Deer camps hunt down hunger in The Natural State

HOT SPRINGS — Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry President Ronnie Ritter and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Deer Management Assistance Program Coordinator Jeremy Brown updated commissioners at the AGFC’s March committee meeting on the success of a new partnership with deer camps to balance deer herds and fight food insecurity in the state.

Many older hunters grew up in a time when harvesting an antlerless deer was taboo, as the Arkansas deer population was still in the recovery stage after decades of overexploitation and market hunting, which nearly wiped the species from the state. Herds today have recovered to a point of abundance, shifting the management need to balance the herd into a healthy, manageable size. Now, managers focus on trying to take antlerless deer in equal numbers to mature bucks.

Brown explained that Arkansas’s deer herd is now fairly well balanced, but some pockets still need more harvest of antlerless deer, especially on private land. Private land deer managers, provided through the National Deer Association and coordinated through the AGFC’s Private Lands Habitat Division’s DMAP program, have increased the agency’s capacity to work one-on-one with clubs to best manage their properties. Even with this help, the gap in antlerless harvest on private land remained.

“We were working with all these clubs and issuing a lot of tags for them to harvest additional antlerless deer, but we just weren’t seeing them get out and fill those tags,” Brown said. “At the same time, Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry was facing the challenge of collecting deer from hunters in a way that was more efficient than picking up one here and one there. The formula for success was there; we just needed to put the two groups together.”

In 2022, Brown and Ritter got together to hold a focused antlerless hunt at the Battle Axe Hunting Club in Lee County. The club yielded 52 deer in year one, proving the concept was worth the effort. The program went statewide during the 2024-25 deer hunting season.

The program has evolved beyond simply collecting from a club, too. With a little coordination between hunters and staff, DMAP biologists are able to bring a refrigerated trailer to a deer camp the day before they schedule a hunt for antlerless deer, then pick it up a few days later, delivering dozens of deer to processors at one time.

“I just don’t have the staff or capacity to drive to all the locations across the state in time to get the deer processed, but the DMAP biologists and multiple refrigerated trailers have really helped with that issue,” Ritter said.

The 2025-26 deer season broke new records, thanks to the combined effort of the two agencies and multiple deer clubs.

“Last deer season, hunters harvested and donated 715 deer in 52 clubs across the state,” Ritter said. “That generated 23,595 pounds of venison. More than 5,300 pounds of ground venison was distributed to needy families, and we created 128,000 packages of shelf-stable snack sticks. Those sticks are used in backpack programs at schools to ensure children in that area have protein to eat at home on weekends.”

The plan is working for the clubs, too.

“We receive a lot of comments from club members who are excited to be a part of this program, knowing their effort is being put to a truly good cause,” Brown said. “And as these clubs start to reach those harvest goals the biologists recommend, more are also seeing increased herd quality. Mature bucks are being seen more frequently, and the quality of those deer is increasing with additional resources available now that the herd is balanced.”

The demand for protein is far from met, however. Despite record numbers of deer provided and servings of food distributed through AHFH, Ritter says he receives as many calls today as he did when he first began working with the agency more than 25 years ago.

“I receive calls every week from food pantries looking for ground meat,” Ritter said. “During these government shutdowns, that increases to two to three calls a day.”

Brown says the management side of the equation also has room to grow.

“We probably have about 300 clubs with the capacity and need for increased antlerless harvest, so we’re really only limited by the funding to pay for the processing and the availability of the refrigerated trailers AHFH has. The trailers were fully booked in the early part of the season, but we have a lot more availability from December to February if clubs still need to remove those does to meet their goals.”

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CUTLINES:

DEER HUNTER
Arkansas deer clubs donated 712 deer to Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry last year, adding to the harvest from urban archery hunts and participating processors. AGFC photo.  

TRAILERS AND TRUCK
DMAP biologists drop off refrigerated trailers at deer clubs for a weekend hunt, then collect the trailer when the hunt is complete and deliver the deer to participating processors. AGFC photo. 

MEN WITH TRAILER
In addition to ground venison for food banks, AHFH delivers shelf-stable snack sticks for backpack programs at schools throughout Arkansas. AGFC photo.