. Taxes will be higher in Pulaski County!

Hope this helps at least a little bit!

[claydouglas76]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

I work for a large pc manufacturer and I will service the whole state with a majority of my business in LR (State and local government as well as K-12 and Higher Education institutions). So all of these cities listed are an option. Any you would recommend over another?

Dodgeman: I would love to get ahold of the person your talking about. I am one of the chairman for our Pheasants Forever Chapter in our county so maybe I could help him out with QU if he needed some.

Here is our chapter's PF website.
woodbury.pheasantsforever.org/page/205/Woodbury-Home.jsp

[soarkrebel]

I live in Hot springs and work in LR at the airport. 1 hour and 10 minute commute.

I love my living arrangements but hate the drive. But it works out cause I am not a suburb kind of guy. I will sacrifice for country living.

Your gonna have some changes from south dakota but Arkansas can be great for outdoors experiences. One thing about Ar is that hunting is like a cult.
I think you will find living outside pulaski county to be the thing desired. Stay in touch on here and I am sure someone will direct you in the best direction.
What so you do?

[Have gun will travel]

I live in Beebe. Just think of Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show and you can imagine what Beebe is like. It's a small town and it takes me about 40 minutes or so to get to the middle of LR. 4 lane and 70 miles an hour for the majority of the drive.

4 miles from my house we have 1300 acres of public land and 35 miles away we have Wattensaw and Henry Gray public lands. I don't know how many acres they consist of but they are way more than you could hunt in a day.

Quail are very scarce but I have seen them here at the WMA 4 miles from the house. The only bird hunting that I know of is duck and dove.

Conway is a mix of city and country. Jacksonville, Benton and Cabot are too populated for my taste. Beebe is just right for the wife and I.

[octoberbuck]

I live in Beebe. Just think of Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show and you can imagine what Beebe is like. It's a small town and it takes me about 40 minutes or so to get to the middle of LR. 4 lane and 70 miles an hour for the majority of the drive.

4 miles from my house we have 1300 acres of public land and 35 miles away we have Wattensaw and Henry Gray public lands. I don't know how many acres they consist of but they are way more than you could hunt in a day.

Quail are very scarce but I have seen them here at the WMA 4 miles from the house. The only bird hunting that I know of is duck and dove.

Conway is a mix of city and country. Jacksonville, Benton and Cabot are too populated for my taste. Beebe is just right for the wife and I.

Are you familiar with the game preserve on Sandy Ford near Antioch?

[odocoi]

Are you familiar with the game preserve on Sandy Ford near Antioch?

I'm pretty sure Jan sold out and doesn't do hunts anymore.

[bird dog]

Welcome to the Board.

Do you have any SD pheasant hunt pix to show us?

[DODGEMAN]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

I work for a large pc manufacturer and I will service the whole state with a majority of my business in LR (State and local government as well as K-12 and Higher Education institutions). So all of these cities listed are an option. Any you would recommend over another?

Dodgeman: I would love to get ahold of the person your talking about. I am one of the chairman for our Pheasants Forever Chapter in our county so maybe I could help him out with QU if he needed some.

Here is our chapter's PF website.
woodbury.pheasantsforever.org/page/205/Woodbury-Home.jsp


Clay I sent you a PM with his phone number. :thumb:

[claydouglas76]

Welcome to the Board.

Do you have any SD pheasant hunt pix to show us?

It says it wont let me do any pictures until I have made 15 posts.

I better get busy!

[Deer_Stuffer]

Clay, Glad to have you in Arkansas. That pheasant hunting would be hard to leave since we don't have them in Arkansas except for a few private game bird farms. We have plenty of dove, quail and of course turkeys. If you never have turkey hunted don't start because it is like a drug.

As far as a home look outside Pulaski County. If you have kids in school do not live in Pulaski Co unless you put them in private school. May kids went for a year an a half to Pulaski Co. schools and had to get them out of the :censored: So I moved to Beebe to a great school district. Cabot is another good place. To live around Little Rock with a Family you are looking to live somewhere around 30 to 40mins alway to have a good family life. If you're single then find a place close to your work.

Hope this all helps
Deer Stuffer

[claydouglas76]

Clay, Glad to have you in Arkansas. That pheasant hunting would be hard to leave since we don't have them in Arkansas except for a few private game bird farms. We have plenty of dove, quail and of course turkeys. If you never have turkey hunted don't start because it is like a drug.

As far as a home look outside Pulaski County. If you have kids in school do not live in Pulaski Co unless you put them in private school. May kids went for a year an a half to Pulaski Co. schools and had to get them out of the :censored: So I moved to Beebe to a great school district. Cabot is another good place. To live around Little Rock with a Family you are looking to live somewhere around 30 to 40mins alway to have a good family life. If you're single then find a place close to your work.

Hope this all helps
Deer Stuffer


I am newly married and we do not have any kids yet. We are going to wait another year or so. I think we would like to be somewhere there is a little nightlife for us as well. Gotta keep it fresh!:wink:

And yes. I am a turkey hunter and know exactly what you mean!

[claydouglas76]

Welcome to the Board.

Do you have any SD pheasant hunt pix to show us?


This was a few weeks ago. We all limited out. I am the guy with the English Setter and Weimeraner.

I hope this works!

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r117/CLAYDOUGLAS76/Hunting07.jpg

[Ike Brown]

Welcome, I moved down here from the Black Hills almost 3 years ago, I also work in IT.

You sound like you are from East River, I won't hold that againest you :).

I live just outside of Benton, 50 minutes to west LR. Cheap houseing and country feeling.

