For the Tomahawk Leader
WISCONSIN – Bonus antlerless harvest authorizations for the 2024 gun deer season are available for purchase.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) last week announced that the harvest authorizations, formerly known as tags, can be purchased online through the Go Wild license portal (www.gowild.wi.gov/) and at license sales locations.
The harvest authorizations were available starting on Monday, Aug. 12.
Bonus authorizations are sold at a rate of one per person per day until sold out or until the 2024 deer hunting season ends. Bonus authorizations are $12.00 each for Wisconsin residents, $20.00 each for non-residents and $5.00 each for youth ages 11 and under.
DNR said an online queuing system will be used to manage volume in Go Wild. All users entering the site between 9:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. will be randomly assigned a number and staged in a virtual queue. Users will be arranged randomly regardless of the actual time they enter the system.
“There is no advantage for customers who enter the site before 9:45 a.m.,” DNR stated. “Users who log on after 10 a.m. will be added to the end of the existing queue in the order of arrival.”
To complete their purchase, DNR noted, hunters will need to know the deer management zone and unit in which they intend to hunt, determine whether they will hunt on public or private land and have a deer hunting license approval.
Bonus sales in the Northern and Central Forest Zones began on Monday, Aug. 12, followed by the Central Farmland Zone on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
Sales for the Southern Farmland Zone opened at 10 a.m. today (Wednesday, Aug. 14), and all zones will be available on Thursday, Aug. 15, beginning at 10 a.m.
“The number of antlerless harvest opportunities will vary by deer management unit in accordance with local deer population levels,” DNR stated. “This allows for greater harvest opportunities where deer are abundant and a more conservative harvest where deer are fewer in number.”
Bonus antlerless harvest authorizations are available for purchase for the 2024 season in all deer management units except Ashland and Iron counties.
A listing of bonus antlerless harvest authorizations available for purchase in each deer management unit can be found on the DNR’s Antlerless Deer Harvest Authorization webpage at www.dnr.wisconsin.gov/permits/bonusavailability.html.
