A buck that was chasing does in early November can be on a different pattern by the gun opener. In 2026 the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources lists that gun season as Nov. 21 to Nov. 29. The fall hunting forecast names that stretch the nine-day gun deer season. If you get one weekend inside it, hunt Nov. 21 and Nov. 22. Collared bucks in southwest Wisconsin had already passed the movement peak those researchers measured.
STEP 1 · Gun Dates
The 2026 nine-day runs Nov. 21 to Nov. 29
The DNR season dates page for 2026 puts gun season at Nov. 21 to Nov. 29. A separate row keeps gun hunting in metro subunits open from Nov. 21 to Dec. 9. The page says all dates are subject to change through rulemaking or a legislative process.
Archery and crossbow on that page run Sept. 12 to Jan. 3, 2027. In metro subunits and in counties with an extended archery season those weapons run Sept. 12 to Jan. 31, 2027. The fall forecast lists the extension as Jan. 4 to Jan. 31, 2027 in select deer management units. It says 42 of the 48 holiday-hunt counties extend archery and crossbow through a Jan. 31, 2027 close. Use the 2026 deer season structure map linked from the dates page before you count on a January bow hunt.
The dates page lists a youth/disabled gun deer hunt on Oct. 10 to Oct. 11. It also lists a gun hunt for hunters with disabilities on Oct. 3 to Oct. 11 and says this is not a statewide season. The 2026 season sheet lists that disability hunt as Oct. 3 to Oct. 11 on sponsored properties and as Oct. 10 to Oct. 11 statewide. The sheet limits the youth gun deer hunt to hunters age 15 and under.
Nov. 21 through Nov. 29 covers nine dates. That figure is arithmetic on the printed endpoints. The forecast already uses the name nine-day gun deer season.
STEP 2 · Later Seasons
Muzzleloader comes next, then two antlerless hunts
The dates page opens muzzleloader season on Nov. 30 and closes it on Dec. 9. The season sheet lists the same dates. Counting Nov. 30 through Dec. 9 gives 10 calendar days. The dates page does not assign a weapon where metro gun season overlaps those muzzleloader dates. Check the unit rules before you treat early December as muzzleloader-only.
Next is the December 4-day antlerless-only hunt from Dec. 10 to Dec. 13. The season sheet calls it the statewide antlerless-only hunt for gun, archery, and crossbow. The dates page says no bucks may be harvested during the antlerless-only hunts listed with the archery season. That rule covers these four days.
The holiday hunt is limited to part of the farmland zone. The dates page says it is open only in select Farmland Zone 2 counties and points to page 12 of the combined hunting regulations for the valid counties. The dates are Dec. 24 to Jan. 1, 2027. The fall forecast says the hunt runs on those dates in 48 counties this year. County names are absent here because page 12 was not opened. The season sheet applies the holiday hunt to gun, archery, and crossbow seasons in select farmland counties. The no-bucks rule covers it.
From Dec. 14 to Dec. 23 the dates page lists no firearm deer season of its own. Archery and crossbow remain open on the dates above. Dec. 24 adds a gun opportunity only where the holiday hunt is open.
STEP 3 · Breeding Window
Collars in three counties peaked before Nov. 21
These breeding dates come from one study. Hunsaker and colleagues published it in Ecology and Evolution in 2025. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources trapped and collared the deer in portions of Dane, Iowa, and Grant counties. GPS data came from 188 collared male deer between Oct. 15 and Dec. 1 in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Changepoint analysis of daily movement rates put the peak breeding season between Oct. 23 and Nov. 12. The paper reports little variation among ages and among the other metrics checked. Conception dates were made by counting back 200 days from fawn births. Capture dates from 307 of 347 neonatal fawns went into that step. Across movement, range size, and conception the peak start fell between Oct. 23 and Oct. 27. The end fell between Nov. 9 and Nov. 15. Movement summaries put the length of that peak at 20 to 21 days.
Mean hourly movement for all ages peaked in the week of Nov. 5 to Nov. 11. Two-year-old males had higher hourly movement rates than other ages. Males 3 years and older had the highest variance in daily movement rate. The deer in the sample were males in that southwest area across four breeding seasons.
The models found no significant effect of firearm opening weekend on movement rates. Movement was already falling before the season. From 2017 to 2020 the mean movement rate on Nov. 23 was 6 percent lower than on Nov. 17. Male firearm harvest in Iowa County fell 25 percent when the opener moved from Nov. 17 in 2018 to Nov. 23 in 2019. That 25 percent figure is one county and two opening dates.
The paper says the nine-day firearm season always begins on the Saturday in November just before Thanksgiving so the opener falls from Nov. 17 to Nov. 23. The 2026 DNR dates start on Nov. 21. That start is on the late side of the range in the paper. Nov. 21 comes after the Oct. 23 to Nov. 12 collar peak. The high-movement week of Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 falls inside the 2026 archery and crossbow season.
STEP 4 · One Weekend
Use Nov. 21 and Nov. 22 inside the nine-day
Our rule is for one free weekend. It is our read of the DNR dates set against this southwest Wisconsin study.
If you can choose a weekend before gun season and archery or crossbow is legal for you then sit Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 of 2026. Those days lie inside the Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 week of highest mean hourly movement in the collar sample. The fall forecast calls Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 of 2026 a weekend. Nov. 7 is 28 days after Oct. 10. Nov. 21 is 42 days after Oct. 10. Both spans are whole weeks so both dates share the weekday of Oct. 10. Nov. 8 shares the weekday of Oct. 11. That weekend is still archery and crossbow.
If the nine-day holds your only weekend then hunt Nov. 21 and Nov. 22. Leave Nov. 28 and Nov. 29. Nov. 21 is closer to the collar peak than Nov. 28. In the study the Nov. 23 movement rate was already under the Nov. 17 rate. The 2026 opener is Nov. 21 which is two days before that Nov. 23 comparison. The last weekend of the nine-day sits another week past the Oct. 23 to Nov. 12 window. Opening weekend in the models did not show a significant change in movement. The rule picks days on a calendar. It makes no promise about bucks at one stand.
Look again at the dates page before you leave work. The DNR says dates can change by rulemaking or legislation. The 48 holiday counties and the 42 extended-archery counties are counts in the fall forecast. Page 12 of the combined regulations is the county list the dates page names.
NOTES AND SOURCES
Fully Drawn Research is an independent data analysis desk, not affiliated with any state wildlife agency, transportation agency, mapping provider or outfitter. This guide reports official agency dates and rules as published when it was written. Confirm with the state agency before you hunt.
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