New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-255
Unit 16C. 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 91 licences on hunt code ELK-1-255 in 2022 and issued 91 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 32 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 3 drew it, 9.38%; 100 resident applicants ranked it first and 10 drew it, 10.00%; 12 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 5 drew it, 41.67%.
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 | 100 | 10 | 10.00% | 529 | 77 | 84.62% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 32 | 3 | 9.38% | 145 | 5 | 5.49% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 12 | 5 | 41.67% | 32 | 9 | 9.89% |
| 2021 | Resident | 173 | 29 | 16.76% | 527 | 77 | 84.62% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 69 | 3 | 4.35% | 155 | 5 | 5.49% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 7 | 1 | 14.29% | 72 | 9 | 9.89% |
| 2020 | Resident | 121 | 25 | 20.66% | 530 | 77 | 84.62% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 18 | 1 | 5.56% | 111 | 5 | 5.49% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 70 | 9 | 9.89% |
| 2019 | Resident | 142 | 26 | 18.31% | 512 | 77 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 21 | 0 | 0.00% | 80 | 5 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 4 | 0 | 0.00% | 50 | 9 | — |
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 | 91 | 91 | 144 | 850 |
| 2021 | 91 | 91 | 249 | 1,003 |
| 2020 | 91 | 91 | 143 | 854 |
| 2019 | 91 | 91 | 167 | 809 |
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