Heard one of my wardens call another on the radio, and mention that he'd heard of two six-point bulls that had been taken off her mountains.

A teasing way of pointing out "I know something you don't know... about your district."

Or pointing out that hunters are taking critters out of your country, and you don't even know it... but I do.

So I piped in about the two five-point bulls I had just checked through my station from his mountains. By hunters who had even commented on the fact that they had been camped up there for a week, and he had never been by.

(A slight exageration. They did comment that he hadn't been by, like he had the year before, but they were only there last weekend and this one, not the entire week. But why let him know?)

The intent being to get under his skin. And it worked.

Several hours later the second warden was at my station, checking to see if I had come across any enforcement cases before she headed into town, when my cell phone rang.

The first warden. Clear up on top of his mountains, looking for the camp of the elk killers in his district. Trying to see if the camp he had found is theirs.

We compare counties of license plates. Could be he's found the right camp. Can't be positive, though.

Seconds later he calls back again, confirming it. He found the hides of the two bulls in camp. Nothing else is accomplished, though, since the hunters are home by now, with their elk, and I already have the data we need. But his ego is satisfied.

'Course, the second warden and I are each just 15-20 minutes from home, at sunset.

And it'll take him at least an hour and a half to get back from where I goaded him into going.