New Mexico · Deer · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico deer hunt DER-1-305
Unit 32, including Prairie Chicken WMAs. 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 565 licences on hunt code DER-1-305 in 2026 and issued 565 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 55 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 18 drew it, 32.73%; 754 resident applicants ranked it first and 344 drew it, 45.62%; 5 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 4 drew it, 80.00%.
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 | 754 | 344 | 45.62% | 1,149 | 515 | 91.15% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 55 | 18 | 32.73% | 118 | 34 | 6.02% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 4 | 80.00% | 35 | 16 | 2.83% |
| 2025 | Resident | 764 | 326 | 42.67% | 1,282 | 521 | 92.21% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 52 | 15 | 28.85% | 103 | 34 | 6.02% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 19 | 10 | 1.77% |
| 2024 | Resident | 673 | 300 | 44.58% | 1,067 | 513 | 90.79% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 47 | 11 | 23.40% | 78 | 34 | 6.02% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 8 | 8 | 100.00% | 15 | 18 | 3.19% |
| 2023 | Resident | 632 | 313 | 49.53% | 998 | 520 | 92.04% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 58 | 18 | 31.03% | 83 | 34 | 6.01% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 24 | 11 | 1.95% |
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 | 565 | 565 | 814 | 2,116 |
| 2025 | 565 | 565 | 818 | 2,222 |
| 2024 | 565 | 565 | 728 | 1,888 |
| 2023 | 565 | 565 | 690 | 1,795 |
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