*cracks knuckles*

CCoker: New Mexico does not give out any cow tags to non-residents. You will have to buy a landowner voucher ($600-1200) plus the elk tag from the state (~$300). All draw tags for non-residents are for mature bull only. Residents may apply for either-sex tags. Most of Colorado's either-sex and cow elk tags end up on the leftover list and can be purchased over the counter.

As stated, New Mexico has plenty of public land. The NMGFD website has a lot of information on it, pay special attention to the number of tags available for each hunt. If there's only 10 tags, there could be 0 to 1 tag available for a DIY non-resident.

You do have to pay your tag fees upfront in NM, so initial out of pocket can be rough if you don't think about that ahead of time.

I think that physical limitations should be the number one thing when considering your hunts. If you have bad knees, don't choose the roughest unit in the state just because it has better draw odds. It has better draw odds because it is almost impossible to hunt. I made this mistake this year on a 3rd choice deer tag in New Mexico. Got to the unit for the first time and quickly figured out that I was not in the least prepared for the areas the Coues' deer hang out, especially hunting alone. Places look much different in person than they do on Google Earth.

I have spent far too much time digging into the application side of things. With points or applications in 11-14 states per year. I can help you put together an application strategy based on what you can spend each year on applications and tags and what you want to hunt. For example, I plan to spend about $2500 per year on applications and tags (approximately half and half). These consist of applications and points purchases in about 11 states on average and 3-4 tags. I had 4 draw tags in 2018 and 3 in 2019.