New Mexico · Elk · bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-2-174
Unit 52. 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 2022 draw did
New Mexico offered 230 licences on hunt code ELK-2-174 in 2022 and issued 230 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 136 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 5 drew it, 3.68%; 324 resident applicants ranked it first and 110 drew it, 33.95%; 66 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 15 drew it, 22.73%.
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 | 324 | 110 | 33.95% | 809 | 194 | 84.35% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 136 | 5 | 3.68% | 409 | 13 | 5.65% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 66 | 15 | 22.73% | 174 | 23 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 341 | 99 | 29.03% | 813 | 194 | 84.35% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 109 | 1 | 0.92% | 333 | 13 | 5.65% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 53 | 8 | 15.09% | 136 | 23 | 10% |
| 2020 | Resident | 324 | 125 | 38.58% | 719 | 194 | 84.35% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 82 | 9 | 10.98% | 313 | 13 | 5.65% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 45 | 16 | 35.56% | 136 | 23 | 10% |
| 2019 | Resident | 287 | 130 | 45.30% | 716 | 193 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 70 | 6 | 8.57% | 240 | 15 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 75 | 21 | 28.00% | 91 | 23 | — |
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 | 230 | 230 | 526 | 1,918 |
| 2021 | 230 | 230 | 503 | 1,785 |
| 2020 | 230 | 230 | 451 | 1,619 |
| 2019 ⚠ | 230 | 231 | 432 | 1,479 |
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.
⚠ marks a year where two figures the department published disagree with each other: the department recorded more licences issued than it offered. The rows are shown exactly as the department published them and nothing is corrected here, because correcting them would mean inventing a figure it never stated.
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