Elk are where they are and do what they do. You can have them figured out and fill your tag for a decade, then they decide to do something different and you're stumped.
Elk hunting is NOTHING like deer hunting because of the sheer amount of ground an elk can and will travel at the drop of a hat. I've seen whitetails and Mule Deer travel 3-4Mi out on the open prairie before slowing down and finding a hiddey-hole. An elk will travel double or triple that distance daily for food and/or water let alone how far they'll go once pressured.
Sometimes they'll Houdini themselves right out from under your nose (happened to us on opening day this year), and other times you'd swear they have a death-wish. I killed a bull about 10-days ago @ 400yds even. The other 3 in the group stood around long enough for my buddy to kill his. The remaining 2 bulls went downhill, then back uphill and we could've killed them both @ 50yds. Fall of '18 my buddy shot a cow and when the shooting stopped an unseen 320"-330" bull stepped out of a drainage up onto a flat @ ~200yds and stood there "barking" at us, I'd filled my tag the day before so all we could do was giggle @ how dumb that bull was being.
