Wisconsin Nine-Day Gun Deer Season Opens Nov. 21 With License Sales Down 1.3 Percent at 458,115

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said in a release on November 10, 2026 that the nine-day gun deer season opens Saturday, Nov. 21, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 29. Through Oct. 31, year-to-date sales of gun, bow, crossbow, sports and patron licenses reached 458,115, and 132,494 of those were for gun privileges only.

Both counts trail last year’s pace. The department’s 2025 opener release put sales through Oct. 31, 2025 at 463,983, with 137,394 for gun privileges only, so this year’s figures are 1.3 percent and 3.6 percent lower. Sales continue through the season. By the night the 2025 gun season closed, deer hunting privileges had reached 790,044, down 0.12 percent from 2024, and 550,611 of them were gun only, the DNR said in its preliminary totals last December.

Hunters registered 182,084 deer during the 2025 nine-day season, 86,068 antlered and 96,016 antlerless, down 0.8 percent from 2024. Marquette County led the state at 7.9 deer registered per square mile. For 2026, the department’s harvest summary showed 63,917 deer registered through Nov. 3, 36,113 antlered and 27,804 antlerless, from the archery, crossbow and youth seasons that precede the gun opener.

Much of the state had a mild winter for the third year in a row, which the DNR says sets the stage for higher herd survival and reproductive rates. The agency lists timing the hunt close to the rut, preseason scouting, colder temperatures and snow cover as factors that could improve conditions.

Deer Management Units (DMUs) in the Northern and Central Forest zones were converted last year from county-based to habitat-based units, boundaries moved between the Central Farmland and Northern Forest zones, and Forest Zone units go by number. Hunters need the unit name or number when requesting antlerless permits. Bonus antlerless harvest authorizations cost $12 for residents, $20 for nonresidents and $5 for youth under 12, and each license includes one to five Farmland Zone antlerless authorizations depending on the unit chosen, per the DNR’s deer hunting page.

All harvested deer must be registered electronically by 5 p.m. the day after recovery, online through Go Wild or GameReg, by phone at 844-426-3734 or at an in-person station, using the harvest authorization number on each permit. Testing for chronic wasting disease (CWD) is free through the DNR for deer taken in Wisconsin. Hunters can drop a head with five inches of neck at a self-service kiosk, use a cooperating processor or taxidermist, or extract the lymph nodes themselves and leave the sample at a kiosk.

At least 50 percent of outer clothing above the waist, and any hat or head covering, must be blaze orange or fluorescent pink. Anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1973 needs a hunter education certification to buy a license unless hunting under the Mentored Hunting Law. Elk sometimes move outside the elk management zones during the fall breeding season, and an elk taken without a tag can bring a fine and license revocation.

The DNR says 95 percent of its Wildlife Management Program funding comes from license sales and the federal tax on firearm and ammunition purchases, and that license purchases have fallen over the last 20 years, limiting money for wildlife projects.

The gun season closes on November 29, 2026. A statewide muzzleloader season follows from Nov. 30 to Dec. 9, a statewide antlerless-only hunt runs Dec. 10 to 13, and the antlerless-only holiday hunt runs Dec. 24 to Jan. 1, 2027 in select farmland DMUs, with archery and crossbow open through Jan. 3, 2027 statewide and through Jan. 31, 2027 in metro subunits and select farmland counties. Last year the DNR posted its preliminary gun-season totals on Dec. 2, so the 2026 figures are due in early December 2026.