New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-262
Unit 16D. 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 50 licences on hunt code ELK-1-262 in 2022 and issued 50 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 116 nonresident applicants ranked it first and none of them drew it; 203 resident applicants ranked it first and 19 drew it, 9.36%; 162 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 3 drew it, 1.85%.
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 | 203 | 19 | 9.36% | 795 | 42 | 84% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 116 | 0 | 0.00% | 287 | 3 | 6% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 162 | 3 | 1.85% | 405 | 5 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 238 | 16 | 6.72% | 869 | 42 | 84% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 169 | 2 | 1.18% | 338 | 3 | 6% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 169 | 1 | 0.59% | 318 | 5 | 10% |
| 2020 | Resident | 164 | 14 | 8.54% | 662 | 42 | 84% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 86 | 2 | 2.33% | 192 | 3 | 6% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 120 | 4 | 3.33% | 319 | 5 | 10% |
| 2019 | Resident | 212 | 25 | 11.79% | 671 | 42 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 60 | 0 | 0.00% | 212 | 3 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 121 | 3 | 2.48% | 306 | 5 | — |
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 | 50 | 50 | 481 | 1,968 |
| 2021 | 50 | 50 | 576 | 2,101 |
| 2020 | 50 | 50 | 370 | 1,543 |
| 2019 | 50 | 50 | 393 | 1,582 |
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