New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-211
Unit 52. 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 73 licences on hunt code ELK-1-211 in 2026 and issued 73 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, no nonresident applicant ranked it first; 315 resident applicants ranked it first and 48 drew it, 15.24%; 2 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 2 drew it, 100.00%.
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 | 315 | 48 | 15.24% | 913 | 71 | 97.26% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 0 | 2 | 2.74% |
| 2025 | Resident | 349 | 62 | 17.77% | 933 | 68 | 93.15% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 5 | 100.00% | 0 | 5 | 6.85% |
| 2024 | Resident | 333 | 62 | 18.62% | 903 | 73 | 100% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Resident | 390 | 66 | 16.92% | 903 | 72 | 98.63% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 3 | 1 | 1.37% |
| 2022 | Resident | 58 | 8 | 13.79% | 225 | 26 | 86.67% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 11 | 1 | 9.09% | 8 | 1 | 3.33% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 3 | 60.00% | 6 | 3 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 63 | 11 | 17.46% | 242 | 26 | 86.67% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 5 | 0 | 0.00% | 31 | 1 | 3.33% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 2 | 2 | 100.00% | 3 | 3 | 10% |
| 2020 | Resident | 64 | 15 | 23.44% | 182 | 29 | 96.67% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 9 | 1 | 11.11% | 29 | 1 | 3.33% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2019 | Resident | 52 | 19 | 36.54% | 173 | 26 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 7 | 2 | 28.57% | 14 | 2 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 6 | 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 | 73 | 73 | 317 | 1,230 |
| 2025 | 73 | 73 | 354 | 1,287 |
| 2024 | 73 | 73 | 333 | 1,237 |
| 2023 | 73 | 73 | 390 | 1,296 |
| 2022 | 30 | 30 | 74 | 313 |
| 2021 | 30 | 30 | 70 | 346 |
| 2020 | 30 | 30 | 73 | 284 |
| 2019 | 30 | 30 | 59 | 252 |
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