Elk Strategy Help - Lots of Sign/No Calling, What's Your Approach?

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Sep 13, 2020
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I'm a second year (aspiring) elk hunter. Just finished hunting in Colorado, and I am hoping to get some insight from the more experienced members here.

Scenario - We were on public land (Wilderness Area). We found elk sign, and we could hear them bugling at night in fields within a few 100 yards of our spike camp. So we know we have elk in the general area. However, they were generally non-verbal during the day. Occasionally we'd get a bull that would crack off one bugle then go silent, but it was never enough to pin-point them and make a move. What are some tactics that you all have used to get an encounter in a scenario like this where you know they're around, but they aren't giving their position away?

Here are some things we tried with no success.....

We sat patiently in the evenings thinking maybe we'd catch them coming down a hillside where we suspected they were bedded, although looking back I think we needed to be much further up the hillside. We also tried to still hunt through the top third of north facing slopes once the wind stabilized while cow calling to see if we could get a bull to give away a location. Neither of these seemed too productive. We were hesitant to just blindly tromp through the woods for fear of blowing things out.

Look forward to the feedback....
 
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