New Mexico · Elk · bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-2-239
Unit 16A. 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 250 licences on hunt code ELK-2-239 in 2022 and issued 250 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 458 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 10 drew it, 2.18%; 498 resident applicants ranked it first and 146 drew it, 29.32%; 238 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 15 drew it, 6.30%.
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 | 498 | 146 | 29.32% | 754 | 210 | 84% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 458 | 10 | 2.18% | 623 | 15 | 6% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 238 | 15 | 6.30% | 558 | 25 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 538 | 140 | 26.02% | 858 | 210 | 84% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 483 | 14 | 2.90% | 595 | 15 | 6% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 254 | 15 | 5.91% | 588 | 25 | 10% |
| 2020 | Resident | 378 | 117 | 30.95% | 695 | 210 | 84% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 321 | 14 | 4.36% | 494 | 15 | 6% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 146 | 10 | 6.85% | 425 | 25 | 10% |
| 2019 | Resident | 428 | 132 | 30.84% | 753 | 210 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 343 | 9 | 2.62% | 452 | 15 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 196 | 16 | 8.16% | 460 | 25 | — |
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 | 250 | 250 | 1,194 | 3,129 |
| 2021 | 250 | 250 | 1,275 | 3,316 |
| 2020 | 250 | 250 | 845 | 2,459 |
| 2019 | 250 | 250 | 967 | 2,632 |
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