I Colorado at least and in OTC units especially, you hunt elk by trying to figure out what they are doing because of the other hunters.
No expert here by any means as I have only been elk hunting once. However, my advisor(ie: a local hunter) for that hunt told me to get somewhere good and stay put. It was opening day and his reasoning was the locals would be out road hunting and would keep them stirred up. I would just have to wait for one to come by. He was right. On the second day, I killed a small 5X5.
He may not be the huge trophy anyone would dream of but, he was an elk and that was my goal on the first hunt.
By the way, he won me the pot for the biggest bull(only bull) killed in our camp. Everyone else had shots and a couple took cows with their General tag.
In conclusion, I say you are right. Figure out what everone else is doing and compensate for it.
