New Mexico · Elk · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-3-156
Unit 9, including Water Canyon WMA. 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 21 licences on hunt code ELK-3-156 in 2026 and issued 21 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 1 nonresident applicant ranked it first and none of them drew it; 20 resident applicants ranked it first and 14 drew it, 70.00%; 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 | 20 | 14 | 70.00% | 29 | 20 | 95.24% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 11 | 1 | 4.76% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2025 | Resident | 22 | 10 | 45.45% | 44 | 20 | 95.24% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 7 | 1 | 4.76% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2024 | Resident | 5 | 2 | 40.00% | 60 | 20 | 95.24% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 19 | 1 | 4.76% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2023 | Resident | 1 | 1 | 100.00% | 21 | 12 | 57.14% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 0 | 0 | — | 12 | 9 | 42.86% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 0% |
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 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 61 |
| 2025 | 21 | 21 | 23 | 74 |
| 2024 | 21 | 21 | 6 | 85 |
| 2023 | 21 | 21 | 1 | 34 |
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