New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-187
Unit 6A. 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 2022 draw did
New Mexico offered 100 licences on hunt code ELK-1-187 in 2022 and issued 100 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 91 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 5 drew it, 5.49%; 933 resident applicants ranked it first and 75 drew it, 8.04%; 84 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 4 drew it, 4.76%.
This hunt code stops appearing after 2022. The department's 2026 report does not carry it, and this site does not map a retired code onto a current one — a renumbered hunt is not necessarily the same hunt, and the department has published nothing that says which is which. What is below is the record of the 4 years it was drawn.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Resident | 933 | 75 | 8.04% | 1,234 | 84 | 84% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 91 | 5 | 5.49% | 197 | 6 | 6% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 84 | 4 | 4.76% | 167 | 10 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 1,030 | 70 | 6.80% | 1,379 | 84 | 84% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 105 | 5 | 4.76% | 209 | 6 | 6% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 73 | 5 | 6.85% | 144 | 10 | 10% |
| 2020 | Resident | 680 | 74 | 10.88% | 1,141 | 84 | 84% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 81 | 4 | 4.94% | 127 | 6 | 6% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 30 | 6 | 20.00% | 78 | 10 | 10% |
| 2019 | Resident | 679 | 69 | 10.16% | 923 | 84 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 62 | 5 | 8.06% | 99 | 6 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 29 | 4 | 13.79% | 70 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 100 | 100 | 1,108 | 2,706 |
| 2021 | 100 | 100 | 1,208 | 2,940 |
| 2020 | 100 | 100 | 791 | 2,137 |
| 2019 | 100 | 100 | 770 | 1,862 |
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
- 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