and was struck by the similarity in the sounds elk make to those he could produce on his diaphragm turkey calls, particularly the kee-kee run. With a bit of experimenting, he soon found himself making plasible imitations of the bugles, and also the grunts or chuckles bull elk make. That fall, he put his newfound skills to work and succeeded in calling in several enormous bulls on hard-hunted public land. With con­tinued practice, Carlton has learned to recreate virtually the entire lan­guage elk use to communicate and has put those talents to work luring in bulls—sometimes as close as six yards. As word of Carlton's success in calling bulls spread, he began marketing the first diaphragm elk calls sold commercially and has gradually expanded the business to include a complete line of elk-and deer-hunting accessories.
    His latest version of the elk call has the thin latex reed set in a flexible, camouflage-covered plastic tube at just the right angle (determined through dental X rays) so that virtually anyone can produce a realistic elk bugle with minimal practice. This call, the Bull Getter, was the one Carlton used to pinpoint the elk in the deep, black canyon on the fourth day of our Colorado hunt. But locating the bull was the easy part. Now came the challenge—getting to that elk.
    Wayne bugled several more times to try to pinpoint the bull's location exactly. To our delight, we soon realized that he was moving toward us in response to the calls. From nearly a mile away, the bull had moved to within 500 yards of us. Unfortunately, that 500 yards was nearly straight down over icy rocks and snow-covered blowdowns. To avoid being seen, we had to circle north, then pick our way down a series of sharp ledges. The going was tough, but the most depressing part was that once we got halfway down the canyon, the bull clammed up!