The two men practiced hard and soon became so skillful with mouth calls that most hunters couldn't tell their bugles from those of real elk. Wayne called in one party of hunters twice in the same day!
    The first day I hunted with Carlton last year, he called three bulls at once within 70 yards. Even when the wind changed, the elk hesitated to leave, evidently convinced that they were hearing a genuine elk. Carlton told me that was one of the very few times he'd been unable to call a responding bull within 30 yards.
    The next day he exchanged challenges for at least 45 minutes with an elk across a deep canyon half a mile away. Rarely did 10 seconds go by during that time when the bull didn't bugle. At one point, I went back for our horses while Wayne "talked" with the bull. When I was about 200 yards from Carlton , his bugles and those of the elk echoed off the mountains and sounded as though they were all coming from the same place. I had a hard time telling which bugle was which.
    Carlton, 39, has had amazing success at bugling elk. In the past four years he has been able to call an average of about three bulls within 30 yards for every two days of hunting. Unlike many hunters, he gets a greater thrill from fooling elk than from shooting them. He has allowed hunting partners to try for most of the bulls he has called in, and he has passed up many other bulls in hopes of luring a bigger one in later. Carlton might not be the first hunter to bugle with a turkey call, but if somebody else did it first, it certainly was kept a secret.
    Greg Pink also has done very well. In the past three archery seasons, he has bugled 36 bulls within bow range. That's quite a feat in Colorado, where hunting pressure is much greater than in some other states with elk herds.
    Last spring, a Montana hunter told Carlton that getting an elk to bugle in Montana is easy but calling the animal in close is next to impossible. Carlton taught the man how to use a diaphragm. The result? Last fall, that hunter called in 31 different bulls during the bow season. He missed every one, so I won't embarrass him by revealing his name.
    Last season, only two bowhunters who reside in a town in southern Idaho killed big elk. Both were using mouth calls. In Arizona, a bowhunter lured in 26 bulls with his diaphragm call. I think that's more than coincidence.
    Some elk hunters have told me it's not important to exactly mimic a bull's bugle. They say almost any bugle will work. These are the same hunters, however, who tell me they hear several bulls for every one they call in close. To be fair, I must say that all the different elk calls on the market have called in bulls. But Carlton 's experience indicates that a diaphragm call gives a hunter an extra edge because it can be made to sound almost exactly like an elk.
    A bull elk's challenging call normally consists of two parts. The first is the bugle or whistle. The sound begins with a noise similar to a cow's bawl and quickly changes to a high-pitched, almost musical tone.