Theres oodles of public land, and the elk can be found on it. That's not the problem. The problem is that there are about 100 elk total in the 448 unit. His statement about being a local is that you have to keep constant tabs on them to have any idea where they might be. There just are not enough of them to have any real chance at walking into the woods and finding them, even with good intel. Even the guys that do have somewhat of an idea where to find them hunt elsewhere.
I've hunted many areas of 448 for 20+ years and I've laid eyes on exactly 1 elk.