When we have either sex tags, my hunting buddy and I alternate days of what we will shoot. I.e. day 1 I am the cow shooter and he is the bull shooter, and then we alternate the following days. Takes some of the guess work out of it.
September rifle tag is a good one. Give the local CPW office a call. The steamboat office gave me some good locations to check out. I doubt they would have given me the same level of info if I was asking for elk spots though.
Crossing any creeks with high willows in GMU 14 is always a little nerve wracking with the amount of moose there. I was more afraid of running into a moose than even the mama bear and cub I saw when I was bear hunting in that GMU last september.
To add on to point 1 I would have multiple places to “check out” from e-scouting. More spots then you think you will actually go to. Prioritize them and then start checking them off.
My critieria for selecting a GMU. 1. Lots of public land (i.e. national forest) 2. Elevation change within the GMU (10K' to 7K'). No matter the hunting season or weather (hot, cold, snow, dry) the elk will be somewhere in the GMU since there is a good amount of elevation change. 3. Forest...
"If you don't see any, keep moving." Nailed it. Many guys will hunt the exact same spot because one year in the past they saw one there or killed one there. Every year is different, keep moving to find where they currently are.