| New Mexico has a unique licensing system for elk and antelope in special limited quota areas. Most licenses are offered in a lottery drawing. Since most of these limited quota areas have some private land intermingled with the public land, the Game Department also issues landowners a very limited number of landowner authorizations, depending on their total acreage and level of usage. These private landowners in turn sell these authorizations to outfitters. These landowner authorizations enable us the unique opportunity to purchase a license/tag for our clients over the counter for the special limited quota areas even though the hunter was unsuccessful in the lottery drawing.
In most cases, the lottery draw hunters and landowner authorization hunters have equal access to hunt the entire area. Private land only deer, aoudad, and gemsbok license/tags can be purchased over-the-counter.
The advantage of booking a guaranteed tag hunt is that a hunter can book the hunt then plan on going this fall without having to worry about being left holding the bag because they were unsuccessful in the lottery drawing. Obviously, landowner authorizations or private land access for elk, antelope or gemsbok in a good area that a hunter has a high percentage chance of harvesting a trophy animal are in great demand and therefore are expensive. These hunts aren’t for everybody. If you’re looking for a quality hunt but these guaranteed tag hunts are beyond your price range we recommend our License Application Service for the Limited Entry/Lottery Draw Hunts.
The guaranteed tag deer and aoudad hunts we offer in New Mexico are guaranteed because the outfitter pool allocation of 10% of the total tags in these areas is more that enough to meet the demand for tags for guided hunters here in southern New Mexico.
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There are far fewer applicants in the outfitter pool drawing than there are tags available, therefore the drawing odds are well over 100% for hunters who book a mule deer or aoudad hunt with us by the March application deadline. This enables us to offer these guaranteed tag hunts at a very reasonable price.
Every year I receive literally hundreds of inquires from hunters who have what I call Cadillac taste and a Pontiac budget; i.e. they want to go on a quality elk hunt in an area that has a high elk density, good bull/cow ratio, good genetics, mild terrain and top end trophy quality. Oh, and by the way, they want to keep the cost below $5,000 including the license/tag and airfare. A hunt like this is actually possible thru our License Application Service.
The lottery drawing in New Mexico for limited entry licenses/tags for elk, deer, antelope and aoudad is a rather complicated process. Non-residents under contract with a licensed outfitter for a guided hunt receive 10% of all limited entry licenses/tags. Resident hunters receive 84% of tags and non-residents hunting on their own or on a drop camp hunt get the remaining 6%. Gemsbok, Persian ibex, and bighorn Sheep licenses/tags are equally available to residents and non-residents alike in the lottery drawing.
Non-resident, non-guided hunters are more likely to apply for lower-quality, less-desirable hunts as their second and third choice, otherwise their success rate would be much lower. In years past, the drawing odds for the better-quality hunts in the outfitter pool drawing are usually from 300% to 1,000% better than in the non-guided pool drawing, and with the current downturn in the economy, we are anticipating an even greater advantage to hunters in the outfitter pool.
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