Unit 40 (Unit 40 — Eastern Plains)
New Mexico Hunting Guide — Pronghorn, Mule Deer
Unit 40 covers the eastern New Mexico shortgrass plains between Tucumcari and the Texas state line. Open grassland and yucca flats from 4,000 to 5,500 feet hold solid pronghorn numbers with occasional 80-class bucks. Over three cycles, 129 tags were issued against 659 applicants — a competitive but not impossible draw.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 40
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready New Mexico Unit 40 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.
Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.
Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 40
Unit 40 covers the eastern New Mexico shortgrass plains between Tucumcari and the Texas state line. Open grassland and yucca flats from 4,000 to 5,500 feet hold solid pronghorn numbers with occasional 80-class bucks. Over three cycles, 129 tags were issued against 659 applicants — a competitive but not impossible draw.
Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 40
Unit 40 is almost entirely private land — access drives success.
A-PLUS Ranches
Most Unit 40 pronghorn tags come through NMDGF's A-PLUS program attached to enrolled ranches. The ranch you're drawn on dictates where you hunt.
Playa/Waterhole Edges
Ephemeral playa lakes and windmill-fed stock tanks concentrate pronghorn in late summer through early fall hunts.
CRP and Winter Wheat
CRP fields and winter wheat edges are magnets during late-summer seasons.
Unit 40 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,091–5,180 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,584 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 3,775.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
Who owns the ground
- Private / Other — 100%
Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 64 tanks
- 1 springs
- 192 stream segments
- 8 lakes
Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.
How to Hunt Unit 40 Pronghorn
Pronghorn Success Rates
Pronghorn Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — Draw either sex (resident) | 19 | 198 | 9.6% | — |
| Rifle — Draw either sex (nonresident) | 20 | 2 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — Draw either sex (resident) | 5 | 8 | 62.5% | — |
| Rifle — Draw bull/buck only (resident) | 5 | 6 | 83.3% | — |
| Archery — Draw either sex (resident) | 5 | 11 | 45.5% | — |
| Archery — Draw either sex (nonresident) | 5 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — Draw bull/buck only (resident) | 18 | 207 | 8.7% | — |
| Rifle — Draw bull/buck only (nonresident) | 20 | 3 | 0.0% | — |
| Archery — Draw bull/buck only (resident) | 5 | 14 | 35.7% | — |
| Archery — Draw bull/buck only (nonresident) | 5 | 0 | 0.0% | — |
| Rifle — Draw bull/buck only (resident) | 5 | 11 | 45.5% | — |
Data from 2021 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.
Open in Draw Odds EngineUnit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the A-PLUS program?
Is Unit 40 an easy mule deer tag to draw?
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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-04-17.
- 2026-2027 NM Hunting Rules and Info — New Mexico Department of Game and Fish · supports: Unit 40 boundary, Pronghorn hunt codes, Season dates · accessed 2026-04-17
- NMDGF Pronghorn Species Info — New Mexico Department of Game and Fish · supports: Pronghorn management, Private-land access requirements · accessed 2026-04-17
- NMDGF Applications and Draw Information — New Mexico Department of Game and Fish · supports: Pure random draw, A-PLUS pronghorn private-land program · accessed 2026-04-17
- NMDGF Deer Species Info — New Mexico Department of Game and Fish · supports: Mule deer management statewide · accessed 2026-04-17