Larry,
Elkcrazy8 and Elknut1 have some great suggestions and they are worth following. One thing I might add going along with the same thing of what they are saying, is are you utilizing all of your time that is available to you in the field? A dedicated elk hunter wakes up very early. In my case, during bow season I get up anywhere from 2:30 to 4:30 depending on how far I have to travel to get in postion of good hunting. I hunt every minute of daylight until it is too dark to shoot. And then, and only then do I start heading back to camp. Now, that usually means that I'm not back in camp until 10:00 pm to midnight or so. Which means that sleep is a scarce commodity. But it's a small price to pay when you have a succesful hunt. One of my favorite strategies is to call and locate the elk in the dark and then I can work with the wind to close the distance to the elk. I know that you rifle hunt, but this strategy can work in that situation as well. I hope this helps and that we'll be seeing pics of a succesful hunt in the future. If ya hang around here long enough and inform us about your scouting efforts in the spring and summer we can help with other issues as well. Good luck, Idahoelkinstructor