I'm not a big fan of naming units (for obvious reasons) but there are too many NRs that put in for tags based on internet advise, success rates or drawing odds only to find out later they should have used those points elsewhere. If you look at 41 on a topo map you'll see it's part of western face of the Bighorns, and the face is fairly steep. The only access road (FS 17) is at the bottom of the NF, there's about a mile of public land below which is wide open for the most part, so all the elk habitat is up slope. In most areas along FS 17 it's less than mile to the wilderness boundary (some places much less), so the only NR hunting areas are close to the access. There's really no backpacking hunting opportunities for NRs in 41 as you’ll always be in reach of road campers. Most of the residents hunt just off the road as they do everywhere else, and with only 1 access road it gets crowded. Camping sites along FS 17 are hard to find even during the early bow season.
The OP was asking if 41 was worth the points. There are other nearby units that have more access and more non-wilderness hunting areas and even backpacking opportunities so depending on how soon you need to burn those points it might be worth it to look at them more closely, or perhaps get another point or two for the more popular units. There’s a reason why they require more points for a NR to get. Points are valuable so taking a chance on an area with limited options for access will only mean waiting even longer for an area you wish you had applied for. And yes I’ve hunted 41 in addition to 45, 38, 37, 50 and 51 but I have friends in WY so I can hunt the wilderness areas but only when they can hunt them too, so resident drawing odds are more important to me since w/o a PP system they never know when they will draw a tag.
