Big Game by StateThe public record of western draws

New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm

New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-181

Unit 5B. Bag limit A. 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 59 licences on hunt code ELK-1-181 in 2026 and issued 59 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, no nonresident applicant ranked it first; 182 resident applicants ranked it first and 39 drew it, 21.43%; no guided (outfitter) applicant ranked it first.

Drawn in each of the 8 years the department has published, 2019 to 2026.

Residency pool

First-choice draw rate, by pool and year

The rate is the winners who were awarded this hunt as their first choice, divided by the applicants in the same pool who ranked it first. Both are exact integers the department printed in the same row. A dash means nobody in that pool ranked the hunt first, so the draw answered nothing — it is an absent measurement, not a nought.
YearPoolRanked it firstDrew on first choiceFirst-choice draw rateRanked it 2nd or 3rdLicences to this poolShare of the quota
2026Resident1823921.43%39259100%
2026Nonresident00—000%
2026Guided (outfitter)00—000%
2025Resident1612817.39%36359100%
2025Nonresident00—000%
2025Guided (outfitter)00—200%
2024Resident2004522.50%33359100%
2024Nonresident00—000%
2024Guided (outfitter)00—000%
2023Resident1763117.61%32459100%
2023Nonresident00—000%
2023Guided (outfitter)00—000%
2022Resident452964.44%7256100%
2022Nonresident00—000%
2022Guided (outfitter)00—000%
2021Resident583458.62%7256100%
2021Nonresident00—000%
2021Guided (outfitter)00—000%
2020Resident493571.43%6956100%
2020Nonresident00—000%
2020Guided (outfitter)00—000%
2019Resident564071.43%5556—
2019Nonresident00—00—
2019Guided (outfitter)00—00—

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.

Resident

71%2019
71%2020
59%2021
64%2022
18%2023
23%2024
17%2025
21%2026

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.

YearLicences offeredLicences issuedApplicants who ranked it firstApplicants in total
20265959182574
20255959161526
20245959200533
20235959176500
2022565645117
2021565658130
2020565649118
2019565656111

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

Nearby hunt codes

ELK-1-177ELK-1-178ELK-1-179ELK-1-180ELK-1-182ELK-1-183ELK-1-184ELK-1-185All New Mexico elkAll New Mexico species

New Mexico grants no preference to previously unsuccessful applicants, so nothing on this page accumulates and nothing here predicts next year. See how these numbers are produced and checked, or the application deadlines.