Interesting discussion, from many perspectives.
I am lucky to go on 5-8 public land elk hunts each season, covering many different states, situations, and seasonal periods of an elk's life. We have five days to show up at these new locations, figure out what the elk are doing, and with some luck, get a few encounters on camera.
I'm not an expert by any means, but in years of conducting a lot of failed public land elk hunting experiments, I have taught myself a few principles to follow.
Colorado OTC units are one of our hunts most seasons. I always hunt 3rd season, as pressure from the 2nd season has bull elk on public land concentrated into even tighter areas. I show up on Sunday and hunting Mon-Fri, as the prior weekend pressure has bulls even more concentrated in sanctuary areas.
I hunt an area where locals have asked, "Why do you hunt that unit with all those other hunters?" Yeah, there are plenty of people. But, there are plenty of elk. Same with the general public land units I hunt in Montana, or the late season units I apply for in Arizona.
I see the same "too many hunters" issue on public land hunts in all states we hunt. Only those hunts with extremely limited tag numbers will allow you to have the public lands all to yourself. Reality is, you will be lucky to draw a tag like that every 20 years.
Just because I see other hunters doesn't mean I won't see elk. If I see/smell/hear "motors," odds of me seeing elk go way down, no matter what season or state I am hunting.
The biggest reason people don't find public land elk is that they don't take the time to study what elk have as their primary need in the season they are hunting. Identify the primary need of the elk for the time you are in the woods and that will tell you where to find the elk.
In CO, 2nd and 3rd seasons are during the post-rut and late seasons. Public land bulls are in "security and survival" mode at that time. They are not looking for food. They will scrounge on what little food can be found near their sanctuaries, until such time hunting season passes. I am struck by how many people I see hunting food sources during post-rut and late season hunts on highly pressured public lands. They see cows and calves, maybe a few 1.5-2.5 year-old bulls, but no mature bulls. Mature bulls have figured out that such locations are good places to get killed. Those that did not figure it out occupy someone's wall/freezer.
I see a lot of people walking around the hills, with no real plan of where the elk will be. By the time late October and November roll around, pressure has concentrated mature bull elk in very select areas. The landscape is vast and mature bulls are using only a very small portion of the landscape in post-rut and late season. I don't have time to walk around randomly or sit in one of dozens of meadows in hopes of an elk coming by. With limited time, I need to go to the sanctuary locations these educated bull elk have been using for years and increase my odds of finding a bull and getting a shot.
In all the hunts we do, we follow this principle; not because we are elk masters, rather we are busy and under some pressure, with my simple mind requiring us to simplify the process of finding public land elk as much as possible. Our planning goes like this -
To kill a mature public land bull, you have to find a mature public land bull; to find him, you have to know his needs in the season you are hunting. To increase your odds, hunt where elk can satisfy that highest priority need.
We did this video about finding elk in the late season. Since it is under seven minutes long, we had to leave out a lot of pieces, but hopefully it gives enough to help people who are new to the public land elk hunting gig.
https://youtu.be/K6Iy0lVJRMA?list=PLLdxutimd-JucEFczP4LgCS75Lt7caIMm
