Metro Sub-Unit 119, Wisconsin

DMU 119 occupies Wisconsin's Northern Highlands plateau across portions of Langlade, Lincoln, Oneida, Price, and Taylor counties, with elevations ranging from roughly 1,200 to 1,800 feet on gently rolling glaciated terrain. The landscape is dominated by mixed northern hardwood-conifer forest — quaking and bigtooth aspen, sugar maple, yellow birch, balsam fir, white spruce, and jack pine — broken by extensive tamarack and black spruce bogs, sedge meadows, and river floodplains. The unit contains headwaters of the Wisconsin, Tomahawk, Pine, and Flambeau rivers along with hundreds of lakes. Active timber harvest on county and national forest lands produces regenerating aspen clear-cuts that concentrate deer and create a dynamic patchwork of cover and edge habitat across the unit.

Pressure is moderate overall but very manageable given the unit's vast public land footprint. Gun season draws the most hunters, with deer camps filling across Langlade, Lincoln, Oneida, Price, and Taylor counties as the 9-day November opener approaches — this is traditional Wisconsin deer camp country. Even so, the hundreds of thousands of combined public land acres mean hunters can find genuine solitude by hiking a mile or more off road. Archery and muzzleloader seasons see significantly lighter pressure. Scouting activity near easy road access is noticeable in the weeks before gun season, but backcountry timber blocks and remote bog edges receive very little hunting attention throughout the year.

DMU 119 is a Northern Forest Zone unit with no earn-a-buck requirement. A Wisconsin hunting license with deer privileges allows harvest of one antlered deer. Bonus antlerless harvest authorizations are available over the counter — no drawing required — starting in mid-August on a first-come, first-served basis. For 2026, 1,250 public land bonus authorizations and 4,650 private land bonus authorizations are available, going on sale August 17 at 10 a.m. Resident price is $12 per authorization; nonresident $20; hunters under age 12 pay $5. In 2025, public land antlerless tags sold out while roughly 1,664 private land tags remained, indicating strong but not overwhelming demand. Hunters may purchase one bonus authorization per day until the unit sells out or the season ends. Archery and crossbow license holders may harvest antlerless deer throughout the season with a valid bonus authorization.

Deer season dates for 2025-2026: archery and crossbow September 13 through January 4, 2026; 9-day gun season November 22-30, 2025; muzzleloader December 1-10; antlerless-only December 11-14. Wild turkey is available in spring (April-May, drawing required) and fall (September-October, limited tags). Black bear populations are strong in these northern counties and bear seasons run September through October, requiring a permit obtained via the draw system. Ruffed grouse opener in mid-September makes for an excellent combination hunt with early archery season. American woodcock migrate through during October, coinciding with peak archery activity. Waterfowl hunting on the unit's abundant lakes and river systems is productive for ducks and geese. Baiting and feeding deer is prohibited statewide in Wisconsin. CWD has not been detected in these northern counties as of recent monitoring — a meaningful advantage over many southern units.

DMU 119 delivers the quintessential Wisconsin Northwoods deer hunting experience: massive blocks of accessible public land, traditional deer camp culture, and legitimate wilderness hunting within a day's drive of Milwaukee, Madison, or Green Bay. Taylor County Forest alone ranks among the largest county-owned forests in the state, and the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest adds millions of adjacent acres to the mix. Regenerating clear-cuts scattered through national and county forest lands produce abundant natural browse and the kind of young aspen cover that holds mature bucks. Remote bog edges and cedar swamps in Oneida and Langlade counties can harbor reclusive older deer that rarely encounter hunting pressure. The unit offers genuine multi-species combination trips: kill a buck, hunt grouse over a flushing dog, and pass-shoot ducks out of the same camp in the same weekend. No CWD pressure, over-the-counter antlerless tags with no draw required, and a range of public land character from roadside timber sales to remote swamp hunting make DMU 119 one of the more versatile and accessible northern forest units in Wisconsin.