I've had 4 elk tags in the last 3 years and shot 3 bulls. 2 out of 3 on a Wyoming general tag.
2008 Wyoming Bull - shot him at 8:30 opening morning.
2009. Struck out on my Wyoming general tag. Had a chance at a nice bull opening morning, but my friends son shot at him before I thought he should have and missed him.
2010 Wyoming Bull. Shot him at 9:00 on opening morning.
2010 New Mexico Bull. Shot him at 10:00 second morning.
I've hunted several more days trying to help my friends get their tag filled as well.
In 2008 we ended up filling 2 out of 3 tags. In 2009 we went 0 for 3. In 2010 we went 2 for 2 on Wyoming general tags and I went 1 for 1 on my New Mexico tag.
That puts my group at 5 out of 9 over the last 3 years for a 55.6% success rate.
We typically try to be out there where we want to be at least 1 hour before sunrise. Sometimes that means leaving camp at 3:30 in the morning. On most of our successful hunts being in the right place before the sun comes up has been critical. 4 out of the 5 elk taken by our group were taken by 10:00 am.
You can never stress enough that to be successful you need to be where the elk are. I've been lots of places that look like there should be elk there, but if they aren't there you are just wasting your time. They might have been there a few weeks ago and they might come back in a few weeks, but you need to be where they are now.
It never hurts to draw a good tag either! I passed on several bulls I would have shot with my Wyoming general tag on my New Mexico hunt before shooting that one on the 2nd day. I probably could have shot an even bigger bull, but I couldn't pass on that one.
Elk hunting is for sure an addiction!