Robert Millage of Kamiah said he heard a nearby pack of wolves before dawn and waited until light to lure them with a hand call that sounded like a wounded coyote. The 80-pound female wolf quickly came within 25 yards of Millage before he shot her with his .243 rifle in the Lolo Zone in northern Idaho.

"I guess it was the luck of the draw," Millage said.

Idaho has sold about 10,000 wolf tags so far. Fish and Game officials reported little activity in the field Tuesday, but had no specific number of hunters.

One of those, archery hunter Jay Mize of Emmett, walked out of his tent shortly after sunrise to see a wolf harassing his horse at Bull Trout Lake in the Sawtooth Zone near Stanley. He walked back into his tent, put together his rifle and shot the wolf.

"He said he had bought a wolf tag but never planned to use it," said Jon Rachael, Idaho Department of Fish and Game wolf manager. "He was going to have it framed."

Millage said hunters were scarce in the Lolo Zone east of Kamiah. There weren't many in the Idaho City, Lowman and Sawtooth Valley areas in a hunt that remains under a cloud of uncertainty as a federal judge in Montana decides whether to close it.

Lynne Stone, director of the Boulder White Clouds Council and a pro-wolf activist, didn't see much hunting activity either, but that didn't allay her concerns.

"I just don't know how to deal with a state that doesn't realize wildlife has a purpose besides being shot," said Stone, who on Tuesday drove to the usual locations where she monitors wolf packs in and around Stanley.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Monday took under advisement a request by 13 environmental groups to stop the hunt while their lawsuit seeking to return wolves to the federal endangered species list is considered. Molloy said he would rule soon on the fate of wolves, which were delisted in May and put under states' control in Idaho and Montana.

Idaho set its limit at 220 wolves out of a population of an estimated 1,000. Montana, which plans to start its hunt Sept. 15, will allow 75 of about 500 wolves to be killed.

Hunters like Brett Woolley of Lower Stanley planned to wait until the wolf hides thicken in late October and November. He wants to learn how to call them.

Others chose not to wait.

"We thought we'd cruise around and see if we could see any wolves," said John Huddleston of Boise.

Huddleston, his son and another hunter drove to the Thorn Creek Butte Summit above the Middle Fork of the Boise River near Idaho City looking for wolves.

Warden Matt O'Connell, who checked their tags, found fresh wolf tracks and scat on roads in the area.

"You guys are in the right ballpark," O'Connell told them.

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The Statesman's Joe Jaszewski contributed to this story.