yep. That was my first elk trip, Joey..I was a greenhorn. Put in for a public land tag, got drawn, and went to their camp in the Gila.
We hunted the 16's if you know where that is, out of Apache Creek, NM.
That area still has some great bulls, but they increased the tags and give landowners in the area lots of depredation permits to shoot elk in their alfalfa -they leave them lay!!!
I would use someone else if I was going today given the recent issues with USO. However, I think those were more related to their private land operations in other areas...rather than public land hunting situations.
The folks I was with were all very fair chase and doin' it the hard way oriented. They actually were contracted guys..free lancers...and not USO employees.. they seemed to look down their nose at the USO staff working on private land.
I have no personal knowledge about that as I only hunted public ground.