More Than 290,000 Apply for New Mexico Big Game Tags – One in Five Receive Good News

More than 290,000 people applied for New Mexico big game tags this year, with only one in five applicants receiving successful draw results on Wednesday, according to state wildlife officials and multiple news reports.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish released the draw results this week, showing approximately 58,000 applicants secured tags for elk, deer, antelope, oryx and bighorn sheep hunts, while around 230,000 applicants were unsuccessful and must wait another year or pursue alternative hunting opportunities.

The low success rate has intensified ongoing debates about fairness in the state’s big game tag allocation system, particularly concerning access for New Mexico residents versus non-residents and outfitters.

Under current state law, 84 percent of public draw tags are reserved for New Mexico residents, 10 percent are set aside for hunters who book through licensed outfitters, and just 6 percent are available to out-of-state applicants participating in the public draw.

However, critics point to a separate system that operates outside these limits: the Elk Private Land Use System, or EPLUS. Through this program, private landowners receive authorizations from the state that they can use themselves or sell, often on the open market.

A 2020 report by the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee found that approximately three-quarters of private land elk tags issued through EPLUS ultimately end up in the hands of out-of-state hunters, who frequently pay significantly higher prices for access to these hunting opportunities.

This dynamic has led some hunters and guides to characterize aspects of the current system as favoring commercial interests over equitable access for resident sportsmen.

“I feel like there should be a chase for quality,” said Cole Johnson, owner of Black Horn Guide Service based in Artesia, during a recent hunting trip. “Whether it’s a quality animal, or a quality experience.”

Johnson, who has guided hunts in southeastern New Mexico for years, added that the drawing process itself has become a significant part of the hunting narrative for many participants.

“It’s almost like a welfare system for outfitters,” Johnson said, referring to how the current allocation structure functions in practice.

The New Mexico State Game Commission has acknowledged growing concerns about the draw system and has indicated that potential reforms may be considered in upcoming meetings, though no specific changes have been formally proposed as of this week’s draw results release.

Wildlife officials emphasize that the current system aims to balance multiple interests: providing hunting opportunities for residents, supporting guided hunting businesses, managing wildlife populations on private lands, and generating revenue for conservation programs through tag sales and related fees.

As applications continue to vastly outnumber available tags each year, the debate over how New Mexico allocates its big game hunting opportunities remains active among hunters, guides, landowners, and state policymakers.