My brother hung back and began bugling, non-aggressively. The bull fired back every time. The wind was in our face the whole time. After a few back and forth bugles, this bull gets up and starts walking away. I followed and my brother kept bugling and the bull kept answering. Once he was up the hill a short ways, he started glunking. At no time did I every see or hear any cows. I feel that if there were cows, I'd have seen them. This bull seemed to be solo.
I tried to sneak in closer to the bull but it just wasn't gonna happen. How do you deal with a bull like this and what was the glunking about with no cows around? We killed a 5x5 a few days before that was glunking as well and there was no indication that there were any cows.
Cow call is always best to try 1st IMO - but I am far from an expert.
It could have paid off well if your brother continued on in his Advertising approach through his bugling by mixing up his sounds in volume, length of bugle & intensity of bugle, also toss in light foot stomping, raking a tree/brush, this shows a bull feeling his oats as his testosterone levels are rising during these pre-rut times. No cow calling needed here!
There's a good chance the bedded bull was going to come to your brothers calling. It's common for bulls to hook around in a leisurely manner to check out the new kid on the block & possibly getting favorable wind on his approach. Not all bulls come in on a string especially during this type of encounter. But they do come in! (grin) It generally can take 15 minutes to 30 minutes of this creative bugling before a bull shows up, but odds are good either he will or possibly another unseen bull will show up.
Of course a good setup here is a huge concern, at no time as the bull approaches must he be able to see where the source of the bugling is coming from without it putting the shooter into bowrange, you need good cover. A bull will hang-up once he gets to a spot where he knows he should be seeing this other bull. Take that out of the equation & the bull will most likely stay in search mode coming closer & closer to the bugling, he generally does this in a silent fashion. We've taken many bulls with this early season Advertising approach & it can work for you!
As far as the Glunking goes are you positive it was Glunking & not Chuckling you were hearing? Odds are it was Chuckling, just asking! (grin)
ElkNut1
I heard two Bulls do this this year and I've never heard it before then.
You never really know how a bull will respond to calls. He might have just not been interested in a close up meeting. I always have more luck when, like elknut said, varying the bugles up a bit and also mixing in some cow and calf talk.
All the above is in the advantage of the bull. Im waiting, being quiet, and maybe re-positioning myself to make a move after he gets up and starts his evening patrol.
Put the situation in YOUR favor, not his.
At 0:15 in the video above, this is what I heard both bulls doing. When I heard it, I would guess that I was 80-100 yards away. It was fairly open and they were both above me with almost a direct line of sight, so maybe that's why I heard them at that distance??? One bull, we called in by cutting him off and bugling aggressively, no cow calls and we killed him.
Either way, thank you for the replies and the advice on how to maybe handle this situation in the future. We had zero luck when we cow called, seemed like bulls would move off in the other direction. However, we had a bit of success in getting close and screaming at bulls and cutting them off and raking trees. Called in several bulls this way, not all presented shots. It didn't always work either. Some bulls would respond to a locate and then once you moved in closer, they would never respond back or maybe once and be further away.
Tough critters to figure out sometimes it seems.
I would guess there were cows in the area as glunking is rarely heard outside of the presence of cows, this means seeing them, hearing them or just knowing they are nearby. It's a sign of dominance & strength. Sounds like you guys had a great hunt, congrats on the bull you did take! If only we could come up with a method where we could take them all! (grin)
ElkNut1
I've only heard glunking around the cows too. I'm gonna guess the cows were close by. He might have even been downwind of em a ways keeping tabs. Your bugling sent him over to check on them, maybe round em up and head em out....