New Mexico · Deer · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico deer hunt DER-3-244
Unit 23: except the Burro mountains hunt area. Bag limit FAWTD. 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 75 licences on hunt code DER-3-244 in 2026 and issued 41, so it did not fill. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 4 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 4 drew it, 100.00%; 7 resident applicants ranked it first and 7 drew it, 100.00%; no guided (outfitter) applicant ranked it first.
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 | 7 | 7 | 100.00% | 56 | 20 | 26.67% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 33 | 21 | 28% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2025 | Resident | 12 | 12 | 100.00% | 60 | 40 | 53.33% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 5 | 5 | 100.00% | 35 | 17 | 22.67% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 1 | 3 | 4% |
| 2024 | Resident | 5 | 5 | 100.00% | 58 | 29 | 38.67% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 3 | 3 | 100.00% | 17 | 13 | 17.33% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Resident | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 40 | 16 | 21.33% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 20 | 8 | 10.67% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| 2022 | Resident | 80 | 19 | 23.75% | 123 | 34 | 85% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 10 | 0 | 0.00% | 24 | 2 | 5% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 7 | 4 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 107 | 28 | 26.17% | 104 | 35 | 87.5% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 15 | 0 | 0.00% | 19 | 2 | 5% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 3 | 3 | 7.5% |
| 2020 | Resident | 86 | 32 | 37.21% | 87 | 38 | 95% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 9 | 1 | 11.11% | 13 | 2 | 5% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2019 | Resident | 65 | 18 | 27.69% | 146 | 38 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 8 | 1 | 12.50% | 17 | 2 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — |
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 | 75 | 41 | 11 | 100 |
| 2025 | 75 | 60 | 19 | 115 |
| 2024 | 75 | 42 | 8 | 85 |
| 2023 | 75 | 24 | 5 | 66 |
| 2022 | 40 | 40 | 91 | 245 |
| 2021 | 40 | 40 | 122 | 248 |
| 2020 | 40 | 40 | 95 | 195 |
| 2019 | 40 | 40 | 73 | 236 |
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
- 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