New Mexico · Elk · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-3-309
Unit 17. 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 100 licences on hunt code ELK-3-309 in 2026 and issued 100 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 27 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 2 drew it, 7.41%; 64 resident applicants ranked it first and 24 drew it, 37.50%; 8 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 1 drew it, 12.50%.
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 | 64 | 24 | 37.50% | 263 | 84 | 84% |
| 2026 | Nonresident | 27 | 2 | 7.41% | 103 | 6 | 6% |
| 2026 | Guided (outfitter) | 8 | 1 | 12.50% | 133 | 10 | 10% |
| 2025 | Resident | 49 | 32 | 65.31% | 274 | 84 | 84% |
| 2025 | Nonresident | 33 | 0 | 0.00% | 126 | 6 | 6% |
| 2025 | Guided (outfitter) | 24 | 3 | 12.50% | 133 | 10 | 10% |
| 2024 | Resident | 51 | 30 | 58.82% | 315 | 84 | 84% |
| 2024 | Nonresident | 45 | 1 | 2.22% | 167 | 6 | 6% |
| 2024 | Guided (outfitter) | 6 | 2 | 33.33% | 101 | 10 | 10% |
| 2023 | Resident | 44 | 17 | 38.64% | 268 | 84 | 84% |
| 2023 | Nonresident | 17 | 1 | 5.88% | 132 | 6 | 6% |
| 2023 | Guided (outfitter) | 15 | 1 | 6.67% | 77 | 10 | 10% |
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 | 100 | 100 | 99 | 598 |
| 2025 | 100 | 100 | 106 | 639 |
| 2024 | 100 | 100 | 102 | 685 |
| 2023 | 100 | 100 | 76 | 553 |
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