James writes, "I had been hunting the mountains in Central Idaho for about four days without seeing any elk. We were elk hunting near the beginning of October and had set-up a spike camp at about 8000 feet. We could bugle off the back side of our spike camp and get bugles back all night long from down in the valley at around 6000 feet.
On the sixth day of our hunt we decided to set-up a second spike camp down on the river bottom near the location of the night time bugles. As we were walking down the trail we would periodically give out a cow call and see what we would attract.
After walking for about and hour and a half we gave a cow call as we were walking down the trail and I heard a low bugle in return. I ran up and tapped my partner on the shoulder and we took cover. We checked the wind and it appeared to be in our favor. We could just barely make out a large bull or two about 200 yards up the hill from us.
We gave a couple of soft cow calls and one of the big guys came up to within 170 yards. When he was in a small clearing large enough for a clean kill. I leveled the .270 Winchester just behind the shoulder and put him down with one shot".