Wisconsin · Pheasant · 2026–27 Edition
Wisconsin Pheasant Season 2026–27: Dates & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Regular season | Statewide | Oct 17 – Jan 3 |
02 — Bag limits
| Daily — opening weekend, Oct. 17-18, 2026 (roosters only, most properties) | 1 rooster |
|---|---|
| Daily — Oct. 19, 2026 through Jan. 3, 2027 (roosters only, most properties) | 2 roosters |
| Possession — all season | twice the daily bag limit (2 during opening weekend, 4 thereafter) — inferred from Wisconsin's standing possession formula, not independently reconfirmed on a 2026-dated document |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal shooting hours 09:00 — 18:09
Rule: 9:00 a.m. Central Time fixed start on opening day (Sat. Oct. 17, 2026) only; standard sunrise-to-sunset small-game hours apply for the remainder of the season. Some individual stocked properties additionally post an early-afternoon weekday closing time during the opening weeks — check the specific property before hunting there. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Wisconsin sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Pheasant hunters in Wisconsin need a Wisconsin hunting license — a Pheasant Stamp ($10, resident and nonresident) in addition to a Small Game License, required statewide regardless of age
Wisconsin hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Wisconsin — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — FAQ
When does pheasant season open in Wisconsin?
The earliest 2026–27 opener is October 17, 2026. See the table above for each segment and zone.
When does pheasant season end in Wisconsin?
The latest 2026–27 closing date is January 3, 2027. Individual segments and zones can close earlier — see the table above.
Can I shoot hen pheasants in Wisconsin?
See the bag limit table above — most states restrict the daily bag to roosters only, but rules vary and this is worth double-checking against Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources before you hunt.
How many pheasants can you shoot in Wisconsin per day?
2026–27 bag limits: Daily — opening weekend, Oct. 17-18, 2026 (roosters only, most properties) — 1 rooster. Daily — Oct. 19, 2026 through Jan. 3, 2027 (roosters only, most properties) — 2 roosters. Possession — all season — twice the daily bag limit (2 during opening weekend, 4 thereafter) — inferred from Wisconsin's standing possession formula, not independently reconfirmed on a 2026-dated document. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting pheasant in Wisconsin?
On opening day (October 17, 2026) legal light runs 07:16 to 18:09. The rule is: 9:00 a.m. Central Time fixed start on opening day (Sat. Oct. 17, 2026) only; standard sunrise-to-sunset small-game hours apply for the remainder of the season. Some individual stocked properties additionally post an early-afternoon weekday closing time during the opening weeks — check the specific property before hunting there. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Wisconsin sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt pheasant on my own land in Wisconsin without a license?
Wisconsin's exemption covers only a specific species list — beaver, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, woodchucks, rabbits, and squirrels — for the owner or occupant and their family on their own land. Deer, turkey, bear, and waterfowl aren't included, and the exempt species can't be taken in the 24 hours before firearm deer season opens.
Verified · Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources · Last verified 2026-08-15
Publisher's note. Official 'PUB-CS-076-2026' season sheet (updated 06/08/2026), downloaded and read directly (pdftotext, since the standard fetch tool could not parse the PDF's compressed text stream): the Game Birds table states 'Pheasant Statewide Oct. 17 (9am) - Jan. 3, 2027', which was cross-checked against the DNR's own dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/hunt/dates.html page (fetched separately) confirming the same 'Oct. 17 (9 a.m.) - Jan. 3, 2027' statewide window and that the 9 a.m. start is fixed for opening day. Oct. 17, 2026 is a Saturday, matching Wisconsin's usual Saturday pheasant opener; several aggregator pages and a stale DNR-app page (apps.dnr.wi.gov/pheasantstocking) surfaced a conflicting 'Oct. 18' date, but that traces to the *2025* season (Oct. 18, 2025 was that year's Saturday opener) being mislabeled '2026' by an automated summarizer — the primary season-sheet PDF and the live dates.html page, both dated for the current cycle, are trusted here instead. Bag-limit structure was not found on a 2026-dated document; it was cross-checked via a Wisconsin DNR newsroom release for the 2025 season (dnr.wisconsin.gov/newsroom/release/115046), which states verbatim 'the opening weekend ... has a daily bag limit of one rooster per day. Starting Monday ... the daily bag limit increases to two roosters per day', a pattern that also appears unchanged in a much older (2012) DNR small-game pamphlet, so it is treated as a standing rule rather than a one-year figure and applied to the 2026 opening weekend (Sat. Oct. 17-Sun. Oct. 18, 2026 at most properties). Possession limit is stated in Wisconsin regulations as twice the daily bag limit (confirmed in the 2012 pamphlet's general possession-limit rule and repeated by current aggregators as 'four birds' for the regular period); the exact current-year figure was not independently re-confirmed on a 2026-dated official document, so treat the possession numbers below as inferred from the standing formula rather than freshly verified. Separate 'Hen/Rooster' designated properties (permit-tag system allowing hen harvest) exist under Wisconsin regulations but the current 2026-27 site list was not confirmed and is not reproduced here to avoid stating stale property names. Wisconsin runs an active state stocking program on top of this wild season: the DNR's pheasant-stocking site describes roughly 75,000 pen-raised pheasants released from the state game farm across 80+ properties statewide through the regular season, plus a separate late-season release of about 3,000 birds on 25 properties in mid-December — stocked and wild birds are hunted under the same statewide season dates and bag limits described above, not a separate schedule; Wisconsin was not flagged as a 'B' (stocked-designation) state for this build, so no access block was added, but readers should understand the wild season above includes heavily DNR-supplemented properties. No dedicated youth-only pheasant day was found; a Pheasant Stamp ($10, both residencies, per current aggregator sources) is required statewide in addition to a Small Game License.