I think you will find the hunting down here way differant, I know I do. Deer mostly stand hunting and alot of hunters down here.

My website alot of SD pic, some AR stories and pics

http://hartoutdoors.com/

Keep in touch, I will try to help any way I can.

You found the best source of hunting info.

P.S. Don't count on a lot of night life outside of LR and Hot Springs, 2/3 of the state is dry.

[archer]

Clay, Welcome to the board. You'll find a lot of hunting oppurtunities hear, just quite a bit different. I moved hear from Colorado as a kid and also grew up on pheasant hunting. You'll have to work a lot harder to find birds but here goes;

Quail-try Western and SW Arkansas, not many people quail hunt anymore so you're pretty much alone on the WMA's after deer season. OR try going to OK, their non-resident tags aren't to bad and they have a huge quail population.

Woodcock-Head to North Arkansas when you hear about a real good cold snap coming in that corresponds to the season. You can sometimes get real good hunting with these birds in the river bottoms. Sometimes they are just the thing to keep you from going crazy.

Ducks and Geese-you couldn't have come to a better state for this. I'm not an expert but there is all kinds of duck hunting places and the number of mallards taken every year is staggering. Canada's are here all over NWA and teh extended snow goose season goes well on into spring.

Doves-lots and lots of these birds just kinda hard to find a good place to hunt them though. Just scout good before the season opens or make friends with someone who has a place to hunt.

We got lots of other things to hunt also that might be new to you;

Bear
Elk
Alligators
Wild Hogs plus all the usual's

P.S. just watch out for black panthers:biggrin: :bolt: Have fun and let us know if we can help.

[Hobbshunter]

My dad's big into birds and dogs. He's got a pointer now, but we've usually had wirehairs. He and a buddy keep some pen raised birds to keep the dogs in shape, but all of the hunting's out of state (at least here in NW AR). You might be able to find some quail, but it'll be tough.

[BEERHUNTER]

welcome clay,i live in faulkner county near the pulaski co. line and i highly recommend vilonia schools if you have kids.my wife commutes to the capitol in little rock and it's about 40 minutes.i do millwright work all over the state and i am pretty much located right in the mddle of the state as far as travel goes. camp robinson demo area has dog trials all the time and it's 15 min.

[Have gun will travel]

Are you familiar with the game preserve on Sandy Ford near Antioch?

Never hear of it. If it is a canned hunting experience I wouldn't be interested. But like I said I don't know anything about the place. Might be an outstanding private land deal with wild critters. I just don't know.

[bowclan]

Clay if you like the Night Life sometimes that's pretty much in the LR/NLR area. Jacksonville is in Pulaski County but is a dry city, Faulkner County is dry and Lonoke.

No one mentioned Sherwood, which is South of Jacksonville toward LR. When I was a Navy Recruiter living in Jax, I thought Sherwood was pretty nice. It isn't far from nice restaurantes in NLR near the Mall.

[Hudge]

I would opt of Cabot, Vilonia, Beebe in that order, and maybe Maumelle.

[Manybeards]

First off welcome to the forum :thumb:

You better just forget about pheasent and quail hunting in AR unless your bank account is large. If it is large there are several private clubs around the state in which you can hunt and pay by the bird.

AR however has very good dove, duck, deer, turkey, hog, squirrel, etc...hunting.

I live in Sheridan which is 25 miles south of Little Rock and it is a very small town with nothing to do, but it is fairly close to Little Rock and less than an hour from Hot Springs.

The Best duck hunting in the state is to the southeast of Little Rock. There are a lot of turkeys and public land to the north of little rock. Deer are everywhere in the state.

By the way some of the best night life is at the river market in Little Rock. The Horse races in Hot Springs is also a lot of fun.

Good luck to ya :thumb:

[hollenbach]

I doubt you will find any hunting opportunities in Arkansas anywhere near as promising as those you left in SD. I have two english pointers, and I kill by birds in South Dakota. Hunting on public land in SW AR, we average seeing 1 covey every other hunt. I would say, without a doubt, the deer, turkey, duck, bird, and goose hunting is much better in SD than in AR. We would have better dove, hog, bear, and squirrel hunting. That being said, you are able to hunt or fish every day of the year in AR with reasonable anticipation of some success - you just may have to lower your expectations. Good Luck!

[claydouglas76]

I would first like to thank everyone for the information.

I was in LR last week and my wife and I got a house just west of Benton. Once we get settled in in a couple weeks I can start scoping out some hunting spots. Is there a hunting club in this area that anyone might recommend? I know it may cost me a little bit but my passion is watching my dogs work birds (Unfortunately not excellent water dogs for the duck hunting). Any recommendations on any other game that I could train/persue with my dogs?

Thanks again!

[flydown]

Welcome to Arkansas and arkansashunting.net.

Benton is a good choice. If you bought a house, that was a good choice. Saline county is a good market if you should decide to sell in a few years.

As far as bird hunting, you may have to look around a bit to find wild birds but there are several preserves that have released birds. I believe there is one on highway 5 somewhere between El Paso and Cabot. Good luck and welcome.

[wildcovey]

I hunt preserves when the regular season is out. i have been lucky enough
to get to go hunting 4 times over the past 2 weeks for wild birds. we have found 19 coveys in those trips . three days were all day huntin and one half day. 10 of those coveys were on public ground. several of those had 20 plus birds. the wild ones are there if you hunt and scout hard enough. the game and fish has helped with the planting of trees in former agri fields. there are thousands of acres that are public accessible in arkansas like this. look along cache river they are there.