I was able to apend 4 days in the Paunsaugunt with my Dad, who drew after 14 years of apps. He had a great time, enjoying the weather, taking his time puttering about the lower areas of the unit, kinda concentrating on one particular area that he and I had been in on a prior hunt in 1990 and again in 1999. He didn't see lots of deer, but like bonehead said, if your hunting a migratory herd and hunting in an area they haven't yet migrated into, well, you're not going to see lots of deer other than the cagey resident bucks that are going to go into Plan B escape and hunker down mode as soon as they perceive a change in human activity.
I can say this, we never saw another hunter in the field, rifle in hand actually hunting. We saw folks riding around in pickups & zooming around on quads, but out in the bushes glassing, unh unh. We had a few different sets of folks stop and talk to us on our way back into our camp and the people we talked to weren't seeing any deer and kept repeating "the deer are all up high". Well, if they are all up high, why are you camping and hunting down low? Who knows?
The old man killed a 182 B&C 4X4 buck after a week of hunting. He took what God offered and I'm dang glad for him! Sorry the other pop mentioned didn't tag a buck but that's hunting isn't it?
As for whether or not the Pauns is a premiunm unit, I have to say yes it is. No one can dispute that the unit has the potential to produce bucks as big as muley bucks get anywhere. When you couple that with the vast chunk of varied country that makes up the unit, most of which is public/state/BLM lands, and then factor in that you don't have to see a hunter if you don't want to, well, that makes it a premium hunt to me. I'll keep applying and hope my growing pile of bonus points gets me a hunt in the 3-5 year timeframe bonehead predicted would be exceptional hunting.