Arkansas
92,000
Wild Turkey Population
Easterns
Turkey Subspecies
Not available
Number of Licenses Sold Annually
$25
Cost of Resident License and Permit
$510 ($410 nonresident annual hunting license, $100 nonresident turkey permit)
Cost of Non-Resident License and Permit
Photo by David Turko
This great state is known for greenheads, not gobblers, but its turkey hunting tradition runs deep.
Upside: Arkansas offers more than 3 million public acres, with 650,000 overseen by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Downside: There are many management concerns about Arkansas turkey populations. In 2009, the AGFC voted to abruptly cancel the fall turkey season, even after it was officially listed in the law book. Low kill numbers and poor hatches were cited. This hinted at declining flock populations, then estimated at 130,000 to 140,000, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation. That number has flattened to about 92,000 in 2024. Arkansas hunters shot 9,194 turkeys during Spring 2023.
But there's plenty of optimism for the future. The summers of 2022 and 2023 saw some of the highest reproduction in the past decade, thanks largely to good weather. And the 2023 harvest in the Ozarks increased significantly — 37%.
