New Mexico · Deer · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico deer hunt DER-3-131
Unit 2C. 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 20 licences on hunt code DER-3-131 in 2026 and issued 20 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 78 nonresident applicants ranked it first and none of them drew it; 105 resident applicants ranked it first and 10 drew it, 9.52%; 23 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and none of them drew it.
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 | 105 | 10 | 9.52% | 257 | 17 | 85% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 78 | 0 | 0.00% | 219 | 1 | 5% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 23 | 0 | 0.00% | 247 | 2 | 10% |
| 2025 | Resident | 154 | 10 | 6.49% | 284 | 17 | 85% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 90 | 0 | 0.00% | 273 | 1 | 5% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 47 | 0 | 0.00% | 317 | 2 | 10% |
| 2024 | Resident | 164 | 13 | 7.93% | 299 | 17 | 85% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 90 | 1 | 1.11% | 273 | 1 | 5% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 40 | 0 | 0.00% | 287 | 2 | 10% |
| 2023 | Resident | 182 | 9 | 4.95% | 312 | 17 | 85% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 56 | 1 | 1.79% | 251 | 1 | 5% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 23 | 0 | 0.00% | 283 | 2 | 10% |
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 | 20 | 20 | 206 | 929 |
| 2025 | 20 | 20 | 291 | 1,165 |
| 2024 | 20 | 20 | 294 | 1,153 |
| 2023 | 20 | 20 | 261 | 1,107 |
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