I was unsuccessful too on my elk hunt in Washington as far as pulling the trigger. The hunt on the other hand was great. Good food, and friends, lots of exercise. I hunted every one of the 9 days we get here in Wa. I'll be going again next year. I saw 8 cows total,7 of them were on the last day in the last couple of hours of the season. Kept me going till the very end. The slowest year I've ever seen in the area I've been hunting.
I did get a nice 4 point wt, shot some roosters, chukar, grouse, quail, and one coyote so far this year. I still look at elk hunting as one of my favorite hunts of the year even though it been around 8 years since I brought one home. Some might say that makes me a bad elk hunter. I sure had a good time huntin um.
Good luck on your next trip! Dave

Have been to Wyoming twice. Once with cow tags and once with "anything tags."

Came home skunked both times.

First time my buddy and I had one of those "failure to communicate" moments ... he yelled "DEER!!!" from the bottom of a gorge as I was on my ass taking a breather with the rifle on the ground. Up the line of pine trees to my left comes a huge Elk cow that stops 35 yards from me and looks at me just long enough to rub it in and then blasts off to the high country. Took a few minutes to be able to laugh about it ... but has been fun for several years since.

We looked at two more Elk that trip at less than 100 yards ... but never could see their heads.

We got to see a strange case of species/sexual orientation confusion in which a young bull elk was "pal"ing agound with an old bull moose.

On these trips we also shot grouse for the pot ... with a sling shot!

Given the draught the last years and the odd weather patterns unguided Elk hunts are "if"fy. Have never been so tired ... have seldom seen so much beautiful country ... absolutely cannot consider the trips to have been failures!

Want very much to go again. Will throw my hat into the lottery for next year to see what happens.

I'm empty handed this year as well!

I hunted in Idaho with my friend of 20 years and although the weather wasn't nice it didn't hurt us either. We backpack into areas that don't get a lot of pressure so when I passed up several smaller bucks a day the first few days out it was of no big concern. I chased around the biggest bull elk I've ever seen during rifle season but didn't get a shot. I passed up a shot at a smaller 5x5 not because I would miss but because I questioned the performance of my rifle on it at that distance. ( .25-06 @ close to 370 yards)

Even though I still hold my tags I enjoyed most of the hunt, saw one of the most beutiful bulls ever, and got to spend time camping with an old friend. The weather was bad enough to cause some considerations as far as safety and such but really wasn't terrible.

My complaint was with people riding motorcycles in areas they weren't supposed to be. It makes others that use the bikes properly, get the same evil eye as the slobs! I am one of those others, and don't like the poor sentiment being aimed at me.

If you spent time enjoying yourself in the outdoors and came home a happier and more peacefull human then it was a great success! Nate