Coyote Hunting Arkansas, Laws, Regulations, Season, & License Info

Coyote classification & license in Arkansas

What is the classification of coyotes in Arkansas?

A furbearer. Coyote sits in AGFC’s furbearer group with bobcat, gray and red fox, opossum, raccoon, striped skunk, mink, muskrat and river otter.

The classification does very little work here, because Arkansas writes each furbearer its own line. Read across the furbearer season page and the species diverge completely: river otter is day-only for two and a half months, raccoon and opossum run all year day and night with dogs required after dark, and the coyote gets a year-round daylight season plus a permit route to the night.¹

One scoping win is worth having. The furbearer night-ammunition restriction is written against three named species:

It is unlawful to hunt raccoon, opossum or bobcat at night with any rifled slug or shot size larger than T, or with any rifle or handgun ammunition other than rimfire ammunition of .22 caliber or smaller.¹

Coyote is not on that list. A permit holder hunting coyotes at night is not confined to a .22 rimfire the way a raccoon hunter is.

Are coyotes protected in Arkansas?

No. No bag limit, and a season that covers the whole calendar on private land.¹

Is a hunting license required to hunt coyotes in Arkansas?

Yes — a valid Arkansas hunting license, and a second free permit if you want the night.

A Resident Sportsman’s License is $25; the Resident Wildlife Conservation License is $10.50; a Combination Sportsman’s License is $35.50.²

The Predator Control Permit is free, and it is the document that matters most on this page:

A valid hunting license and a Predator Control Permit allow for the year-round take of bobcat, coyote, gray fox, opossum, raccoon, red fox and striped skunk on private land. Available online only at agfc.com.¹

See night hunting for what it does and who can hold one.

The prices above are resident prices. A non-resident pays more, and may need a different license — see what a non-resident needs.

Is hunter education required in Arkansas?

Yes, for anyone born after 1968:

A hunter born after 1968 must carry a valid hunter education card³

Arkansas also issues a free Deferred Hunter Education Code, which lets someone hunt under supervision while they work toward the course.³ AGFC honours a home-state hunter education card for visitors.³

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in Arkansas?

Yes. A Nonresident Annual Small Game Hunting License is $110, a 3-day small game license $80, and the Nonresident Annual Hunting License $410. Short-term options run $100 for one day and $225 for three.⁴

A Nonresident Trapper’s Permit is $125, and a Nonresident Hunting Dog Owner’s Permit $100 — worth knowing if you plan to bring hounds.⁴

The Predator Control Permit is issued on top of a valid hunting license, so a non-resident with permission on Arkansas private land can hold one.⁵

See also is a hunting license required — the license rules there, and the exemptions and add-ons that go with them, apply to you too.

Season, hours & bag limits in Arkansas

What is the season for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Two different answers, and this is the most important table on the page:

The statewide line reads:

COYOTE — Statewide Sunrise Jan. 1-sunset Dec. 31. Dogs allowed to hunt coyotes during the day except during turkey season. Coyotes may be hunted at night only by holders of a free predator control permit. No bag limit.¹

And the WMA line:

Coyote — Sunrise July 1-sunset Feb. 28. Coyote may not be hunted at night. During turkey season, day hunting only – No dogs allowed. No bag limit. During youth turkey hunts, only youths may take coyotes. Closed during turkey and squirrel seasons on WMAs where a turkey or squirrel season is closed.⁶

If you hunt public ground in Arkansas, the 1 July to 28 February dates are your season, and the summer half of the year is closed to you. Individual WMAs vary further — some publish their own coyote lines with restricted days of the week — so read the area’s entry before you go.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in Arkansas?

None, on either land type.¹⁶

What are the legal hunting hours for coyotes in Arkansas?

Sunrise to sunset, unless you hold a Predator Control Permit and are on eligible private land.¹

Note that Arkansas uses sunrise and sunset rather than the half-hour margins most states allow. There is no half hour before sunrise here — the season line says “Sunrise Jan. 1-sunset Dec. 31,” and it means it.

Can you hunt coyotes during deer or big game season in Arkansas?

Yes, the season stays open — but dogs come off the table in much of the state:

Dogs are not allowed in deer zones where a firearms deer season is in progress that prohibits the use of dogs.¹

During turkey season, dogs are prohibited entirely, and during youth turkey hunts only youths may take coyotes — a restriction that catches adult hunters who assume a youth hunt only limits deer or turkey.¹⁶

On WMAs the turkey and squirrel closures apply on top: where a turkey or squirrel season is closed on that area, coyote hunting is closed too.⁶

Night hunting in Arkansas

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Arkansas?

