New Mexico · Elk · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-3-235
Unit 15. 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 2022 draw did
New Mexico offered 245 licences on hunt code ELK-3-235 in 2022 and issued 245 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 71 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 6 drew it, 8.45%; 223 resident applicants ranked it first and 46 drew it, 20.63%; 25 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 1 drew it, 4.00%.
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 | 223 | 46 | 20.63% | 1,301 | 206 | 84.08% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 71 | 6 | 8.45% | 499 | 15 | 6.12% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 25 | 1 | 4.00% | 500 | 24 | 9.8% |
| 2021 | Resident | 240 | 49 | 20.42% | 1,374 | 206 | 84.08% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 60 | 4 | 6.67% | 468 | 15 | 6.12% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 25 | 2 | 8.00% | 527 | 24 | 9.8% |
| 2020 | Resident | 211 | 57 | 27.01% | 1,236 | 206 | 84.08% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 53 | 0 | 0.00% | 324 | 15 | 6.12% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 37 | 1 | 2.70% | 489 | 24 | 9.8% |
| 2019 | Resident | 237 | 57 | 24.05% | 1,161 | 206 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 74 | 2 | 2.70% | 324 | 15 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 20 | 1 | 5.00% | 450 | 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 | 245 | 245 | 319 | 2,619 |
| 2021 | 245 | 245 | 325 | 2,694 |
| 2020 | 245 | 245 | 301 | 2,350 |
| 2019 ⚠ | 245 | 246 | 331 | 2,266 |
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