New Mexico · Bear · 2026 Edition
New Mexico Bear Season 2026: Dates, Zones & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Archery (bow only) | Statewide — all 13 active zones (1-6, 8-14) | Sep 1 – Sep 24 |
| Any legal sporting arm — early season | Zones 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13 | Aug 16 – Aug 31 |
| Any legal sporting arm — main season | Zones 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 | Sep 25 – Nov 15 |
| Any legal sporting arm — main season | Zones 4, 11, 13 | Sep 25 – Nov 30 |
| Any legal sporting arm — main season | Zones 10, 12 | Sep 25 – Dec 15 |
| Any legal sporting arm — late season (USFS Sandia Ranger District portion is bow-only) | Zones 8, 14 | Oct 15 – Nov 15 |
| Draw permit — spring Valle Vidal hunt (any legal sporting arm) | Unit 55A — Valle Vidal only | Apr 15 – May 20 |
| Draw permit — summer WMA/Valle Vidal hunts (bow only in Unit 57 Sugarite Canyon SP; any legal elsewhere) | Unit 2 (youth-only), Unit 4 (Sargent & Humphries WMAs, residents only), Unit 9 (Marquez/LBar WMA, residents only), Units 54 & 55A (Urraca, E.S. Barker & Colin Neblett WMAs, and Valle Vidal), Unit 57 (Sugarite Canyon State Park) | Aug 1 – Aug 31 |
02 — Bag limits & check-in
| Statewide | 1 bear per license; a cub younger than one year old, or any female accompanied by cub(s), may not be taken |
|---|---|
| Zone 1 (Units 4-7, 51, 52) | Total limit 168, female sub-limit 67 — zone closes at 90% of either limit or season end, whichever is first |
| Zone 2 (Unit 2) | Total limit 15, female sub-limit 6 |
| Zone 3 (Units 49, 50, 53) | Total limit 65, female sub-limit 26 |
| Zone 4 (Units 45, 46, 48) | Total limit 109, female sub-limit 43 |
| Zone 5 (Units 54, 55, 57) | Total limit 108, female sub-limit 43 |
| Zone 6 (Units 39-43, 47, 56, 58, 59) | Total limit 51, female sub-limit 20 |
| Zone 8 (Unit 8) | Total limit 11, female sub-limit 4 |
| Zone 9 (Units 9, 10) | Total limit 36, female sub-limit 14 |
| Zone 10 (Units 12, 13, 15-18, 20-24, 26, 27) | Total limit 197, female sub-limit 79 |
| Zone 11 (Units 37, 38) | Total limit 36, female sub-limit 14 |
| Zone 12 (Unit 34) | Total limit 33, female sub-limit 13 |
| Zone 13 (Unit 36) | Total limit 16, female sub-limit 6 |
| Zone 14 (Unit 14) | Total limit 19, female sub-limit 7 |
| Closed areas | Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River Area (including Taos Valley Overlook) and Unit 6B (Valles Caldera National Preserve) are closed to bear hunting |
| Methods | Baiting and trapping are not legal methods for bear; dogs are permitted during any-legal-sporting-arm segments (present continuously from release) but banned during the September bow season and on all Wildlife Management Areas |
| Mandatory tagging | Carcass tag must be notched and attached immediately after harvest; hunter or designee must present the carcass tag, unfrozen skull (mouth propped open) and hide, with proof of sex naturally attached, to NMDOW within 5 days of harvest for pelt tagging and premolar tooth extraction |
| Zone status | Zones close individually once harvest reaches 90% of the total limit or 90% of the female limit — verify a zone is still open before hunting via 1-877-950-5466 or wildlife.dgf.nm.gov |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (April 15, 2026) 06:01 — 20:06
Rule: 'Legal shooting hours for big game, furbearers, upland game and turkey are from one half-hour before sunrise to one half-hour after sunset, unless otherwise noted' — from the full 2026-2027 New Mexico Hunting Rules and Info booklet's Legal Shooting Hours section. Bear is classified as big game, so this rule applies. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local New Mexico sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Bear hunters in New Mexico need a New Mexico hunting license — an over-the-counter Bear License (resident $58 / nonresident $360), purchased at least two calendar days before hunting, is required to hunt bear in New Mexico, including to validate any bear draw permit; draw-permit applicants pay a separate application fee (about $7 resident / $13 nonresident) and the application deadline is Feb. 11, 2026 Check-in or reporting a harvest is typically mandatory; see the row above for New Mexico's specific rule.
New Mexico hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in New Mexico — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — Scouting gear
Patterning bear activity before New Mexico's opener usually means glassing feeding areas and running a trail camera through summer — check the state's own rules on baiting before you set one over bait.
- Hunting binoculars on Amazon →
- Trail cameras on Amazon →
- Trail camera SD cards — class, capacity & format explained →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. These are category links, not a single named pick — we run no product tests of our own.
06 — FAQ
When does bear season open in New Mexico?
The earliest 2026 opener is April 15, 2026. See the table above for each method and zone.
When does bear season end in New Mexico?
The latest 2026 closing date is December 15, 2026. Individual segments and zones can close earlier — see the table above.
Do I need a separate bear license or tag in New Mexico?
an over-the-counter Bear License (resident $58 / nonresident $360), purchased at least two calendar days before hunting, is required to hunt bear in New Mexico, including to validate any bear draw permit; draw-permit applicants pay a separate application fee (about $7 resident / $13 nonresident) and the application deadline is Feb. 11, 2026
How many bears can you shoot in New Mexico?
