Attention deer hunters in Wisconsin! Bonus antlerless harvest authorizations for the 2026 gun deer season will be available for purchase online through Go Wild and at license sales locations starting at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026.
How to Purchase
An online queuing system will be used to manage volume in Go Wild. All users entering the site between 9:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. will be randomly assigned a number and staged in a virtual queue. Users will be arranged randomly regardless of the actual time they enter the system. There is no advantage for customers who enter the site before 9:45 a.m. Users who log on after 10 a.m. will be added to the end of the existing queue in the order of arrival.
To complete their purchase, hunters will need to know the deer management zone and unit in which they intend to hunt, determine whether they will hunt on public or private land and have a deer hunting license approval. Due to realignment of the Northern and Central Forest Zones, there were changes made to some deer management unit borders in 2025. The DNR encourages hunters to consult the Deer Season Structure And Management Zone maps before buying their licenses.
Availability and Pricing
Bonus authorizations are sold at a rate of one per person per day until sold out or until the 2026 deer hunting season ends. Bonus authorizations are $12 each for Wisconsin residents, $20 each for nonresidents and $5 each for youth ages 11 and under.
The number of antlerless harvest opportunities will vary by deer management unit in accordance with local deer population levels. This allows for greater harvest opportunities where deer are abundant and a more conservative harvest where deer are fewer in number.
A listing of bonus antlerless harvest authorizations available for purchase in each deer management unit can be found on the DNR’s Antlerless Deer Harvest Authorization webpage.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
