Before you step foot on the land you need to be researching. Utilize Google Maps and your own memory to find an area suitable for hunting.
STAY AWAY FROM CIVILIZATION
PREPARE TO WALK A LOT
Keeping your body in shape in the off-season is important to get a good start. Plenty of hunters assume they can get back into it, and they would be wrong.
HUNT LATE SEASON (IF YOU CAN)
This combination of increased elk movement and decreasing pressure means you are more likely to come across one without surging deep into the backcountry.
KEEP UP YOUR CONFIDENCE
You need to have the confidence to move in when the bull you have been bugling suddenly locks up.
TAKE THE TIME TO SOAK IT ALL UP
Even if you are not taking a fancy hunting trip to a private ranch you can absorb the experience. Public land may be more crowded, but it is no less beautiful.