DMU Kewaunee, Wisconsin

Kewaunee County sits in northeastern Wisconsin along the Lake Michigan shoreline, part of the Southern Farmland deer management zone. The landscape is dominated by gently rolling glaciated terrain with elevations generally ranging from 600 to 900 feet above sea level. The northern portion of the Kettle Moraine system extends into the county, providing modest topographic relief. Land cover is overwhelmingly agricultural — corn silage, hay, grain corn, soybeans, and wheat across roughly 130,000 acres of cropland — classic dairy and row-crop country. Woodlots and hedgerows are scattered throughout, with more substantial forest and wetland habitat concentrated in river corridors. The Kewaunee, Ahnapee, East Twin, and Neshota rivers drain the county toward Lake Michigan and Green Bay, carving bottomland corridors of lowland cedar, alder, and hardwood. Fourteen inland lakes and ponds and numerous wetland pockets add waterfowl and edge habitat. The county borders Lake Michigan to the east and Green Bay to the north, with coastal bluffs and shoreline wetlands near the water.

Kewaunee County sees moderate to high hunting pressure during the 9-day gun deer season, driven largely by local hunters and those from the nearby Green Bay metro area. Deer densities in this Southern Farmland county are high, which attracts consistent hunter interest. Because the county is predominantly private farmland, pressure is diffuse and tied to landowner access — hunters with farm permission experience relatively low crowding on their parcels. The C.D. Besadny Fish and Wildlife Area sees heavier foot traffic during gun season as the largest public land block in the county. Archery and crossbow pressure is lighter and spread across the long season. Overall, gun season pressure is higher than many rural farmland counties due to Green Bay proximity but remains well below what you find near the major urban centers of southern Wisconsin.

Kewaunee falls in the Southern Farmland Zone where antlerless harvest is actively encouraged. In the 2025 season, hunters received three free antlerless harvest authorizations included with each deer hunting license (archery, crossbow, and gun) for the Kewaunee DMU. Bonus antlerless harvest authorizations are also available for purchase starting mid-August each year — in 2026, 300 public-land tags and 800 private-land tags were available at $12 per tag for residents and $20 for nonresidents, sold first-come through GoWild. Tags are unit- and land-type-specific (public vs. private), and hunters using MFL, FCL, or Voluntary Public Access lands must hold a public-land antlerless authorization. Standard any-antlered buck tags come with the base license. No earn-a-buck requirement applies in Kewaunee.

Deer archery and crossbow season runs September 12 through January 3, with the 9-day gun season November 21-29 and muzzleloader season November 30 through December 9. A youth and disabled gun hunt runs in early October. Spring turkey spans multiple periods from mid-April through late May with an application deadline in December; fall turkey runs concurrent with archery deer season. Small game including rabbit and squirrel opens September 12 and runs through late February. Waterfowl hunting is available along the rivers, wetlands, and Lake Michigan and Green Bay shorelines, with the Brusky WMA managed specifically for waterfowl and stocked with pheasants. The C.D. Besadny area offers pheasant hunting with specific rules including a noon closure. Salmon and brown trout fishing on the Kewaunee River and Lake Michigan is world-class and popular among hunters making a multi-day trip.

Kewaunee County is a high-productivity Southern Farmland unit that consistently delivers strong deer harvests — 3,078 total deer were taken across all seasons in 2024, including 1,380 antlered bucks. The agricultural landscape of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa surrounded by woodlot edges and river corridors creates near-ideal whitetail conditions, with deer growing noticeably larger on farm-country nutrition than their northern Wisconsin counterparts. Generous antlerless tag allocations make it an excellent choice for hunters focused on filling the freezer, while the buck hunting can produce mature, high-quality animals in this food-rich environment. The C.D. Besadny Fish and Wildlife Area offers 2,632 acres of public land with diverse habitat including river timber, wetland edges, and grasslands — a legitimately good setup for a small farmland county. Hunters willing to knock on farmland doors can access vast blocks of prime deer country. The county also delivers strong multi-species opportunities with turkey, pheasant, and exceptional Lake Michigan salmon fishing to round out a trip.