New Mexico · Elk · any legal big-game sporting arm
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-1-335
Unit 23. 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 2026 draw did
New Mexico offered 75 licences on hunt code ELK-1-335 in 2026 and issued 75 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 79 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 1 drew it, 1.27%; 148 resident applicants ranked it first and 25 drew it, 16.89%; 29 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and none of them drew it.
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 | 148 | 25 | 16.89% | 429 | 63 | 84% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 79 | 1 | 1.27% | 178 | 5 | 6.67% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 29 | 0 | 0.00% | 127 | 7 | 9.33% |
| 2025 | Resident | 184 | 37 | 20.11% | 469 | 63 | 84% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 91 | 3 | 3.30% | 181 | 5 | 6.67% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 27 | 3 | 11.11% | 141 | 7 | 9.33% |
| 2024 | Resident | 193 | 31 | 16.06% | 475 | 63 | 84% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 89 | 4 | 4.49% | 172 | 5 | 6.67% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 24 | 0 | 0.00% | 141 | 7 | 9.33% |
| 2023 | Resident | 184 | 32 | 17.39% | 460 | 63 | 84% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 84 | 5 | 5.95% | 176 | 5 | 6.67% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 19 | 2 | 10.53% | 160 | 7 | 9.33% |
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 | 256 | 990 |
| 2025 | 75 | 75 | 302 | 1,093 |
| 2024 | 75 | 75 | 306 | 1,094 |
| 2023 | 75 | 75 | 287 | 1,083 |
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