New Mexico · Deer · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico deer hunt DER-1-271
Unit 26. 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-1-271 in 2026 and issued 100 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 5 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 2 drew it, 40.00%; 30 resident applicants ranked it first and 30 drew it, 100.00%; 4 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 4 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 | 30 | 30 | 100.00% | 134 | 87 | 87% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 5 | 2 | 40.00% | 21 | 8 | 8% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 5 | 5 | 5% |
| 2025 | Resident | 39 | 31 | 79.49% | 172 | 90 | 90% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 10 | 3 | 30.00% | 37 | 6 | 6% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 3 | 4 | 4% |
| 2024 | Resident | 49 | 36 | 73.47% | 172 | 87 | 87% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 2 | 0 | 0.00% | 36 | 6 | 6% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 5 | 7 | 7% |
| 2023 | Resident | 38 | 30 | 78.95% | 200 | 86 | 86% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 10 | 3 | 30.00% | 33 | 6 | 6% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 3 | 3 | 100.00% | 8 | 8 | 8% |
| 2022 | Resident | 31 | 10 | 32.26% | 59 | 21 | 84% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 6 | 2 | 33.33% | 19 | 2 | 8% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 4 | 2 | 8% |
| 2021 | Resident | 42 | 14 | 33.33% | 74 | 21 | 84% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 8 | 2 | 25.00% | 33 | 2 | 8% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 3 | 0 | 0.00% | 8 | 2 | 8% |
| 2020 | Resident | 38 | 13 | 34.21% | 54 | 21 | 84% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 4 | 2 | 50.00% | 17 | 2 | 8% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 2 | 2 | 8% |
| 2019 | Resident | 39 | 16 | 41.03% | 51 | 21 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 9 | 2 | 22.22% | 12 | 2 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 3 | 3 | 100.00% | 1 | 3 | — |
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 | 39 | 199 |
| 2025 | 100 | 100 | 53 | 265 |
| 2024 | 100 | 100 | 55 | 268 |
| 2023 | 100 | 100 | 51 | 292 |
| 2022 | 25 | 25 | 39 | 121 |
| 2021 | 25 | 25 | 53 | 168 |
| 2020 | 25 | 25 | 43 | 116 |
| 2019 ⚠ | 25 | 26 | 51 | 115 |
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.
⚠ marks a year where two figures the department published disagree with each other: the department recorded more licences issued than it offered. The rows are shown exactly as the department published them and nothing is corrected here, because correcting them would mean inventing a figure it never stated.
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