Plunge milling process is used for machining hole and is widely used in aerospace, automobile, and die/mold industries. The cutter is fed in the direction of spindle axis which has the highest structural rigidity. The kinematics of plunge milling differs from the traditional turning and milling in aspect of tool engagement and chip generation. This paper proposes the mechanistic cutting force model for plunge milling. Uncut chip thickness is calculated using the present cutter edge position and the previous cutter edge position. Instantaneous cutting force coefficients, which depend only on instantaneous uncut chip thickness, are derived based on the mechanistic approach. The developed cutting force model is verified through comparison of the predicted and the measured cutting forces.