Don't give up. The diaphragm was hard for me to get the hang of too. You don't really need to trim them unless you really have an atypical mouth shape. The call goes farther forward in your mouth than you might think and does not take much air. I finally got it by trying to make turkey sounds...
Here is the crux of your problem, you tried to stalk an ELK!!! If it can go wrong, it will go wrong with an elk. Whitetail hunters will tell you that that whiteys are the smartest and toughest to hunt animals on the planet. Good advice, but those people have never gone head to head with an...
Southern Elk,
Lots of good advice on this thread. Pay attention to what farbedo said about extra parts to have on hand. You should for sure fit test the chains on your tires before hand. Get them dialed in, but leave enough slack (extra links) for putting them on in a bad and snowy spot. The...