New Mexico · Elk · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-3-316
Unit 34. 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-3-316 in 2022 and issued 250 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 417 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 9 drew it, 2.16%; 1,530 resident applicants ranked it first and 173 drew it, 11.31%; 216 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 6 drew it, 2.78%.
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 | 1,530 | 173 | 11.31% | 1,884 | 210 | 84% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 417 | 9 | 2.16% | 699 | 15 | 6% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 216 | 6 | 2.78% | 545 | 25 | 10% |
| 2021 | Resident | 1,602 | 149 | 9.30% | 2,028 | 210 | 84% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 383 | 12 | 3.13% | 644 | 15 | 6% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 176 | 15 | 8.52% | 431 | 25 | 10% |
| 2020 | Resident | 1,401 | 165 | 11.78% | 1,729 | 210 | 84% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 285 | 5 | 1.75% | 476 | 15 | 6% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 125 | 15 | 12.00% | 294 | 25 | 10% |
| 2019 | Resident | 1,433 | 174 | 12.14% | 1,620 | 210 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 245 | 12 | 4.90% | 366 | 15 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 134 | 11 | 8.21% | 287 | 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 | 2,163 | 5,291 |
| 2021 | 250 | 250 | 2,161 | 5,264 |
| 2020 | 250 | 250 | 1,811 | 4,310 |
| 2019 | 250 | 250 | 1,812 | 4,085 |
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