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I am not a hunter. Many of you are. Enlighten me!

I've been riding the St. Francis National Forest in Arkansas for the last several years. I ride primarily in Johnson County--the White Rock Mountain area. I've figured out this is "Zone 6" for hunting in Arkansas.

I then painstakingly combed through the hunting seasons that affect Zone 6.

I created a public Google Calendar named "Arkansas Zone 6 Hunting Seasons". If you are a Google Calendar user, you can add this to your calendar, and of course, Google makes it easy to toggle on and off the various calendars in your view. (Another public calendar you'll want to include is "US Holidays".) I have not completed entering all the hunting seasons, but I have all the deer and turkey seasons and many of the others including most of waterfowl, frogs, etc.

Here is what I have discovered: THERE IS NOT A TIME YOU CAN RIDE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE "IN HUNTING SEASON". SOMETHING is always in season to hunt.

As a motorcycle rider (and human being in general), I try to be conscientious in my actions. I generally do not want to piss people off Of course I fail to meet this goal all too often.

Spring and Fall are the prime times to ride in the forest. I have a limited number of weekends available to ride. I'll start to plan a ride and have someone warn me "that weekend is deer season, I'd avoid the forest that weekend" or similar. I get that (I think), but it's also my riding season.

I want to ride there Sep 17 & 18. These are all in season for hunting:

• Frog
• Furbearer: Beaver, Muskrat, Nutria
• Early Migratory Birds: Common Moorhen and Purple Gallinule
• Early Migratory Birds: Rail, Virginia and Sora
• Dove

I definitely want to get down there in October if possible. Deer archery season runs from Oct 1, 2011 through Feb 29, 2012. Deer muzzleloader runs Oct 22 - 30. Of course November is filled with Deer hunting.

I figure I could stick to just riding the Mill Creek ATV system and at least feel good that I'm in a clearly marked, designated, official motorized trail area. However, I really love to do the longer, exploratory trail adventures.

What are the rules? The expectations? The right thing to do?

(I'm hoping I don't get flamed on this topic. I really am naive about hunting and sincerely asking for advice.)

When I lived in WI the dirt biking rule was to stay out of the northern forests. Dirt bike riders were shot at by hunters for scaring off game. After enough bullet holes in plastic and gas tanks we just stayed out. "Serious" hunters up there. Farmers painted, in large block letters, "COW" on their animals to keep them from being shot.

Do hunters in Arkansas react the same to dirt bikes? Do they "share" so to speak? I think that is the real question.

Stu

Edit: I am pretty sure that much, if not all, of the St. Francis USF has been handed over to AGFC (AR Game & Fish Commission) for management. Note that last time I was down there we ran across several roads / trails that were closed off with AGFC signage. Thus, the AGFC has closed areas to motorized use, thus giving hunters more space away from us.

Original post:

I'm not much of a hunter as I went for the first time last spring. I do have quite a few friends and family that hunt. Here's my take:

Avoid the opening weekend of any deer season (archery, muzzleloader, rifle) or turkey season.

As to your list:
•Frog
•Furbearer: Beaver, Muskrat, Nutria
•Early Migratory Birds: Common Moorhen and Purple Gallinule
•Early Migratory Birds: Rail, Virginia and Sora
•Dove

I don't know, but I am betting: the migratory birds are going to be found near water, dove hang out near fence rows, and frogs & furbearers near water.

From a more practical standpoint:
Deer hunters use rifles. Those bullets go a long way. Shotguns for most else and those don't travel so far.

I am going to email a friend that works for AR Game and Fish and get her input.

If I were out hunting near a road that could be easily traveled by others I would be a complete idiot to be pissed at anyone traveling that said road.
With that said I am a little more reasonable than a lot of people that live in the middle of no where Arkansas. I would play it safe and stay out for the rifle seasons for sure. You also dont have to be shot at to get hit. It could be a stray bullet.

fbj913 wrote:If I were out hunting near a road that could be easily traveled by others I would be a complete idiot to be pissed at anyone traveling that said road.

On one of my Arkansas rides near White Rock Mountain, a couple of hunters were driving down the road in their truck. They waved us down as we were passing. They were cordial but expressed some disgust that we had ridden through an area they were hunting. They claimed to be unaware there was a trail in there--which may be true. It's a very rugged area with trails and long-forgotten roads all over the place.

To be honest and fair, almost NONE of those trails folks ride down there are technically legal for motorized travel because the Forest Service rules say if a trail is not designated for motorized travel on the MVUM, it is off-limits. Well...those trails are not on the MVUM, but then again, the "trails" on the MVUM for the St. Francis don't seem to exist. I have theories about this, but I digress.

A well-informed hunter may know the MVUM rules and build a strong case against you.

You WOULD think you'd be safe to ride in a "designated ORV riding area". However, when riding Brock Creek during turkey season one year, we rode right past 3 full-camo turkey hunters hugging a tree 1 foot off the trail. They were apparently hunting in the ORV area. That seems neither legal nor advisable.

I'd give the hunters some distance. Last year a guy rode his ATV off of Spillway Rd. (the asphalt road in front of the ATV riding area at Perry lake), down the gravel road, through the parking area, into the riding area and then proceeded to the south end of the riding area to hunt. He had shotguns on his ATV. The rangers said all of that was illegal but they didn't do anything about it. I was in the parking lot when all of this occurred. I left. It looked like everyone else riding bailed as well.

Stu

Stu wrote:I'd give the hunters some distance. Last year a guy rode his ATV off of Spillway Rd. (the asphalt road in front of the ATV riding area at Perry lake), down the gravel road, through the parking area, into the riding area and then proceeded to the south end of the riding area to hunt. He had shotguns on his ATV. The rangers said all of that was illegal but they didn't do anything about it. I was in the parking lot when all of this occurred. I left. It looked like everyone else riding bailed as well.

I'm picturing a Mad Max scene where the bad ass in an apocalyptic ATV with shotguns hanging off rides through the crowd and everyone scatters. Cool!

I wouldn't care if he rode through the ATV area to get back into some hunting ground--hopefully a mile away from the ATV area. If he was hunting in the ATV area--yikes.