My personal opinion, and take it with a grain of salt because I know nothing of the management units you are talking about (don’t really know where they are exactly, actually, lol), but I would stick with what you have already scouted and actually know that elk is there because you saw/heard it. In all likelihood, if you were able to call them in before and the amount of pressure hasn’t changed since, the elk is still there, almost a certainly. They may now have cows and don’t really care about your calls for the time being. Could also be that your calls are not what they currently want to hear.
In my experience, and it’s only my personal experience, which isn’t that extensive, once they really start going and have cows around them, they aren’t going to move much. Obviously food and water. If both are within a short travel distance, however, they will stay in the thicket and do their thing all the way until it is done and over with.
Yes, I would head back to 344 and the worst thing that can happen is you will learn more about the territory and maybe about the animals as well. And believe me, I know exactly how it feels when you are there every day, numerous days in a row, and “nothing” happens.
Don’t give up. Do your thing. Ask on this forum, people are helpful more often than not. In the bush, arguably the hardest thing is locating a bull. You need to know the territory, so scouting is important. Also to note, in my mind, this time of year when you hit a new ground with no real direction, so do hundreds of other hunters and some/many of them know exactly where they are heading.
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