Only with a free Predator Control Permit, and only on private land. The rule is stated twice, once as a permission and once as a prohibition:

Coyotes may be hunted at night only by holders of a free predator control permit.¹

Coyote may not be hunted at night. (WMA rule)⁶

What the permit covers:

• Species: bobcat, coyote, gray fox, opossum, raccoon, red fox and striped skunk.⁵
• Land: “valid only on private land outside the limits of incorporated towns.”⁵
• Term: “valid from July 1 through June 30” — an AGFC license year, not twelve months from issue.⁵
• Hours: “Firearms of any caliber may be used during day or night.”⁵
• Who: at least 16 years old with a valid hunting license, and “the owner, immediate family of owner, lessee or have written permission from landowner.”⁵
• Cost: free, online only at agfc.com.¹

Note the incorporated-towns exclusion. A permit does not reach inside town limits, which rules out a good deal of the suburban depredation work people assume it is for.

Renew on 1 July. A permit taken out in May expires six weeks later.

Can you use artificial lights for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Yes, on a Predator Control Permit — with one flat exception:

Artificial light may be used, except from a public road … to take these species at night.⁵

No color restriction, no power limit, no mounting requirement. The road prohibition is absolute and it is the one enforced most often; AGFC separately makes it an offence to “shine an artificial light from a public road.”⁷

Without the permit there is no lawful night take of a coyote, so there is nothing to attach a light to.

Can you use night vision or thermal in Arkansas?

Arkansas has not written a rule about either, and that is a researched answer rather than an assumption.

Checked, in order:

• The 2026–27 Arkansas Hunting Guidebook, cover to cover — the words “thermal,” “night vision” and “infrared” do not appear anywhere in it, including in the furbearer, WMA and prohibited-methods sections.¹
• The Predator Control Permit page, which sets out what the permit allows and names firearms, artificial light, dogs and traps — and no optics of any kind.⁵
• The furbearer page, whose only night equipment rule is the ammunition restriction on raccoon, opossum and bobcat.¹

So the position is: the permit authorizes night take, artificial light is expressly addressed, and thermal and night vision are simply not regulated. On eligible private land with a PCP, running thermal is the ordinary reading.

Two cautions, and take them seriously. AGFC states plainly that its guidebooks are “an interpretive summary” and “not a legal document,” with the Code of Regulations taking precedence — so an unaddressed question is one to put to the agency rather than to settle from the guidebook.⁸ Call 833-345-0325 before investing in a thermal setup for Arkansas. And an absence is not a permission: nobody here has written the answer down, so it can change at a single Commission meeting.

Are there specific weapons restrictions for hunting coyotes at night in Arkansas?

No. The permit says “firearms of any caliber may be used during day or night,”⁵ and the rimfire-and-shot restriction that governs night hunting for raccoon, opossum and bobcat does not name the coyote.¹

That is a meaningful advantage over the states that fence night coyote hunting into a shotgun.

Firearms, ammunition & suppressors in Arkansas

What firearms are allowed or restricted for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Effectively unrestricted by day:

Coyotes may be taken during daylight hours with archery equipment, or any rifle or shotgun ammunition.¹

“Any rifle or shotgun ammunition” is about as wide as a methods rule gets. On WMAs, check the area’s equipment rules, which the guidebook flags separately and which can restrict what is otherwise legal statewide.¹

Shooting from or across any public road is prohibited, and you may not hunt from a moving motorized land vehicle.⁹

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Yes, for any game. Arkansas’s hunting regulations never mention suppressors; the full Code of Regulations was searched, not just the guidebook. Ownership turns on federal law: in 2019 the legislature struck “firearm specially made or specially adapted for silent discharge” from the prohibited-weapons statute and added an exception for anything held in compliance with the National Firearms Act.¹⁰

So the requirement is the approved ATF Form 4 or Form 1. Since January 1, 2026 the federal tax on a suppressor is $0, but the approval and the wait are unchanged.¹¹

Are there any ammunition restrictions in Arkansas?

