Muzzle, I hunted 43 in 2004 3rd seaon. There is a large amount of wilderness but there is still planty of land in the national forrest you can access by truck or 4 wheeler. We had alot of snow and extremly cold weather that year(even the hondas didnt want to turn over) so we found the game had left the high country for the most part. We moved down to some blm and killed a large cow and a 325" bull within 12 hours of each other. Talking to other hunters we were surorised at how many people had killed there bulls and we saw several other cows on the blm. I would go 2nd season myself and hunt higher where a guy has a little more land to roam as I'm sure on a normal year the elk will be in the national forrest vs. the blm. Great elk unit in my opinion, good luck on your hunt.