Free: Contests & Raffles.
Elk can be wanderers especially cows & calves, there's nothing preventing them to come to close to your camp & taking the whole group with them! I would feel more comfortable at being a 1/4 mile away or more. No need to send them off vacating the area because I wanted to be close! I also would not restrict food wants because of being so close. You can still hear them over a 1/2 mile away so no real issues there. Keep a safe distance & you'll be much happier all the way around! ElkNut/Paul
Depends on how you define "close". Hopefully my map comes through so you can see how close they can be sometimes. It's a map of where a friend has an outfitter camp setup. The camp can have anywhere up to about 8 hunters, 3-4 guides, camp cook, and 10+ head of stock in the corral any given day in during the archery season on through till the end of the rifle season. I've personally sat on the wallow while hearing mules bray in the corral and had elk come into it. It's by no means a low profile camp and by my definition a 15-20 minute hike (you don't go straight up the canyon) definitely qualifies as close. I know a few other spots I can do the exact same thing, have a nice camp and be into elk within 15 minutes of easy walking at any given point during the season.
Camp will be around a mile from where we're really going to start hunting.