None for coyotes. “Any rifle or shotgun ammunition” is the standard.¹

The T-shot and .22-rimfire ceiling applies at night to raccoon, opossum and bobcat only.¹

Can you hunt coyotes in Arkansas using a .22 LR or other rimfire cartridge?

Yes. There is no minimum caliber for coyotes in Arkansas — any rifle ammunition is permitted.¹ A .22 LR is legal and undergunned; a .22 WMR or a centerfire is the better choice, particularly in the open Delta country.

Is there a magazine capacity limit for hunting coyotes in Arkansas?

No. Arkansas sets no magazine capacity limit for coyote hunting. A standard AR-15 is lawful, day or night on a permit.

Calls, decoys, bait & dogs in Arkansas

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Yes, with no restriction for coyotes. Arkansas’s electronic-call prohibitions attach to turkey and to migratory birds.

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Yes, including motion decoys. Nothing in the furbearer rules restricts them.

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Yes on private land, no on WMAs. Arkansas’s rule is that feeding wildlife is generally legal, with named exceptions:

• Baiting is not allowed on wildlife management areas.¹²
• Bears may not be baited except in a narrow window in named bear zones.¹²
• Migratory birds, wild turkeys, waterfowl and crows may not be hunted over bait.¹²
• An area is considered baited for 10 days following complete removal of the bait.¹²

The ten-day clock is the one to plan around. Bait a field for coyotes in October and you have taken it out of play for turkey the following spring only if the bait is still there — but you have made it a baited area for anyone hunting turkeys on it within ten days of clearing it.

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in Arkansas?

Yes by day, with three restrictions — and a new equipment requirement on public land.

Dogs are allowed during the day except during turkey season, and are not allowed in deer zones where a firearms deer season prohibiting dogs is in progress.¹

New for this season:

Hunting dogs in pursuit of deer, fox or coyote on public land must be equipped and monitored with devices that allow remote GPS tracking and behavior correction.¹³

A tracking collar alone is not enough — the rule names behavior correction as well. Non-residents bringing hounds also need a $100 Nonresident Hunting Dog Owner’s Permit.⁴

Arkansas separately allows fenced enclosures where fox and coyote are chased for pleasure, with no permit required unless other wildlife is hunted inside the fence.¹⁴

Private property, vehicles & public land access in Arkansas

Is it legal to shoot coyotes on private property (e.g. in your backyard) in Arkansas?

On rural private land, yes — and private land is where the good season and the night permit both live.¹⁵

Note that the Predator Control Permit is valid only outside the limits of incorporated towns,⁵ so the backyard case in a town is governed by municipal ordinance and not by this permit.

Can you hunt coyotes from a motorized vehicle in Arkansas?

No. You may not hunt wildlife from a moving motorized land vehicle, and shooting from or across any public road is prohibited.⁹ The permit’s light rule repeats the road prohibition specifically for night hunting.⁵

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in Arkansas?

Yes, but on a different and much shorter season — sunrise 1 July to sunset 28 February, daylight only, no night hunting, no dogs during turkey season, and closed wherever a turkey or squirrel season is closed on that area.⁶

Arkansas has a great deal of public ground and the WMA rules are unusually specific to each area. Some publish restricted days of the week for coyote hunting; some close coyote hunting outright, with the area’s entry reading “CLOSED: … fox hunting, coyote hunting and bobcat hunting.”¹⁵ Read the individual WMA entry, not just the statewide line — that is the single most common way to be wrong about Arkansas.

One WMA rule runs the other way, though, and it is worth knowing. Elsewhere on public ground your firearm is dictated by whichever season is open. During the coyote season it is not:

Unless otherwise prohibited, bobcat, fox and coyote may be taken during daylight hours with firearms of any caliber during bobcat, fox and coyote seasons on AGFC-owned WMAs, Blue Mountain WMA, Dardanelle WMA, J. Perry Mikles Lick Creek WMA, Nimrod Lloyd Millwood WMA, Ozark Lake WMA and all U.S. Forest Service lands.¹⁶

So the caliber freedom you get on a private-land permit largely survives onto public ground during the coyote season — what you lose there is the night, the dogs in spring, and four months of the year.

Baiting is prohibited on WMAs.¹²

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in Arkansas?

