Wisconsin · 2026-27
Shooting hours in Wisconsin
For deer (bow and firearm), bear, elk, small game and fall turkey, Wisconsin legal shooting hours run 30 minutes before sunrise to 20 minutes after sunset — the Wisconsin DNR rule is quoted below. Sunrise and sunset shift every day and with every county, so the lookup here turns the rule into your exact minutes.
Legal light for
Deer (bow and firearm), bear, elk, small game and fall turkey
Dane County · Aug 20, 2026
Legal start
—
sunrise − 30 min
Legal end
—
sunset + 20 min
Hunting from exact coordinates instead
These minutes apply the statewide rule at your chosen spot — they can’t see zone, season, or species exceptions. Always verify in the current Wisconsin DNR regulations before you hunt — rules change annually. Rule checked against Wisconsin DNR Aug 20, 2026.
The rule, straight from the regs
“Hunting hours for bear, bow deer, deer with firearms, elk, small game and wolves run 30 minutes before sunrise through 20 minutes after sunset.”
— Wisconsin Admin Code NR 10.06, Hunting hours, checked Aug 20, 2026
The DNR prints its own opening and closing times, keyed to a zone map — those printed tables are the reference the wardens use. The county lookup on this page applies the same NR 10.06 offsets to sunrise and sunset at your county, so expect the printed table to be within a minute or two; when they differ, the DNR table wins.
The official times
Exceptions the regs call out
The window above — 30 minutes before sunrise to 20 minutes after sunset — is the rule for deer (bow and firearm), bear, elk, small game and fall turkey. These run on different clocks:
- Waterfowl and other migratory birds
- Migratory game bird hours run 30 minutes before sunrise to sunset — except teal-only seasons, which run sunrise through sunset (NR 10.06).
- Spring turkey
- Spring turkey shooting hours close at sunset daily, not 20 minutes after (NR 10.06(7)).
- Pheasant opening day
- Pheasant season opens at 9:00 a.m. on opening day (NR 10.06(5)).
Opening day, worked out
Gun opens Nov 21, 2026 in Wisconsin. In Dane County that morning, sunrise is 6:57 AM — so legal light starts at 6:57 AM − 30 min = 6:27 AM CST. Sunset is 4:28 PM, so the day ends at 4:28 PM + 20 min = 4:48 PM CST. A county line east or west moves those minutes, and the Wisconsin DNR official times are the ones that count — check them before you go.
More Wisconsin, more states
The whole Wisconsin board · Deer season in Wisconsin · Straight-wall cartridge states
Shooting hours elsewhere: GA · MI · MN · MO · NY · OH · PA · TX