Looking back I’ve hunted elk over thirty years and have taken eleven bulls and two cows. About one animal for every two and a half hunts or so. Two were unguided hunts, the rest guided to various degrees.
Being from the Midwest and still working, I was limited to a block of time, usually 5-8 days picked from the calendar, sandwiched between travel times. All my hunts were in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado.
Obviously, the majority were unsuccessful in not harvesting an animal, but non were failures, and almost all were a grand time.
Guides ranged from a college kid from Tennessee (who probably had never seen a live elk) to very good and knowledgeable older guys who had no quit in them. There was one outfitter-guide that was downright unfriendly, and another who occasionally forgot who was footing the bill. The hunter that came in and began an eight hour pack into a wilderness area on horseback wearing his tennis shoes was the recipient of a few pointed comments from the latter.
Camps ranged from a very Spartan sleeping bag on dirt and freeze dried food to very, very comfortable and almost slavish meals. Country was wilderness with eight-hour packs in to a couple miles off the trail head in forest service country; from pristine beauty to cattle drives through the middle of the hunting area.
Ah, horses. Among which, I had a leg-biter, a stream-jumper, awannabe rodeo bronco, and then a white mountain of a Belgium Draft that half scared me to death as he was unloaded from the trailer. I don’t know, but maybe 17 hands high, 1700 lbs? He fell on an iced surface once throwing me off to the side, but he was the most tractable, gentle beast I ever climbed up on — a 1700 lb white lab. The downright smoothest, surest 4x4 ride though goes to a very large mule in Colorado. Of course 1st low was the only gear available.
Terrain varied from mostly gently timber and meadows to switchback trails on slopes you began to fear every day. And about which you prayed in the dark.
We hunted in from too hot weather to too cold, from too dry to too wet with rain, but more often snow. Late season hunts were more often snow which could really help; or if it had melted, then refroze a couple times, was an extreme detriment as walking anywhere was crunchy loud.
Good gear is never a mistake. Inexpensive gear can cost a lot.
As to armament, I took nine bulls with a semi-custom 340 Wby, one with a 30/06, and one with a 284 Win. The two cows were taken with a 45/70 and a 45 Colt.
Interestingly, contrary to the experience of many here, with the exception of the two cows and two bulls — taken at 100 yards or in — nine of my bulls were taken at from 400 to 500 yards. And these were without means or time to get closer.
Long way of saying each hunt is different, sometimes very different, aside from being guided or a DIY type hunt.
As BKinSD said, get a plan, and start “going to school”.