Yes, and residents no longer need a trapper permit to do it:

Resident trappers 16 and older no longer need a trapper permit in addition to a hunting license to trap furbearers.¹⁷

A hunting license is enough. A Nonresident Trapper’s Permit is $125,⁴ valid during the open trapping season.¹⁷

Coyote gets its own trapping season, and it is much longer than everything else’s. The general furbearer trapping season is 21 November to 28 February and it says so in as many words — “Excludes coyote, beaver and nutria”:¹⁷

Eight months, and it opens in high summer. A Predator Control Permit extends it to year-round trapping on eligible private land alongside the shooting permission.⁵

Checking is daily, and the exception is narrower than most states’:

Traps must be checked daily except kill traps, which shall be checked within 72 hours.¹⁸

Legal land sets for coyote:

• Foothold traps — smooth-jawed, jaw spread 7 inches or less measured from the inside edge at the dog; anything over 5 inches must have offset or rubber-padded jaws.¹⁹
• Body-gripping traps — jaw spread 6 inches or less, measured inside edge hinge to hinge and top to bottom at the dog, and it may not exceed that size horizontally or vertically.¹⁹
• Dogproof traps and box traps.¹⁹

Snares are where Arkansas gets specific. Leg snares are prohibited outright. Land snares are legal, but:²⁰

land snares set farther than 20 feet from a permanent body of water must have a functional “deer lock” that prevents them closing smaller than 2½ inches. Land snares must have a single-piece lock and must be braided cable with a loop no larger than 12 inches in diameter (from side-to-side) and the bottom of the loop no higher than 10 inches from the ground. No snare may be set or maintained in a public road right-of-way or touch any fence when fully extended.²⁰

Bait has a 20-foot rule — animal matter, other than bones cleaned of all tissue and viscera, may not be used within 20 feet of a trap set unless it is covered, and covered well enough to stay covered through wind and weather.²¹

Tag every trap. Traps and snares must carry the trapper’s name and address, driver’s license number, vehicle plate number or CID number.²² And interfering with someone else’s legal trapline — tampering with or destroying their traps — is itself a violation.²²

Can I kill a coyote that is causing damage, without any of that?

Yes, and this is a separate route from the Predator Control Permit. The guidebook’s nuisance-animal provision covers coyotes by name:

Beaver, coyote, muskrat, nutria, opossum, raccoon, striped skunk, squirrel and nongame wildlife other than bats, migratory birds and endangered species that are causing damage to property may be taken during daylight hours or trapped the entire year.²³

Note the asymmetry: shooting is daylight only, trapping is year-round. That is narrower than the Predator Control Permit, which buys you the night as well — so if the problem is nocturnal, get the permit rather than relying on this.

Is it legal to poison coyotes in Arkansas?

No. Arkansas prohibits taking wildlife “using deadfalls, drugs, chemicals, poisons”²⁴ and predator toxicants are restricted-use pesticides handled through USDA Wildlife Services rather than by private individuals.

Are there protected areas or additional local restrictions in Arkansas?

Yes, four kinds:

• WMAs and NWRs, with their own season, equipment and access rules, and no night hunting.⁶
• Incorporated town limits, outside which the Predator Control Permit is valid — and inside which it is not.⁵
• Public roads and rights-of-way, closed to shooting and to shining.⁹⁷
• Municipal ordinances near towns.

Can you use two-way radios while coyote hunting in Arkansas?

Yes. AGFC’s Arkansas Hunting Guidebook 2026–2027 does not restrict two-way radios or other communication devices, for coyotes or anything else.

After the shot: pelts, bounties & contests in Arkansas

Are there regulations for possessing or transporting dead coyotes or pelts out of Arkansas?

No tag or check-in for coyotes. Arkansas’s general prohibition on buying and selling wildlife carves out furbearer pelts and carcasses, so a coyote hide is a lawful item of commerce.²⁵

Live coyotes are an entirely different matter, and the rule is unusually specific:

It is illegal for those with Commission Wildlife Importation Permits or anyone else to bring live coyotes into Arkansas that originate from or have lived in Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming or Canada.²⁶

That is a disease-control list, and a Commission Wildlife Importation Permit is required to bring any wildlife into Arkansas at all.²⁶

Arkansas also prohibits disposing of unused game carcasses on cemetery property, in waterways, or within 50 yards of the center line of a public road.²⁵

Can you sell coyote pelts in Arkansas, and do you need a fur handler’s license?

