New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-277
Unit 16A. 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 75 licences on hunt code ELK-1-277 in 2026 and issued 75 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, no nonresident applicant ranked it first; 447 resident applicants ranked it first and 56 drew it, 12.53%; 5 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 3 drew it, 60.00%.
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 | 447 | 56 | 12.53% | 869 | 68 | 90.67% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 3 | 60.00% | 5 | 7 | 9.33% |
| 2025 | Resident | 493 | 51 | 10.34% | 869 | 69 | 92% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 5 | 5 | 100.00% | 1 | 6 | 8% |
| 2024 | Resident | 474 | 62 | 13.08% | 853 | 68 | 90.67% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 6 | 6 | 100.00% | 3 | 7 | 9.33% |
| 2023 | Resident | 447 | 58 | 12.98% | 883 | 72 | 96% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 5 | 3 | 4% |
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 | 75 | 75 | 452 | 1,326 |
| 2025 | 75 | 75 | 498 | 1,368 |
| 2024 | 75 | 75 | 480 | 1,336 |
| 2023 | 75 | 75 | 448 | 1,336 |
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