LAST EDITED ON Sep-12-11 AT 05:21PM (MST)[p]I've never tried it with muleys but I've talked to a few older guys who say that it only works if you've got a pretty high concentration of bucks in an area. With just a few bucks in an area, it seems that the bucks just take their does elsewhere rather than fight. However, if there are alot of bucks in an area, moving the harem would not do much good since the buck probably just run into another buck and have to fight anyway so it pays off to win the fight so you can keep your territory and harem. Seems to make sense.
I've seen that behavior with elk. Last year, a buddy and I were trying to nail a big bull in an area with him (monster 7-pt) and then just a bunch of raghorns and 5-pts. Everytime we bugled, broke branches, etc, he would just take his cows out of the area. He answered us, he was worked up and everything but he knew he could just move his girls without having to fight. We tried sounding like a big bull, a small bull, a bull with cows, everthing, he just didn't want a fight. He had about 40 cows and he was content to just keep them. We chased him all season and he never came in. Most of the small bulls were willing to come in though.
Big muleys may act similar.