New Mexico · Deer · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico deer hunt DER-1-321
Unit 34. 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 650 licences on hunt code DER-1-321 in 2026 and issued 650 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 151 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 30 drew it, 19.87%; 1,493 resident applicants ranked it first and 448 drew it, 30.01%; 21 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 21 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 | 1,493 | 448 | 30.01% | 2,165 | 582 | 89.54% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 151 | 30 | 19.87% | 241 | 39 | 6% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 21 | 21 | 100.00% | 21 | 29 | 4.46% |
| 2025 | Resident | 1,391 | 459 | 33.00% | 2,004 | 606 | 93.23% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 177 | 34 | 19.21% | 226 | 39 | 6% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 5 | 100.00% | 11 | 5 | 0.77% |
| 2024 | Resident | 1,582 | 507 | 32.05% | 2,143 | 607 | 93.38% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 165 | 28 | 16.97% | 223 | 39 | 6% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 3 | 3 | 100.00% | 5 | 4 | 0.62% |
| 2023 | Resident | 1,719 | 464 | 26.99% | 2,394 | 603 | 92.77% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 157 | 36 | 22.93% | 217 | 39 | 6% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 14 | 8 | 1.23% |
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 | 650 | 650 | 1,665 | 4,092 |
| 2025 | 650 | 650 | 1,573 | 3,814 |
| 2024 | 650 | 650 | 1,750 | 4,121 |
| 2023 | 650 | 650 | 1,880 | 4,505 |
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