AmmoSight

New Mexico Deer · GMU 30

New Mexico GMU 30 spans 1,883,421 acres, centered 33 miles west of Carlsbad. 83% of it is public land, mostly BLM (47%) and state trust land (18%). In 2025, 1,538 people hunted deer here and took 439, a 29% success rate (sum of published weapon rows). Its most applied-for hunt, DER-1-294, put up 43 tags (all residencies) in the 2026 draw for 189 nonresident first-choice applicants, 38 of whom drew.

No points in this draw. Every applicant has the same chance each year.

Tags, 2026
266

12 licenses · NR capped at 6%

Applicants
435

first choice, NR

Hunter Success
29%

2025, all licenses

Public Land
83%

57% BLM

Size
2,943 mi²

1,883,421 acres

Carlsbad Artesia Alamogordo Tularosa 30
29%hunter success 2025 · 1,538 hunters, 439 deer

Boundaries are drawn for orientation only. The written boundary description in the regulations governs.

Best Bets

Ranked by your odds times how often that license type's hunters filled their tag in 2025. Nonresident, first choice, 2026 draw; licenses with at least 10 tags that anyone can buy.

DER-1-294
Outfitter · buck
100%
Unit 30 — fork-antlered deer — Any Legal — Oct. 31-Nov.4
Success
29%
Season
Oct 31 – Nov 4
Tags / Apps
20 / 12
If Drawn
$502
DER-2-297
Standard · buck
100%
Unit 30 — fork-antlered deer — Bow — Sept. 1-24
Success
29%
Season
Sep 1–24
Tags / Apps
47 / 16
If Drawn
$502
DER-2-298
Outfitter · buck
100%
Unit 30 — fork-antlered deer — Bow — Jan. 1-15, ‘27
Success
29%
Season
Jan 1–15
Tags / Apps
10 / 9
If Drawn
$502
DER-3-299
Standard · buck
100%
Unit 30 — fork-antlered deer — Muzzle — Oct. 24-28
Success
29%
Season
Oct 24–28
Tags / Apps
69 / 36
If Drawn
$502

Every License in GMU 30

90–100% 50–89% 10–49% 1–9% under 1% fewer than 5 tags: one applicant swings it
DER-1-294 Standard 20%
Outfitter 100%
DER-1-295 Standard 28%
Outfitter 100%
DER-1-296 Standard · youth 47%
Outfitter · youth 100%
DER-2-297 Standard 100%
Outfitter not open
DER-2-298 Standard 10%
Outfitter 100%
DER-3-299 Standard 100%
Outfitter not open

First-choice nonresident odds, 2026 draw. No points in this draw: every applicant has the same chance.

Draw results: NMDGF 2026 Big Game Drawing Odds Complete Report, retrieved Aug 31, 2026.

If you draw (2026 nonresident fees): Standard $502 ($492 to apply) · Outfitter $502 ($492 to apply). Closes Mar 17, 2027 (expected). Full fee breakdown.

Harvest

Year Hunters Deer Success
2025 (summed) 1,538 439 29%
2024 2,090 532 25%
2023 2,091 599 29%
2022 2,267 578 26%
2021 2,348 400 17%
2025 by LicenseHuntersDeerSuccess
Reg · muzzleloader · 325 licenses 278 64 23%
Reg · rifle · 30 licenses 28 8 28%
Reg · rifle · 43 licenses 35 13 36%
Youth 5 2 40%
Reg · archery · 31 licenses 31 7 23%
Reg · muzzleloader · 9 licenses 8 0 0%
Reg · rifle · 440 licenses 388 136 35%
Reg · rifle · 435 licenses 387 127 33%
Reg · archery · 175 licenses 140 23 16%
Reg · archery · 100 licenses 87 20 23%
Reg · muzzleloader · 175 licenses 151 39 26%

2025 split: muzzleloader 103 (23%) from 437 hunters, 24%, rifle 286 (65%) from 843 hunters, 34%, archery 50 (11%) from 258 hunters, 19%

What New Mexico Department of Game and Fish publishes after each season, for everyone who hunted the area: harvest statistics, not draw odds. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish publishes no whole-GMU line for 2025; a year's total is the sum of published weapon rows, added only where the lines do not overlap. Source: NMDGF 2025-2026 Deer Harvest Report; NMDGF 2024-2025 Deer Harvest Report; NMDGF 2023-2024 Deer Harvest Report.

The Ground

BLM 890,767 ac 47%
State trust land 340,588 ac 18%
National Forest 283,612 ac 15%
National Park Service 46,517 ac 2%
State land 2,144 ac <1%
Bureau of Reclamation 1,303 ac <1%
Department of Defense 720 ac <1%
Private or other non-public land 317,766 ac 17%

Source: U.S. Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico State Office 2023 BLM_Surface_Management_2023.

Next Door

What the Agency Says About the Area

GMU 30: Beginning at the NM/TX state line near Dell City, Texas, and its intersection with NM 506/CR E038, then northeast, north, west and north along NM 506/CR E038 through Crow Flats and Cornucopia Draw to its junction with NM 24 east of Pinon, then northeast along NM 24 to its junction with US 82 north of Dunken, then east along US 82 to its intersection with US 285 at Artesia, then south...

Source: NMDGF 2026 NM Game Management Units, layer 0.

▸ Sources 10
  1. NMDGF 2026 Big Game Drawing Odds Complete Report draw results, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  2. NMDGF 2026-2027 Draw Hunt License Fees / Draw… fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  3. NMDGF 2026-2027 Over-the-Counter License Fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  4. NMDGF 2025-2026 Deer Harvest Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
  5. NMDGF 2024-2025 Deer Harvest Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
  6. NMDGF 2023-2024 Deer Harvest Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
  7. NMDGF 2022-2023 Deer Harvest Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
  8. NMDGF 2021-2022 Deer Harvest Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
  9. NMDGF 2026 NM Game Management Units, layer 0 boundary, area description, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
  10. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico State Office 2023 BLM_Surface_Management_2023 land ownership, retrieved Sep 1, 2026

About These Numbers

Odds are from the 2026 draw, the latest on file, computed from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish's published results. They are what happened in that draw, not a forecast. Under five tags a percentage carries a *, because one applicant either way swings it. A dash means the agency did not publish the number, and a date marked expected is last cycle's schedule rolled forward. How we compute these.

Report an error on this page

Every report is checked against the agency source before we change anything.

We don't take applications: check New Mexico Department of Game and Fish's site and apply there.

Prior-draw odds from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish's results, not a forecast · Methodology · All New Mexico deer hunts