Wisconsin Hunting License: $18, $24 With a Tag
In Wisconsin the licence is $18 and the first deer costs $24
What a season in Wisconsin actually costs to start
A resident hunting licence in Wisconsin is $18, sold as the Small game hunting license. Hunting a deer on it means buying the Gun deer license as well, at $24, so the first day costs $24 rather than $18. That is 33% more than the licence price a search result would have shown. 39 of the 50 states read here work the same way. The licence itself runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar.
- Resident licence $18, the Small game hunting license
- Nonresident licence $90
- First deer on top of it $24, the Gun deer license
- What the first morning costs $24
- The licence runs runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar
- Hunter education required of anyone born on or after 1973
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sells it through its own licensing system, which is where a fee change appears first.
Every Wisconsin hunting licence, at the price Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources prints
Fourteen tags and permits were read off Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources's own fee pages for Wisconsin, each one priced below with the row it sits in. A tag is a second purchase, and the licence price on its own is the first half of what a season costs.
- Small game hunting license$18
small game and, with the right stamps, migratory birds
annual
Small game hunting license (See small game section for junior and mentored hunting options) | $18 | $90
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Small game hunting license$90
small game and, with the right stamps, migratory birds
annual
Small game hunting license (See small game section for junior and mentored hunting options) | $18 | $90
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - 5-day small game license$60
small game for five days
5 day
5-day small game license | N/A | $60
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Junior small game license$9
small game, for buyers aged 12 to 17
annual
Junior small game license ages 12–17 | $9 | $36 (purchase junior sports license)
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Senior citizen small game license$9
small game, residents 65 and older
annual
Senior citizen small game license (65+) | $9 | N/A
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Sports license$60
fishing, small game and gun deer hunting in one purchase
annual
Sports license (Sports license includes fishing, small game and gun deer hunting licenses) | $60 | $295
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Conservation patron license$165
the widest bundle the state sells, hunting and fishing licences and stamps together
annual
Conservation patron license | $165 | $620
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Mentored small game license$7
small game while hunting with a mentor, without the hunter education course
annual
Mentored small game license | $7 | $7
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Resident armed forces fishing/small game licenseFree
fishing and small game, with state stamps included
annual
Resident armed forces fishing/small game license | Free (Available to Wisconsin residents, active-duty armed forces stationed in or outside of Wisconsin or on furlough or leave. State stamps are included.) | N/A
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
When a Wisconsin hunting license expires Licence year
Wisconsin runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar. The year turns on a date the state picked, usually in the spring or early autumn, so what a licence is worth depends on where in that year it was bought. The sentence the state uses is quoted below and links to the page it came from.
Wisconsin runs a licence year from 1 April to 31 March, so a licence bought late in that year expires on 31 March whatever date it was bought.
Licenses are valid from April 1 through March 31 of the following year.Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Wisconsin hunter education: born on or after 1973
Wisconsin hangs hunter education on a birth date rather than on an age: the requirement reaches anybody born after 1973. Every state that publishes a cutoff publishes a different one, and across this reading they run from 1949 to 1986, which is why a national answer to this question is always wrong somewhere.
Anyone born on or after 1 January 1973 must show hunter education certification, or equivalent proof the department accepts, to buy any hunting licence, and a buyer without it may instead take a licence that requires hunting with a mentor.
Persons born on or after Jan. 1, 1973, must present one of the following to purchase any hunting license: Their Wisconsin hunter education certificate. Proof of a hunter safety course recognized by the department from another state, province or country. A Wisconsin hunting license from a previous year that has the hunter safety number printed on it. Proof of successful completion of basic training in the U.S. Armed Forces, Reserves or National Guard.Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Who counts as a Wisconsin resident
Wisconsin draws the resident line at 30 days, and the difference between the two sides of it is $18 against $90. The statutory definition is quoted below.
A person must have maintained a permanent residence in Wisconsin for 30 consecutive days immediately before purchasing a license. Domiciliary intent is required. Evidence of domiciliary intent includes where the person votes, pays personal state income taxes or obtains a driver's license or state ID. Mere presence in the state for a 30-day period and/or ownership of property is not sufficient to establish residency.Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
39 of 50 states sell the animal separately from the right to hunt it
Wisconsin works the way most of the country does. Of the 50 states read here, 39 sell the tag apart from the licence and 11 print it on the licence instead. Where the tag is separate, the middle state adds 95% to the licence price before anybody has left the driveway.
Resident licences across these states run from $10 to $64.54, and nonresident licences from $50 to $410, which is the widest spread on any licence this site has read. 25 states run a licence year of their own, 9 give a full year from the day of sale, and 9 end it on 31 December whatever month it was bought.
The national table puts Wisconsin beside every other state on licence price, first tag, and the two added together.
Wisconsin hunting license questions
More for Wisconsin
Hunting licenses in every state
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources read 23 September 2026, with every licence price, tag price, expiry rule and hunter education cutoff above linked to the page it came from. Fees are set by statute or by a commission and change between seasons, so the agency page beside each figure is what governs on the day. Tags on top