New Mexico · Bighorn Sheep · bow only
New Mexico bighorn sheep hunt BHS-2-203
Unit 45. Bag limit ewe (EWE). 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 10 licences on hunt code BHS-2-203 in 2026 and issued 10 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 3 nonresident applicants ranked it first and none of them drew it; 92 resident applicants ranked it first and 2 drew it, 2.17%; 1 guided (outfitter) applicant ranked it first and none of them drew it.
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 | 92 | 2 | 2.17% | 693 | 9 | 90% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 3 | 0 | 0.00% | 7 | 0 | 0% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 13 | 1 | 10% |
| 2025 | Resident | 70 | 0 | 0.00% | 608 | 9 | 90% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 3 | 0 | 0.00% | 4 | 0 | 0% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 13 | 1 | 10% |
| 2024 | Resident | 78 | 1 | 1.28% | 583 | 9 | 90% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 5 | 0 | 0.00% | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 6 | 1 | 10% |
| 2023 | Resident | 84 | 2 | 2.38% | 541 | 9 | 90% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 8 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 4 | 1 | 10% |
| 2022 | Resident | 106 | 4 | 3.77% | 610 | 15 | 88.24% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 10 | 0 | 0.00% | 24 | 1 | 5.88% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 18 | 1 | 5.88% |
| 2021 | Resident | 96 | 2 | 2.08% | 622 | 16 | 72.73% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 23 | 1 | 4.55% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 3 | 0 | 0.00% | 7 | 0 | 0% |
| 2020 | Resident | 71 | 4 | 5.63% | 446 | 19 | 86.36% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 6 | 1 | 16.67% | 10 | 1 | 4.55% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 4 | 2 | 9.09% |
| 2019 | Resident | 59 | 2 | 3.39% | 393 | 19 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 8 | 0 | 0.00% | 17 | 1 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 3 | 2 | — |
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.
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 | 10 | 10 | 96 | 809 |
| 2025 | 10 | 10 | 75 | 700 |
| 2024 | 10 | 10 | 84 | 676 |
| 2023 | 10 | 10 | 88 | 641 |
| 2022 | 17 | 17 | 118 | 770 |
| 2021 | 22 | 17 | 101 | 753 |
| 2020 | 22 | 22 | 77 | 537 |
| 2019 | 22 | 22 | 68 | 481 |
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
- 2026CompleteReport.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2026-04-13, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2025CompleteReport.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2025-04-09, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2024CompleteReport.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2024-04-09, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2023-odds_corrected_CN.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2023-04-11, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2022-Complete-Report.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2022-04-12, fetched 2026-08-31
- 2021-Big-Game-Drawing-Odds-Complete-Report.xlsx — New Mexico Department of Wildlife, published 2021-04-14, 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