JJHACK
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2014
There are frequent posts on many websites that discuss the minutia of quality and optical perfection. There are those that feel one of the big three are the only way to go, ......and some that feel that the big three ( or 4) are only a status symbol for the elite.
I guess in my life I have been in both camps. I have owned and used a number of binoculars in my life. In the early 80's was definitely in the camp of what could $1200 glasses possibly offer me that my 150.00 redfields did not? During those years I had better then 20/15 vision. I was working as a guide in Alaska primarily for bears and goats. I had many clients with the high end " alpha" glasses that I would frequently look through to compare.
I would find myself looking through the clients glasses to verify the tips of horns, or the quality of a hides. I was also embarrassed a few times with clients sharp comments that in my line of work I should not be using "junk" to judge their trophies. At my youthful age, and their level of wealth and status, many of these wealthy guys could be kinda rude, and domineering. Of course I could have led them out and left them to die, but I would just just keep quite and do my best for a good tip.
Some of the guides left their gear in camp between hunts or when there was a gap between clients. I would usually borrow their Zeiss 10X40B glasses which were the " professional choice" back in the day. They were however far in excess of my pay grade at the time.
Years past, with the purchase of another 1/2 dozen mid priced glasses for me. Fogging up was a constant issue with most of those. While the Zeiss glasses the other guides had 10 years earlier were still in use with no problems. I guess I realized at that point that had I managed to get those when I started I would have been money ahead, and not have to be embarrassed with my clients. There is after all a lot of difference between using glasses casually during the year, and maybe a few hunting weeks. Compared to using them 90-100 days in a row every year in harsh wet salty environments with drastic elevations changes in non-presurized supercubs.
So is there a benefit to the high end glass? That's up to the individual, not for me to say. I have learned over a lot of years that they are a benefit to me. They are cheaper when you buy them early in your life. They may be the one thing that outlasts everything else you have. My Leica Trinovids are very old now. I can't think of another item I use today that I still have from that far back. Rifles, sure, but beyond that nothing else comes to mind.
The value that quality glasses retain allows most folks to trade up when the new glass, coatings, and designs come out. I see all the time that the same model glasses I have now, are selling in the classifieds for darn close to what I paid for them. Still half of the cost of the best, but it's a big head start to trade up!
Having said this, there is a bigger problem that by far trumps quality. It's user education. I often wondered why myself and the other PH's spot game so easily while many of the visiting hunters seem to struggle. I reckoned it was just lack of experience on these African species. The colors and shapes are not the same as deer and elk. Probably the big time change of the weary travelers too! However I realized it was typically the same in Alaska with White Goats and Black Bears. Sometimes in barron habitats. Not to mention I had those old Redfields and the clients were packing Zeiss and Swarovski most of the time. I was nearly always seeing game before my clients that were using the expensive glasses. However once found, I really could use their more expensive glasses to better judge what I was looking at.
Just because you have 10X alpha glass quality, does not mean the game stands out there and waves a red flag of surrender. By far the vast majority of guys glassing do not see the animals unless they are moving, or wide open. I think there is a bigger issue with the education or patience of glassing, then the quality of glasses. It's like putting a normal guy in a Formula one car, and a formula one driver in a Mustang. My money is on the F1 driver in the mustang every time! The best tools won't help if you aren't using them properly. How hard can it be? Binoculars just magnify what you're looking at.
So whats proper or skilled glassing? Good question!
Much depends on the habitat and the species. For starters, getting to a ridge top and scanning the basin, or meadow that lay before you for a minute is not likely to produce good results very often. I look for a comfortable place to sit with a clear view of what is before me. Then put my elbows on my knees to hold them steady. Usually I will glass right in front of me first, nothing worse then having the " Gimmie" shot bolt and run spooking everything else in the area. Then I do the perimeter to see what is closest to getting out of sight first. Then grid the interior area and look at it all. Not for an animal, but a part of an animal. Not with a 100 yard sweep in a second, but a careful slow scan of the habitat, the shadows, the areas that will be out of the wind, the ledges that provide an overlook.
If you have ever stumbled upon a bedding area of Deer and Elk you will see they like the edges of long grass on a slope that keeps them out of the wind and allows a wide view of the area below them. Not always but this is typical. Learn to glass the areas they are most likely to be laying. Anyone will spot moving game, it takes a very patient hunter with good glass to pick out the tip of ears, antlers, and horns at a distance.
There is a lot more then this to learn. However the best glasses on earth don't do much good for the casual scanner who is in a race to "stumble upon" game while racing across the countryside. Binoculars do not work like a vacuum to suck in the animals from wherever they are pointed. I'm in no position to criticize or point a finger on this topic. I was 25 at one time and felt the greater area covered increased my odds. I wonder how many massive giants A glassed over and left sleeping where they were.
I have a 12 year old son. When we are hunting he will blow across a canyon in 2 minutes with his glasses and be ready to move. I'll sit for 10 minutes while he is fidgeting and staring across the area with his naked eyes. Then I will ask him how many deer he saw. ...... Nothing. I will tell him there are 4 does and fork horn within 500 yards.
WHERE?
I tell him to grid the area and go slow, often in 2-3 minutes he will see them and say, Wow papa they blend in so good!
Yeah, you are a very impatient young guy, you need to slow down and look! This happens with many adults I hunt with the same way.
Over the last several trips out in the bush with my son, He is becoming quite a bit better. He will anxiously try to find something before I do. He is now visually mining into the bush looking for anything he can see. (I've kind of screwed myself up with this. He now wants better glasses!)It's a big difference when you have just a little patience and think about what you're looking for. It's not a whole animal standing broadside in a parking lot!
