New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-185
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-1-185 in 2026 and issued 59 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, no nonresident applicant ranked it first; 61 resident applicants ranked it first and 23 drew it, 37.70%; 6 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 4 drew it, 66.67%.
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 | 61 | 23 | 37.70% | 271 | 54 | 91.53% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 6 | 4 | 66.67% | 2 | 5 | 8.47% |
| 2025 | Resident | 94 | 29 | 30.85% | 300 | 54 | 91.53% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 4 | 80.00% | 4 | 5 | 8.47% |
| 2024 | Resident | 89 | 27 | 30.34% | 216 | 55 | 93.22% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 4 | 100.00% | 3 | 4 | 6.78% |
| 2023 | Resident | 129 | 38 | 29.46% | 340 | 57 | 96.61% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 3 | 2 | 3.39% |
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 | 59 | 59 | 67 | 340 |
| 2025 | 59 | 59 | 99 | 403 |
| 2024 | 59 | 59 | 93 | 312 |
| 2023 | 59 | 59 | 130 | 473 |
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