Naa. It does reduce my draw odds cgas but it’s more than that. It’s about right and wrong. All the WY residents know that this law is not right but just don’t care because it benefits them. Apparently the outfitters are a powerful force in that state that can’t stand on their own without a handout. It probably didn’t take much, latching on to a couple of state reps. Politicians are really just lawyers. Need I say more.
WY residents keep mentioning that you can get around the law by going hunting with a Wyoming resident or move to the state all together. Well I don’t know one single person in Wyoming and after starting this topic I don’t see them lining up to accompany me, nor am I able to uproot my family and move to that great state. It’s just not in the cards.
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Time to break this down...lets just say you wanted to hunt a designated wilderness in Wyoming. That leaves you with 2 options, either a general tag unit with designated wilderness or a LQ unit with designated wilderness.
The general tag hunting in designated wilderness isn't, IMO, a whole lot, if any, better than most of the areas you can hunt outside the wilderness. In some cases, think thorofare, the hunting probably is more crowded and the competition you'd have from all the outfitters would be off the charts. The average DIY guy in there is really at a huge disadvantage. The outfitters take the best camp locations, they run a shitload of hunters through their camps, they have fresh horses to ride every day, they have cooks, wranglers, etc. All the client and guides have to do is hunt. Assuming you have stock, you're going to have a tough time finding a place to even set your camp, you don't have a wrangler, a cook, a guy to haul meat back to the trailhead, etc. etc.
IMO/E, you're much better off and will see fewer people and have the same, if not better chance at a quality bull in a general unit hunting areas that ARE NOT in designated wilderness. Most of those areas have wayyyyy fewer outfitters and people with stock don't hunt those areas as hard either. A vast majority of the foot soldier elk hunters, wont go much more than a mile or two.
Your next option is to draw a LQ tag for the areas you mentioned in Park and Teton counties within designated wilderness. For starters, your 5 points aren't buying you a thing for those late tags, most are max point tags. Next, you're still going to have competition from the outfitters and you had best have some damn good stock to get you to the best bulls. The bulls in those areas are hard to reach for a foot soldier, the roads getting to Wyoming are going to be real fun pulling a horse trailer, etc. Major pain in the ass all the way around, but no doubt some quality bulls to be had, maybe the best in the State.
I would argue that if your odds are dog crap of drawing the LQ late wilderness hunts, you may as well be applying for the same type of quality outside the wilderness that could offer the same type of bull with a lot less hassle.
I've shot a fair number of bulls in both, and without access to good, and I mean damn good mountain horses, I wouldn't bother with the late hunts in the NW corner of the State. For the average guy, you're better off hunting the non-wilderness LQ tags since your odds, and points required to draw, are likely no worse or in some cases better. The bull quality is probably also pretty similar if you're willing to put the time in and not shoot anything but the top end bulls.
The difference in quality between wilderness and non-wilderness for either LQ or General tags, IMO, isn't worth the amount of extra effort unless you have access to very good horses and mules and enjoy competing with every outfitter in the area.
My 2 cents...