You can sell them on your hunting license:

A valid Arkansas Hunting License is required to sell pelts of harvested furbearers²⁶

Buying or reselling furs requires a fur dealer permit.²⁶

There is a second market Arkansas explicitly recognizes: live foxes and coyotes legally trapped alive may be sold to foxpen operators by holders of a Commission Live Fox and Coyote permit.¹⁴

Arkansas coyote fur is short and light — Ozark animals carry more than Delta animals, but neither reaches northern values.

Is there a coyote bounty program in Arkansas?

No state bounty. AGFC does not pay per animal.

Arkansas’s answer to the coyote is the year-round private-land season, the absent bag limit and the free night permit. County or landowner-association programs appear locally from time to time; verify with the county, because the state publishes no list.

Are coyote contests legal in Arkansas, or can I hunt in Arkansas for an out-of-state contest?

Yes to both. Arkansas has not restricted predator hunting contests.

Three scheduling points, and Arkansas has more of them than most states. A night round requires every participant to hold a Predator Control Permit, and to be on private land outside town limits.⁵ A round on public ground cannot run at night at all, and is confined to 1 July – 28 February.⁶ And a round during turkey season means no dogs, and during a youth turkey hunt means only youths may take coyotes.¹

Coyotes in Arkansas

Are there coyotes in Arkansas? How many, and where?

Yes, in all 75 counties. Coyotes occupy every part of the state — the Ozark and Ouachita mountains, the Arkansas River Valley, the Delta farmland and the pine country of the south, plus the suburbs of Little Rock, Fayetteville and Fort Smith.

The Delta and the river valley farmland give the most workable calling ground: open fields, ditch banks, and coyotes that can be seen at distance. The mountains hold plenty of animals in country that makes them much harder to hunt.

AGFC publishes no statewide population estimate.

Are Arkansas coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. To livestock and poultry they are a routine problem — Arkansas is a major poultry state, and coyote depredation on free-range birds, calves, goats and sheep is the reason the Predator Control Permit exists in the form it does.

Unattended small pets on the suburban fringe are at genuine risk.

When is coyote mating season in Arkansas, and when do pups arrive?

Breeding runs January into February, with pups born in April in litters of five to seven. Juveniles disperse from October.

The private-land calendar lets you hunt all of it. February is the best of the year — breeding-season response to howls, prime fur, open timber — and it is also the last month of the WMA season, so public-land hunters get the good end of the winter before their season closes on 28 February.

When are coyotes most active in Arkansas?

First and last light year-round, with heavy night movement — which in a state where night hunting needs a permit is a strong argument for taking two minutes to get one.

For the full breakdown of season, weather and moon phase, see when to hunt coyotes.

Are there black coyotes in Arkansas?

Yes, and Arkansas is good country for them. Melanistic coyotes turn up regularly across the Southeast, and the trait traces to historical hybridization with domestic dogs. Reports cluster in the southern and eastern parts of the state.

There is no separate rule for a black coyote — it is a coyote, on the same season and the same limits.

These answers get re-checked before they go stale. The verification date at the top of the page is the record of when that last happened, not decoration.

Anything else worth noting about coyote hunting in Arkansas

Arkansas is two states stacked on top of each other. On private ground with a free permit it is one of the better predator states in the South: all year, all night, any caliber, no limit. On public ground it is a daylight, eight-month, no-dogs-in-spring proposition with area-by-area closures.

Five things to get right:

Get the Predator Control Permit before you need it. It is free, it is online only, and it is the only lawful route to a coyote after dark in Arkansas.

The permit year starts 1 July. It runs to 30 June regardless of when you take it out. Renew every summer.

Not inside town limits. The permit is valid only on private land outside incorporated towns, which excludes a lot of the depredation calls people want it for.

Public land is a different season entirely. 1 July to 28 February, daylight only, and closed wherever turkey or squirrel is closed on that area. Read the individual WMA entry.

Sunrise means sunrise. Arkansas does not give you the half hour either side that most states do.

Is it legal to own a coyote as a pet in Arkansas?

No. Arkansas regulates the possession of native wildlife, and a coyote is not an animal a private individual may keep as a pet. AGFC’s live fox and coyote permits exist for the foxpen trade and for permitted facilities, not for pets, and importation of live coyotes is separately restricted.²⁶¹⁴ Municipal ordinances add their own prohibitions.

If you have found an orphaned pup, contact AGFC at 833-345-0325 or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator rather than keeping it.

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