Umarex Big Squirrel Challenge back Feb. 7- 8

 

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s statewide squirrel-hunting celebration is back, and this time Arkansas-based airgun company Umarex U.S.A. is pumping up the prize!

The contest, Arkansas’s only statewide hunting event focused on squirrels, was originally planned for Jan. 10-11, but a heavy snowfall blanketed most of the state and caused a postponement till February 7-8.

Now in its fourth year, the Umarex Big Squirrel Challenge is an easy-to-join hunting event where teams of two spend an afternoon and morning gathering the three biggest bushytails they can find and bring them to an official weigh station to compare to the other participants’ top three treetop nutcrackers.

The nearest Big Squirrel Challenge Weigh-in Location is the Rick Evans Grandview Prairie Nature Center, 1685 CR35N, near Columbus.

The official rules are available at www.agfc.com/education/2025-big-squirrel-challenge, but here are the main details. There’s no registration, just get a buddy and go hunt. Teams of two hunt from noon-to-noon Jan. 10-11 during legal shooting hours. You can harvest up to your two-man limit of squirrels (that’s 12 squirrels per hunter per day) but only the three largest squirrels will be weighed for each category of the contest. Hunters are welcome to use squirrel dogs for their bushytails.

“We have different categories for limits of fox squirrels only and gray squirrel/mixed bags, which must include at least one gray squirrel,” Maynard said. “A team can enter multiple categories, but each squirrel can only be weighed once, so you need to choose which ones are going in which contest before you weigh them in.”

Age groups are divided into adult-only teams and youth teams, which can be two hunters under 16 or a hunter under 16 with an adult mentor.

“You can hunt by yourself if you want to, but we encourage people to pair up with a youth they know and introduce them to squirrel hunting if they can,” Maynard said. “It’s a competition, but it’s all about having a good time and getting to know the outdoors.”

Awards will be given at each weigh-in station at roughly 1 pm February 8th with the top two teams in each category receiving medals.