<\/a><\/p>\n I have mentored a number of first time bowhunters in the past years and one of the top questions they ask is, \u201cHow do you close the gap on Roosevelt herd bulls when they won\u2019t come in and you can\u2019t stalk in close enough for a good shot?\u201d<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t a single answer to that question because every situation is different but I can share one approach I like to employ on herd bulls that either don\u2019t come in, or come in but \u201chang up\u201d.\u00a0 This has worked on several occasions when all other options of closing the gap seemed futile.\u00a0 Also, I typically use this when hunting by myself or mentoring a new bowhunter, and I think it works best here in the Pacific Northwest where there is often times thick vegetation cover to break up your profile.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s set this up – you are bugling to a Roosevelt herd bull and he responds to your every bugle as if you dated his ex-girlfriend without his permission.\u00a0 But all he does is circle his cows and come to the edge of his herd to bugle back at you.\u00a0 Nothing seems to get him to break that invisible force field around his cows.\u00a0 The cover appears to be too sparse to make a successful stalk on the bull and this bull isn\u2019t moving from this spot, anchored by his cows.<\/p>\n What do you do? Most of the first time bowhunters I mentor look at me with discouragement and ask, \u201cWhat do we do now?\u201d\u00a0 I can tell they are already mentally out of the game and that they are thinking this is the impossible mission.\u00a0 I disagree.\u00a0 I have this bull right where I want him!<\/p>\n If you think about it, he feels safe, he isn\u2019t moving away, and he is bugling back at your every call, as if to suggest that you\u2019re going to be the next hunter hanging on his wall of shame!\u00a0 What I like to do is start in on a bugling sequence ramping it up to the point where me and every animal in the country can feel the energy of this back and forth \u201cbugle off\u201d.\u00a0 Then the moment I get to the peak of my \u201cbugle off\u201d I take off moving in from downwind in the direction, hunched over going as fast as I can keeping as many trees, bushes or whatever between me and the bull.\u00a0 I like to plan a route from downwind that I can move in quickly (running sometimes and not worrying about breaking branches or making natural sounds of moving elk) to get within shooting range of the exact spot the bull seems to consistently come back to as we bugle back and forth.<\/p>\n