New Mexico · Elk · muzzleloader, crossbow or bow only
New Mexico elk hunt ELK-3-331
Unit 45. 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 136 licences on hunt code ELK-3-331 in 2022 and issued 136 — the hunt filled. Among the three pools the state draws separately, 23 nonresident applicants ranked it first and 3 drew it, 13.04%; 166 resident applicants ranked it first and 59 drew it, 35.54%; 14 guided (outfitter) applicants ranked it first and 7 drew it, 50.00%.
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 | 166 | 59 | 35.54% | 356 | 115 | 84.56% |
| 2022 | Nonresident | 23 | 3 | 13.04% | 89 | 8 | 5.88% |
| 2022 | Guided (outfitter) | 14 | 7 | 50.00% | 30 | 13 | 9.56% |
| 2021 | Resident | 170 | 63 | 37.06% | 345 | 115 | 84.56% |
| 2021 | Nonresident | 43 | 2 | 4.65% | 125 | 8 | 5.88% |
| 2021 | Guided (outfitter) | 7 | 4 | 57.14% | 22 | 13 | 9.56% |
| 2020 | Resident | 165 | 68 | 41.21% | 316 | 115 | 84.56% |
| 2020 | Nonresident | 44 | 5 | 11.36% | 86 | 8 | 5.88% |
| 2020 | Guided (outfitter) | 13 | 8 | 61.54% | 20 | 13 | 9.56% |
| 2019 | Resident | 175 | 68 | 38.86% | 363 | 115 | — |
| 2019 | Nonresident | 24 | 4 | 16.67% | 77 | 8 | — |
| 2019 | Guided (outfitter) | 13 | 10 | 76.92% | 11 | 14 | — |
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 | 136 | 136 | 203 | 678 |
| 2021 | 136 | 136 | 220 | 712 |
| 2020 | 136 | 136 | 222 | 644 |
| 2019 ⚠ | 136 | 137 | 212 | 663 |
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