Here are things I picked out.
I read this all as a client who has an understanding that success can still be had, several years' worth, even with other hunters on the same property. Elk were run into every day, the client hunter didn't kill any, so that client's conclusion is that others must be to blame.
There's zero reason another hunter cannot be within eye sight.
There's zero reason an unremarkable group of elk cannot be hunted by someone who also paid to hunt them. "We might hunt them/there later", is an open door for someone else to say, "ok, I will hunt them now", because there's no reservation system.
It sounds more like the guide was unsure of how to kill animals and it looks better when the clients are holding the optimism of seeing animals with, we will hunt them later" rather than it being demonstrated the lack in real skill and ensuing sadness. Plenty of animals, every day it seems, with no killing tells me they weren't run off and someone wanted killing rather than hunting.