New Mexico · Elk · bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-2-152
Unit 9, including Water Canyon WMA. Bag limit either sex (ES). 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 82 licences on hunt code ELK-2-152 in 2026 and issued 82 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 21 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 3 drew it, 14.29%; 36 resident applicants ranked it first and 25 drew it, 69.44%; no guided (outfitter) applicant ranked it first.
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 | 36 | 25 | 69.44% | 152 | 70 | 85.37% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 21 | 3 | 14.29% | 36 | 5 | 6.1% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 7 | 7 | 8.53% |
| 2025 | Resident | 24 | 20 | 83.33% | 183 | 75 | 91.46% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 39 | 5 | 12.82% | 58 | 5 | 6.1% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 2 | 2 | 2.44% |
| 2024 | Resident | 18 | 16 | 88.89% | 160 | 72 | 87.8% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 13 | 2 | 15.38% | 37 | 5 | 6.1% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 6 | 5 | 6.1% |
| 2023 | Resident | 26 | 16 | 61.54% | 160 | 73 | 89.02% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 27 | 2 | 7.41% | 52 | 5 | 6.1% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 9 | 4 | 4.88% |
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 | 82 | 82 | 57 | 252 |
| 2025 | 82 | 82 | 63 | 306 |
| 2024 | 82 | 82 | 31 | 234 |
| 2023 | 82 | 82 | 53 | 274 |
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