LITTLE ROCK — With only late archery season available to wrap up the 2025-26 deer season, most hunters have put away their hunting gear or switched to waterfowl and small game pursuits. Before your thoughts stray from the deer woods, be sure to fill out your Triple Trophy Award application if you managed to fill at least one deer tag with each of the main hunting methods.
The AGFC will accept applications for the award at www.agfc.com/tripletrophy until April 10.
Hunters who qualify for the Triple Trophy Award must, within a single annual deer season, take at least one deer by each of the following hunting methods: modern firearm, muzzleloading firearm and archery/crossbow tackle. Qualifying hunters receive a patch and a certificate suitable for framing.
Deer harvested with straight-walled rifles count toward the hunter’s modern gun harvest number for consideration toward a Triple Trophy Award. Only guns loaded through the muzzle are considered for the muzzleloading firearm portion of the award.
The expansion of Arkansas’s Alternative Firearms Deer Season to include straight-walled rifles was intended to help hunters who may have been intimidated by the intricacies of muzzleloaders and archery equipment enjoy more days in the deer stand. The AGFC’s deer team, however, still wants to recognize those hunters who spend the extra effort working up powder-and-projectile combinations and challenging themselves with true muzzleloaders.
The Triple Trophy Program was created in 1984 to encourage the harvest of does to balance the deer herd where needed. Because hunters are only allowed two bucks per season, the third deer needed to meet the Triple Trophy requirement has to be a doe, helping break the idea that doe harvest was bad for the population.
Visit www.agfc.com/tripletrophy to learn more and apply.