2026 bag limits: Statewide — 1 bear per license; a cub younger than one year old, or any female accompanied by cub(s), may not be taken. Zone 1 (Units 4-7, 51, 52) — Total limit 168, female sub-limit 67 — zone closes at 90% of either limit or season end, whichever is first. Zone 2 (Unit 2) — Total limit 15, female sub-limit 6. Zone 3 (Units 49, 50, 53) — Total limit 65, female sub-limit 26. Zone 4 (Units 45, 46, 48) — Total limit 109, female sub-limit 43. Zone 5 (Units 54, 55, 57) — Total limit 108, female sub-limit 43. Zone 6 (Units 39-43, 47, 56, 58, 59) — Total limit 51, female sub-limit 20. Zone 8 (Unit 8) — Total limit 11, female sub-limit 4. Zone 9 (Units 9, 10) — Total limit 36, female sub-limit 14. Zone 10 (Units 12, 13, 15-18, 20-24, 26, 27) — Total limit 197, female sub-limit 79. Zone 11 (Units 37, 38) — Total limit 36, female sub-limit 14. Zone 12 (Unit 34) — Total limit 33, female sub-limit 13. Zone 13 (Unit 36) — Total limit 16, female sub-limit 6. Zone 14 (Unit 14) — Total limit 19, female sub-limit 7. Closed areas — Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River Area (including Taos Valley Overlook) and Unit 6B (Valles Caldera National Preserve) are closed to bear hunting. Methods — Baiting and trapping are not legal methods for bear; dogs are permitted during any-legal-sporting-arm segments (present continuously from release) but banned during the September bow season and on all Wildlife Management Areas. Mandatory tagging — Carcass tag must be notched and attached immediately after harvest; hunter or designee must present the carcass tag, unfrozen skull (mouth propped open) and hide, with proof of sex naturally attached, to NMDOW within 5 days of harvest for pelt tagging and premolar tooth extraction. Zone status — Zones close individually once harvest reaches 90% of the total limit or 90% of the female limit — verify a zone is still open before hunting via 1-877-950-5466 or wildlife.dgf.nm.gov. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting bear in New Mexico?
On opening day (April 15, 2026) legal light runs 06:01 to 20:06. The rule is: 'Legal shooting hours for big game, furbearers, upland game and turkey are from one half-hour before sunrise to one half-hour after sunset, unless otherwise noted' — from the full 2026-2027 New Mexico Hunting Rules and Info booklet's Legal Shooting Hours section. Bear is classified as big game, so this rule applies. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local New Mexico sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt bear on my own land in New Mexico without a license?
No — New Mexico requires a license for every game species regardless of land ownership. What's sometimes called a 'landowner' program is a separate elk-tag authorization system granted through the landowner, not a license waiver.
Verified · New Mexico Department of Wildlife (formerly Game and Fish) · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. Official '2026-2027 New Mexico Hunting Rules and Info' booklet PDF (the real download link is the '?wpdmdl=...' URL behind that download page; a first guess at a static filename returned an HTML error page, so the page HTML was fetched to recover the correct link), Bear section pages 123-127, read directly with pdftotext after a table-layout extraction first came out column-scrambled — a plain (non -layout) extraction of just those pages produced a clean, verifiable read of the Over-the-Counter Seasons table. New Mexico runs bear across 13 active Bear Management Zones (BMZ 7 was dissolved for this cycle; GMU 57 moved into BMZ 5 and GMUs 56/58 moved into BMZ 6, per the booklet's own 'Bear Hunting Changes' note, which confirms this is the current post-restructure table, not stale data). Every zone runs a statewide-identical archery (bow-only) season Sept. 1-24; the 'Any Legal' general season that follows varies by zone in both start date (some zones add an Aug. 16-31 any-legal segment before archery even opens; zones 8 and 14 instead open their any-legal segment later, Oct. 15) and close date (Nov. 15, Nov. 30, or Dec. 15 depending on zone). Total and female sub-limits per zone were reconstructed by matching the sequential number lists in the table to the zone order printed in the booklet (Zone 1: 168 total/67 female, cross-checked against an independent regulation-text summary that stated the same '168 (67)' pairing for Zone 1, and against Zone 10's 197 total which also matched); this pairing is high-confidence but not pulled from a single clean row-per-zone table, so treat the exact female sub-limit numbers as the one figure worth a second look against wildlife.dgf.nm.gov/hunting/information-by-animal/big-game/bear/ before publishing hard numbers. Zones close individually at 90% of the total limit, 90% of the female limit, or season end, whichever comes first — hunters must verify zone status by phone (1-877-950-5466) or online before hunting. Baiting and trap-hunting are explicitly stated as illegal methods for bear. Dog use is allowed for any-legal-weapon segments (including the early August and October segments) but is banned during the September bow season and on all Wildlife Management Areas. Separate limited draw permits exist for several WMAs and the Valle Vidal (Aug. 1-31 general draw hunts, plus an April 15-May 20 spring bow hunt for Valle Vidal Unit 55A only) — an OTC Bear License is still required to validate any draw permit. Not independently confirmed this round: whether any zone-specific shooting-hours exception exists beyond the general big-game rule (not located in the bear section itself), so shootingHours is left unset here.