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.
This is a good post.
It seems to me that you may have had some unrealistic expectations that your outfitter did not disabuse you of, Redman. And he had a financial incentive not to. Like others have said, a nearly guaranteed bull hunt would run at least double what you paid, at least here in MT, even with the "covid" going on.
In another thread, I mentioned my cousin who runs what amounts to a bull-shooting business. He makes good money. The reason isn't because so many guys think it's great to shoot what amounts to a bull in a corral. The reason why is because bull elk are often quite difficult to find, and even harder to get a shot at. They don't like to be hunted and killed, and they can get into and out of places that people can't, in conditions that keep most guys from wanting to go out.
Elk hunting is a life-risking endeavor. I have nearly died on one elk hunt, due to a storm that moved in on us while we were trying to get one out. Another time I got to the top of a mountain when it was about -25 F, sat down to rest, got hypothermic, and nearly had to be drug off the mountain when I started to go into shock. All of the toes on my right foot are frost-bitten, and I can't feel most of them. That's all elk hunting.
What you had was a guided hiking expedition.
