Interesting question. I have a few friends I consider expert elk hunters. They have been doing it 30+years (me = 8 years). None of them carry binos, none use a bipod, they have no expensive hunting clothes, they sleep in the back of their truck or ghetto wall tents or bivy in the bc, and not one has ever been on an outfitted hunt. Big bulls, brush bulls, cows, they slay every year and fill the freezer. They hike a lot until they find elk and they have an innate sense for where the animals will be. They are mostly humble about it too. They have earned expert status in my book.