_________________________
I guess in my life I have been in both camps. I have owned and used a number of binoculars in my life. In the early 80's was definitely in the camp of what could $1200 glasses possibly offer me that my 150.00 redfields did not? During those years I had better then 20/15 vision. I was working as a guide in Alaska primarily for bears and goats. I had many clients with the high end " alpha" glasses that I would frequently look through to compare.
I would find myself looking through the clients glasses to verify the tips of horns, or the quality of a hides. I was also embarrassed a few times with clients sharp comments that in my line of work I should not be using "junk" to judge their trophies. At my youthful age, and their level of wealth and status, many of these wealthy guys could be kinda rude, and domineering. Of course I could have led them out and left them to die, but I would just just keep quite and do my best for a good tip.
Some of the guides left their gear in camp between hunts or when there was a gap between clients. I would usually borrow their Zeiss 10X40B glasses which were the " professional choice" back in the day. They were however far in excess of my pay grade at the time.
Years past, with the purchase of another 1/2 dozen mid priced glasses for me. Fogging up was a constant issue with most of those. While the Zeiss glasses the other guides had 10 years earlier were still in use with no problems. I guess I realized at that point that had I managed to get those when I started I would have been money ahead, and not have to be embarrassed with my clients. There is after all a lot of difference between using glasses casually during the year, and maybe a few hunting weeks. Compared to using them 90-100 days in a row every year in harsh wet salty environments with drastic elevations changes in non-presurized supercubs.
So is there a benefit to the high end glass? That's up to the individual, not for me to say. I have learned over a lot of years that they are a benefit to me. They are cheaper when you buy them early in your life. They may be the one thing that outlasts everything else you have. My Leica Trinovids are very old now. I can't think of another item I use today that I still have from that far back. Rifles, sure, but beyond that nothing else comes to mind.
The value that quality glasses retain allows most folks to trade up when the new glass, coatings, and designs come out. I see all the time that the same model glasses I have now, are selling in the classifieds for darn close to what I paid for them. Still half of the cost of the best, but it's a big head start to trade up!
Having said this, there is a bigger problem that by far trumps quality. It's user education. I often wondered why myself and the other PH's spot game so easily while many of the visiting hunters seem to struggle. I reckoned it was just lack of experience on these African species. The colors and shapes are not the same as deer and elk. Probably the big time change of the weary travelers too! However I realized it was typically the same in Alaska with White Goats and Black Bears. Sometimes in barron habitats. Not to mention I had those old Redfields and the clients were packing Zeiss and Swarovski most of the time. I was nearly always seeing game before my clients that were using the expensive glasses. However once found, I really could use their more expensive glasses to better judge what I was looking at.
Just because you have 10X alpha glass quality, does not mean the game stands out there and waves a red flag of surrender. By far the vast majority of guys glassing do not see the animals unless they are moving, or wide open. I think there is a bigger issue with the education or patience of glassing, then the quality of glasses. It's like putting a normal guy in a Formula one car, and a formula one driver in a Mustang. My money is on the F1 driver in the mustang every time! The best tools won't help if you aren't using them properly. How hard can it be? Binoculars just magnify what you're looking at.
So whats proper or skilled glassing? Good question!
Much depends on the habitat and the species. For starters, getting to a ridge top and scanning the basin, or meadow that lay before you for a minute is not likely to produce good results very often. I look for a comfortable place to sit with a clear view of what is before me. Then put my elbows on my knees to hold them steady. Usually I will glass right in front of me first, nothing worse then having the " Gimmie" shot bolt and run spooking everything else in the area. Then I do the perimeter to see what is closest to getting out of sight first. Then grid the interior area and look at it all. Not for an animal, but a part of an animal. Not with a 100 yard sweep in a second, but a careful slow scan of the habitat, the shadows, the areas that will be out of the wind, the ledges that provide an overlook.
If you have ever stumbled upon a bedding area of Deer and Elk you will see they like the edges of long grass on a slope that keeps them out of the wind and allows a wide view of the area below them. Not always but this is typical. Learn to glass the areas they are most likely to be laying. Anyone will spot moving game, it takes a very patient hunter with good glass to pick out the tip of ears, antlers, and horns at a distance.
There is a lot more then this to learn. However the best glasses on earth don't do much good for the casual scanner who is in a race to "stumble upon" game while racing across the countryside. Binoculars do not work like a vacuum to suck in the animals from wherever they are pointed. I'm in no position to criticize or point a finger on this topic. I was 25 at one time and felt the greater area covered increased my odds. I wonder how many massive giants A glassed over and left sleeping where they were.
I have a 12 year old son. When we are hunting he will blow across a canyon in 2 minutes with his glasses and be ready to move. I'll sit for 10 minutes while he is fidgeting and staring across the area with his naked eyes. Then I will ask him how many deer he saw. ...... Nothing. I will tell him there are 4 does and fork horn within 500 yards.
WHERE?
I tell him to grid the area and go slow, often in 2-3 minutes he will see them and say, Wow papa they blend in so good!
Yeah, you are a very impatient young guy, you need to slow down and look! This happens with many adults I hunt with the same way.
Over the last several trips out in the bush with my son, He is becoming quite a bit better. He will anxiously try to find something before I do. He is now visually mining into the bush looking for anything he can see. (I've kind of screwed myself up with this. He now wants better glasses!)It's a big difference when you have just a little patience and think about what you're looking for. It's not a whole animal standing broadside in a parking lot!
_________________________
Last edited:
