New Mexico · Bear · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico bear hunt BER-1-104
Unit 54/55A: Urraca, E.S. Barker, and Colin Neblett WMAs, and Valle Vidal.. Bag limit one bear (1B). Of the people who ranked this hunt first, how many drew it — year by year, and separately for each of the three pools New Mexico draws. Every figure comes from a Department of Wildlife report linked at the foot of this page.
What the 2026 draw did
New Mexico offered 60 licences on hunt code BER-1-104 in 2026 and issued 60 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 78 nonresident applicants ranked it first, and the department published no breakdown of who drew; 199 resident applicants ranked it first, and the department published no breakdown of who drew; 9 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first, and the department published no breakdown of who drew.
First-choice draw rate, by pool and year
| Year | Pool | Ranked it first | Drew on first choice | First-choice draw rate | Ranked it 2nd or 3rd | Licences to this pool | Share of the quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Resident | 199 | — | — | 490 | 51 | 85% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 78 | — | — | 65 | 3 | 5% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 9 | — | — | 23 | 6 | 10% |
| 2025 | Resident | 209 | — | — | 492 | 51 | 85% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 71 | — | — | 77 | 3 | 5% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 20 | — | — | 26 | 6 | 10% |
| 2024 | Resident | 247 | — | — | 481 | 52 | 86.67% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 53 | — | — | 65 | 3 | 5% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | — | — | 2 | 5 | 8.33% |
| 2022 | Resident | 225 | 15 | 6.67% | 418 | 27 | 84.38% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 63 | 1 | 1.59% | 70 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 3 | 3 | 100.00% | 1 | 3 | 9.37% |
| 2021 | Resident | 172 | 16 | 9.30% | 361 | 29 | 90.63% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 68 | 2 | 2.94% | 55 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | 1 | 3.12% |
| 2020 | Resident | 132 | 14 | 10.61% | 261 | 30 | 93.75% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 32 | 2 | 6.25% | 29 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2019 | Resident | 40 | 4 | 10.00% | 139 | 12 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — |
Share of the quota is the department's own R% / NR% / O% column: this pool's share of the licences offered. It is an allocation split set by state law — a minimum of 84% resident, 10% outfitted, 6% nonresident — and not a chance of drawing. It reads 100% on any hunt residents took in full. It is shown because the department publishes it and a reader will meet it elsewhere, not because it answers the question this page is about.
A dash under drew on first choice for a whole year means the department published no breakdown by choice that year. From 2024 its bear and turkey report gives only the residency split of who drew. The licences and the applicant demand are its own figures; the first-choice rate cannot be computed from what it published, so it is left empty rather than filled with something else.
The first-choice draw rate, year by year
One strip per pool, because the three are drawn separately under different shares and a single averaged line would hide the only distinction most readers are here for. Each figure is a record of what that year's draw did. None of it forecasts the next one.
Rounded to whole percentages here; the table above carries them to two decimals. A dash means nobody in that pool ranked this hunt first that year.
Licences offered against licences issued
These are different numbers and the department publishes both. A hunt can fail to fill, and 35 of the 893 hunts in the 2026 report did.
| Year | Licences offered | Licences issued | Applicants who ranked it first | Applicants in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 60 | 60 | 286 | 864 |
| 2025 | 60 | 60 | 300 | 895 |
| 2024 | 60 | 60 | 304 | 852 |
| 2022 | 32 | 32 | 291 | 780 |
| 2021 | 32 | 32 | 240 | 657 |
| 2020 | 32 | 32 | 164 | 454 |
| 2019 | 12 | 12 | 40 | 179 |
Applicants in total counts everyone who ranked this hunt anywhere in their three choices, across all three pools. It is a measure of demand, not of competition for a first-choice licence.
Sources for this hunt
- 2026DRAW1_odds.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2026-02-12, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2025 Draw 1.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2025-02-17, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2024Draw1.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2024-07-31, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2022-Draw-1.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2022-02-17, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2021-Big-Game-Draw-Odds-Complete-Report.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2021-02-15, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2020-Drawing-Odds-Complete-Report.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2020-08-03, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2019-Drawing-Odds-Complete-Report.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2019-06-26, fetched 2026-08-31