I don't know if we are doing it right or not. But we do bust a sweat trying. ;-)
We seemed to do better until the last five years. Used to run over 50% kill ratio with DIY backpacking, but had a slump lately. Seems like the honey holes we used to hunt have dried up. It's like you said; people start to creep in on you when they see you are having success. Its no secret where you are generally hunting when people see you headed out and then they see you humping meat back to the truck. That, and the elk herds seem to vacate certain areas. Colorado started issuing either sex rifle tags for the unit we hunted in Colorado back in the early 2000's and that put gobs of pressure on the animals. So we left colorado and went further north and west. Did good, but now those areas are getting lots of pressure too.
Either way, its still the highlight of the year.
As to the original question, cow or bull. You're already dropping the cash for tag, fuel & food, plus burning vacation so I'm of the mindset to go for bull with the realization that if I don't tag out I'm still happy because after you bust ass, that first Amstel light you drink after you get back to the truck will taste all the better. It's about the experience, not the meat.
