Wisconsin’s 9-day gun deer season looked fairly similar to last year in terms of license sales and harvest totals.
Preliminary data show license sales and deer harvest down less than one percent from last year.
Hunters registered 182,084 deer during the 2025 gun deer season, including 86,068 antlered and 96,016 antlerless deer.
Even though the 9-day numbers are down slightly from last year—the increase during archery made up for it, according to DNR Deer Program Specialist Jeff Pritzl.
“That slight decline in gun license sales is almost totally made up for in a slight increase in both versions of archery license sales, both crossbow and vertical bow,” said Pritzl. “We essentially have a pretty stable license purchase and participation rate.”
This was the first gun-deer season under the new deer management units in the Northern Forest Zone.
Pritzl says some hunters were surprised by it, but overall, the transition went smoothly.
“Our customer call center, they did have an increase back in August when antlerless permits went on sale for those new units. But our call volume leading up to the gun deer season was actually 7% lower than last year,” said Pritzl. “Overall, we're pleased with how smooth the transition has gone.”
The only firearm-related incidents were the two that happened on opening day—one of which was fatal. While this is an increase in incidents from last year, it follows a greater trend of improved safety.
“For example, for the past 10 years of our 9-day gun deer season, the incident trend reflects on average, five hunting incidents per year, and again, this year, we had the two,” said Major April Dombrowski, the DNR Recreational Safety and Outdoor Skills Bureau Director. “In addition, Wisconsin has had six fatal free seasons, and all 10 past seasons here reflect single digit incidents.”
The statewide muzzleloader season runs now through December 10th, following by the 4-day antlerless-only hunt.
Archery and crossbow continue through January 4th.
