Wisconsin

You need a weapon license and an unfilled harvest authorization. A gun license is for a firearm or airgun. An archery license is for a bow. A crossbow license is for a crossbow. The dates for archery and crossbow are the same. The licenses are not. An upgrade is required to use both.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer licensing requirements; Wisconsin DNR, 2026 deer season dates and bag limits. Checked November 7, 2026.

Authorizations are one deer each. A gun buck authorization is statewide and is for a buck with a legal weapon during a firearm season, except where an antlerless-only hunt is underway. A bow buck authorization is also statewide and is weapon-specific. The DNR’s example is direct: you may not fill a bow buck authorization with a rifle, even during the gun season. Antlerless authorizations name a zone, a deer management unit, and public or private land. Junior antlerless authorizations are statewide.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer licensing requirements; Wisconsin DNR, 2026 deer season dates and bag limits. Checked November 7, 2026.

The deer page says bonus antlerless authorizations also cost $5 for hunters under 12, and that one to five farmland antlerless authorizations are included with a 2026 deer license depending on the unit. Bonus sales started August 17, 2026, first come, first served. This guide does not show remaining quota.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting. Checked November 7, 2026.

Buy through Go Wild or a license agent. Reduced fees exist for hunters 11 and under, first-time hunters, and people who have not hunted in the previous 10 years. The fee page points to the permits page for those options.Source: Wisconsin DNR, license fees; Go Wild. Checked November 7, 2026.

• Pick the deer management unit before you need the authorization. The public access lands map has a DMU layer under recreational opportunities. County lines are the units in the central and southern farmland zones. Northern and central forest units follow habitat, not always a county.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Public and private authorizations are not interchangeable. The land type is printed on the authorization.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer licensing requirements. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Metro subunits have extra no-cost and bonus options in named counties. Some counties on the 2026 metro table have zero authorizations. Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, and Dane are among the zeros for the bonus columns. Read the table rather than assuming a metro tag exists.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting. Checked November 7, 2026.
• A deer that tests positive for CWD can qualify the hunter for a replacement authorization through Go Wild, valid for the rest of this season and the next. The buck-versus-antlerless replacement differs. The licensing page has the rule.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer licensing requirements. Checked November 7, 2026.

Anyone born on or after January 1, 1973 needs a hunter education certificate on file to buy a hunting license, unless they are hunting under the mentored hunting law or have proof of basic training in the U.S. Armed Forces, Reserves, or National Guard.Source: Wisconsin DNR, learn to hunt. Checked November 7, 2026.

A mentored hunter may buy a mentored-only license without the course. They hunt within arm’s reach of a licensed mentor and follow the other mentored rules. Learn to Hunt workshops are classroom-and-field programs. They are not a substitute for the certificate if you later want to hunt without a mentor.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting; Wisconsin DNR, learn to hunt. Checked November 7, 2026.

• Legal hunting implements include a rifle, shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader, airgun, bow and arrow, and crossbow. A crossbow needs a minimum draw weight of 100 pounds. Machine guns and fully automatic firearms are illegal for hunting.Source: Wisconsin DNR, weapons and ammunition. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Deer must be hunted with a single expanding bullet, arrow, or bolt. Tracer and incendiary ammunition, and any projectile designed to explode or deliver poison or drugs, are illegal.Source: Wisconsin DNR, weapons and ammunition. Checked November 7, 2026.
• It is illegal to shoot a firearm, other than an airgun, within 100 yards of an occupied building on land you do not own, without the owner’s or occupant’s permission. That includes public land.Source: Wisconsin DNR, weapons and ammunition. Checked November 7, 2026.
• The muzzleloader season has its own dates. The weapons page is where the DNR sends hunters for the firearm details. This guide does not restate a caliber list it has not quoted from that page.Source: Wisconsin DNR, 2026 deer season dates and bag limits; Wisconsin DNR, weapons and ammunition. Checked November 7, 2026.

These are the 2026 deer seasons from the DNR season table and deer page. Archery and crossbow share dates and do not share a license. “All weapon types” on a firearm row is why a bow, crossbow, or muzzleloader can appear as related equipment. Your authorization still has to match the weapon. Checked November 7, 2026.Source: Wisconsin DNR, 2026 deer season dates and bag limits; Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting. Checked November 7, 2026.

Register every deer through GameReg by 5 p.m. the day after you recover it. You need the harvest-authorization number. The confirmation number for a white-tailed deer starts with W. Paths listed by the DNR: gamereg.wi.gov, Go Wild, 1-844-426-3734, and in-person stations with a phone or computer. On November 7, 2026, gamereg.wi.gov redirected to Go Wild’s harvest page.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer registration; Wisconsin DNR, GameReg. Checked November 7, 2026.

CWD testing is recommended and free, not required. The DNR says the state health department and the CDC recommend against eating venison from a deer that tests positive. Carcass movement and disposal have their own page. Baiting bans are county-specific and renew when a new wild or captive CWD or tuberculosis positive is found.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting; Wisconsin DNR, baiting and feeding. Checked November 7, 2026.

The extended archery season, the metro gun dates, and the holiday antlerless hunt are place exceptions. The season-structure map is the list. Copying the statewide end date into a metro county, or the holiday hunt into a forest county that is not on the list, is how this table gets misused.Source: Wisconsin DNR, 2026 deer season dates and bag limits. Checked November 7, 2026.

• On November 7, 2026 the baiting page said that, without additional detections, the Washburn County baiting and feeding ban would expire on November 9, 2026, and that no other county was scheduled to come off a ban during the rest of the 2026 deer seasons. The same page says a new positive renews a ban. Recheck it the day you hunt.Source: Wisconsin DNR, baiting and feeding. Checked November 7, 2026.
• When a firearm deer season is open, blaze orange or fluorescent pink covers at least half of the clothing above the waist, and any hat. That is true for archers who are still hunting during those days.Source: Wisconsin DNR, highly visible clothing. Checked November 7, 2026.
• DNR lands have their own blind and firearm rules, including a minimum of 144 square inches of solid blaze orange or fluorescent pink visible from all directions on a ground blind used during a firearm deer season. State parks and posted closed areas are not “public, so it is open.”Source: Wisconsin DNR, DNR-managed lands. Checked November 7, 2026.
• The DNR asks hunters in the town of Stella in Oneida County, and near Marinette, to read PFAS consumption advisories before they eat venison from those places.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting. Checked November 7, 2026.
• Elk are on the landscape in places, including Black River State Forest. Be sure of the target.Source: Wisconsin DNR, deer hunting. Checked November 7, 2026.