Aug. 4, 2017
Randy Zellers Assistant Chief of Communications
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has completed the much-anticipated drawing for permits to hunt white-tailed deer on some of the most popular wildlife management areas in the state. Email notifications for all permit holders were distributed Thursday to inform applicants of their status.
The draws for youth hunts and archery hunts were completed early in the day, and muzzleloader permit hunts were wrapped up by late afternoon. Modern gun permit applicants likely received their email notification around bedtime, as the process was completed and confirmed late in the evening.
Notifications for all applicants were delivered; however some may have been caught up in spam folders or buried in other emails. Applicants may check their status through a desktop or laptop computer. Successful applicants can claim their permits by visiting https://ar-web.s3licensing.com/, choosing “WMA Applications” and clicking the “WMA Permits” tab. Select your permit and finish by clicking “Complete Purchase.” Although the final command indicates a purchase, there is no charge for the process.
“With this year’s change to application fees being reduced and collected at the time of application, the need for the previous $10 processing fee is gone,” said Brad Carner, AGFC chief of wildlife management. “The up-front application fee also reduced the amount of half-hearted applications we received.”
According to Carner, slightly more than 20,000 applications were received last year for all of the deer permit hunts; this year 13,289 applications were received. This helped increase the remaining applicants’ odds of receiving a permit, and eliminated the need for any additional draws for unclaimed spots in each hunt.
“We still have a few hunts that had more permits available than applicants,” Carner said. “We will compile that list and sell those through an online permit sale in the next few weeks.”