New Mexico · Deer · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico deer hunt DER-1-326
Unit 36. 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 300 licences on hunt code DER-1-326 in 2026 and issued 300 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 102 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 13 drew it, 12.75%; 829 resident applicants ranked it first and 214 drew it, 25.81%; 23 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 23 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 | 829 | 214 | 25.81% | 1,381 | 252 | 84% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 102 | 13 | 12.75% | 174 | 18 | 6% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 23 | 23 | 100.00% | 35 | 30 | 10% |
| 2025 | Resident | 871 | 202 | 23.19% | 1,456 | 252 | 84% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 90 | 16 | 17.78% | 160 | 18 | 6% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 18 | 18 | 100.00% | 26 | 30 | 10% |
| 2024 | Resident | 903 | 209 | 23.15% | 1,486 | 261 | 87% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 101 | 13 | 12.87% | 162 | 18 | 6% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 17 | 17 | 100.00% | 26 | 21 | 7% |
| 2023 | Resident | 907 | 204 | 22.49% | 1,532 | 257 | 85.67% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 110 | 16 | 14.55% | 149 | 18 | 6% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 19 | 19 | 100.00% | 19 | 25 | 8.33% |
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 | 300 | 300 | 954 | 2,544 |
| 2025 | 300 | 300 | 979 | 2,621 |
| 2024 | 300 | 300 | 1,021 | 2,695 |
| 2023 | 300 | 300 | 1,036 | 2,736 |
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