New Mexico · Deer · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico deer hunt DER-1-265
Unit 25. Bag limit fork-antlered deer (FAD). 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 100 licences on hunt code DER-1-265 in 2026 and issued 100 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 13 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 2 drew it, 15.38%; 207 resident applicants ranked it first and 66 drew it, 31.88%; 2 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 2 drew it, 100.00%.
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 | 207 | 66 | 31.88% | 319 | 92 | 92% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 13 | 2 | 15.38% | 31 | 6 | 6% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 3 | 2 | 2% |
| 2025 | Resident | 231 | 73 | 31.60% | 298 | 94 | 94% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 17 | 6 | 35.29% | 21 | 6 | 6% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| 2024 | Resident | 299 | 77 | 25.75% | 339 | 92 | 92% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 18 | 5 | 27.78% | 31 | 6 | 6% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 0 | 2 | 2% |
| 2023 | Resident | 298 | 78 | 26.17% | 374 | 94 | 94% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 19 | 3 | 15.79% | 21 | 6 | 6% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 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.
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 | 100 | 100 | 222 | 575 |
| 2025 | 100 | 100 | 248 | 569 |
| 2024 | 100 | 100 | 319 | 689 |
| 2023 | 100 | 100 | 317 | 712 |
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