I drew a tag, and don't want to waste it (49 Colorado)

[Fulldraw]

O.K, I need help. I have been on 8or 9 elk hunts, and have been lucky enough to shoot one VERY SMALL rag horn, and one cow in an OTC unit. With that said, I suck at elk hunting, I hardly ever see elk, and have only heard a few elk bugle. My question is, what the heck am I not doing ( I know, very wide open)?

I have a decent tag this year, and would like some help making sure I don't waste it...anybody?

Thanks,

Danny

[Wapitibob]

Sounds like you're tagging out 25%. Those are pretty good odds for public land OTC hunting. You could assume that with a better area will come better odds so in the end, you may not be doing anything wrong: maybe just having too high of expectations. The guys that tag out every year spend a lot of time in their hunt areas and have things dialed.

[Fulldraw]

thanks for the feedback, i guess I really never looked at it that way...I'll hope this year warrants me a nice 260 or better bull.

Good luck this upcoming season.

[Wapitibob]

If you can make it over to the unit early August you could spend a long weekend hiking around looking for last years rubs and wallows. That will save you some time. I would also load up ArcGis explorer or Google earth and add a topo server so you get a lay of the land and can look for wallows from the air. ArcGis explorer desktop or Bing maps will give you the best sat images. Until you get to the area about all you can do is dissect it from home. One thing I learned a few years ago with a one time Utah tag is scout at least once before the season and make sure to get out in the brush. Don't just drive roads and get familiar with "locations". That was the mistake I made.
There are a cpl videos I did that will show you how to add topos to those two programs if that's of interest to you.
https://vimeo.com/user3024489/videos

Since you're in Colorado there should be some sites that are set up to provide info specific to that state for hunters. Google can probably find them.