New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-184
Unit 5B. Bag limit mature bull (MB). 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 87 licences on hunt code ELK-1-184 in 2026 and issued 87 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 20 nonresident applicants ranked it first and none of them drew it; 110 resident applicants ranked it first and 41 drew it, 37.27%; 4 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 | 110 | 41 | 37.27% | 313 | 74 | 85.06% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 20 | 0 | 0.00% | 71 | 5 | 5.74% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 107 | 8 | 9.2% |
| 2025 | Resident | 92 | 35 | 38.04% | 250 | 74 | 85.05% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 19 | 2 | 10.53% | 78 | 5 | 5.75% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 14 | 2 | 14.29% | 76 | 8 | 9.2% |
| 2024 | Resident | 130 | 41 | 31.54% | 296 | 74 | 85.05% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 46 | 5 | 10.87% | 98 | 5 | 5.75% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 9 | 5 | 55.56% | 80 | 8 | 9.2% |
| 2023 | Resident | 117 | 37 | 31.62% | 274 | 74 | 85.06% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 15 | 1 | 6.67% | 77 | 5 | 5.74% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 11 | 2 | 18.18% | 70 | 8 | 9.2% |
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 | 87 | 87 | 134 | 625 |
| 2025 | 87 | 87 | 125 | 529 |
| 2024 | 87 | 87 | 185 | 659 |
| 2023 | 87 | 87 | 143 | 564 |
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