Effective Glassing Range

[WSMHNTR]

With quality optics and good conditions what would you consider your maximum effective glassing range on deer sized game? This would be more for identification purposes than counting inches.

 

[Slick8]

I'll say 1 mile and stretching it farther in great conditions. That's with high quality 15s or better and a good tripod for me.

I'll clarify, 1-2 miles for your original statement of doe vs shooter buck. That becomes more difficult if its decent buck vs shooter buck. That's where glass can save you some time and boot leather.

 

[Skerhunter]

With the 85mm+ spotters and phone zoomed in it is miles!

 

[TaperPin]

With quality optics and good conditions what would you consider your maximum effective glassing range on deer sized game? This would be more for identification purposes than counting inches.

A lot depends on sun angle and antler contrast with the background. Under good conditions one mile is a piece of cake to identify a shooter even with moderately-priced spotting scopes. For normal purposes I don’t look much beyond that - there is a balance between seeing deer and being able to effectively hunt them.

I’ve hunted animals while looking at the ultimate limit of high quality glass, only to have valuable hunting time burned up walking a very long way to those deer with low probability of connecting. It’s like fishermen that always want to fish the opposite side of a river, when there are just as many fish on this side.

 

[hereinaz]

With Swaro 15 SLC I can’t always tell the difference on coues whitetail between a doe or buck at 1700ish yards plus or minus depending on conditions.

Generally, at the end of the feasible range, all you can really tell is if it is at least a 2x2 buck or bigger. You are judging it’s a buck by some sort of mass on the head, not always counting points. A spike registers as a doe.

Spotting scopes stretch it out as stated above.

 

[Slick8]

This is where glass and tripod quality really pay off.

 

[justinspicher]

I generally glass within 1000yds from me. I don’t look out much further than that as I have enough to look at already. If I need to, I’ll move. I am also using 8-12x binos on a tripod so I can only see so far effectively.

 

[Trout&Buck]

With a slight haze a was able to pick out antlers on a little 3x3 at about 2.4 miles using a low-mid grade spotter (Maven CS.1) but only well enough to tell that it was a buck, I couldn't see the antlers on the two fork horns with him. Based on that I'd say with good conditions and even just okay glass 1-2 miles should be plenty doable for making a call between a doe vs a shooter buck.

 

[TaperPin]

An effective maximum is more situational than it would seem at first - there is always a trade off in how much time is spent at different distances to maximize chances.

Looking at rimrock bedding areas, there is often not a thing that holds deer between you and the deer beds, so spending any time looking closer is a wasted effort.

On the other extreme, one buddy who enjoys hunting the Krumholtz will only glass what’s within rifle range, because the nature of the beast is such that getting a closer shot at an animal standing up and moving away is futile. I think he’s nuts to not even pay attention to the country 500 to 1000 yards away, but his first guess in which part of the Krumholtz holds deer is usually correct. Unseen deer often stand up 200 yards away and try to sneak off after he’s been there an hour or more.

Public land antelope hunting is such that if you can’t see horn size with your flavor of spotting scope, there’s not a big time penalty in simply driving closer and they are probably not going anywhere. Same with sagebrush elk.

We’re all big kids, and who doesn’t enjoy spotting some big deer on a sunny winter day waaaaaaaaaay across a snowy canyon. At distance my brain teases me into thinking they are larger than they actually are against a snowy background. On those days it’s more fun with good optics. Same for seeing two little dots moving on a distant ridge that turn out to be a sow and cub. Lol