Optics During Archery Elk

[kitandace77]

Hi All - long time reader, first post. Heading on second Idaho elk trip in mid September this year and will be hunting a unit with a lot of rolling open terrain. I hunted mainly timber last year in a different unit and am fairly new to glassing.

Curious how many people carry a tripod and spotting scope while archery elk hunting. In most of the areas I've scouted, I'll have visibility up to 2-3 miles of mostly open sage country with smaller patches of timber. I currently have a base model 10x42 vortex diamondback binos and a low end tripod with bino adapter. Is it worth it to buy a small spotting scope (thinking 11-33x or 15-45x) or is it not worth the weight if I'm just trying to spot elk and don't care much about determining if it's a raghorn or a 300" 6x6? Or would I be better off spending the money on upgrading my binoculars to a higher end model?

Pic of my Idaho bull from last year. First elk hunt ever and got him on last day of a 7 day hunt. Followed him and his herd up the mountain for three hours before circling around and calling him in after he bedded his cows. My wife was a champ and packed out a rear quarter on each trip.

 

[Indian Summer]

I don’t think you need a spotter yet. A low power one isn’t going to be worth carrying. It’s not like you’re at the stage of the game where you won’t go after any legal bull and need to judge antler size. If you use a tripod with a good pair of 10x binos you should be able to see what you need to see.

 

[Dennis]

Congratulation to you and your wife! She deserves an A+! For elk I usually don't carry a spotting scope or tripod on the hunt. When necessary, I use my trekking poles with "TrekBall" adapter to stabilize when glassing longer distances. Elk are usually visible at quite a distance.

TrekBalls

default description

trekballscom.gator.site

 

[sndmn11]

Get a digiscope adapter for your phone/binoculars and that will cover what you are wanting to do.

 

[rambo2345]

Binoculars should do what you want to do.

 

[kitandace77]

Thanks for the responses. I'll postpone the spotting scope purchase until I setup a muley hunt in a couple of years.

 

[Wrench]

It won't take much to accomplish discerning elk from background at even a couple thousand yards with fair light and quality 8x32s.

 

[Elkoholic87]

BTX.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Firestone]

If you don't care how big of bulls your hunting then I would definatly upgrade the binos.

 

[dtrkyman]

I would get a set of 15s before a spotter for Elk. In your situation good 10s will do most likely.

 

[SoloWilderness]

Congratulations on getting it done your first time out!

Upgrade to better 10x42s before a spotter. Finally getting ready to upgrade my 15 year old pair of Steiners and the 12x50 Mavens look great in the same size package as a 10x42-50.

 

[Macro]

I carry a set of run of the mill Bino's in my pack. Paid like $40 for them. I break them only a few times of the year. Then again I hunt timber so not a whole lot see that is far off. If I hunted timberline or open area Iwould have a much better set. Depends where you are hunting.

 

[skudster351]

Here's my 2 cents. I went both routes last year and found it useful in certain situations. Hunting bigger mountain terrain with a few miles of visibility, it was actually nice to have. We were able to spot both elk and mule deer with the scope that we wouldn't have spotted otherwise. This opened up a spot and stalk situation on a big muley that we almost killed. Now, your statement on getting a "smaller" spotting scope. If you're going to get a spotting scope, might as well get a proper one. For closer glassing, just use your binoculars on a lightweight tripod.

 

[Brooks]

It all comes down to how much extra weight can you stand to haul. I have some friends that are straight up Billy goats and as tough as they come they carry full size spotters, tripod, full pack, binos and everything you need and never slow down then there’s other guys that can only haul so much weight so they leave the spotter home.

 

[kitandace77]

Thanks folks. Looking like I’ll be upgrading binos this year and potentially bringing a buddy’s spotter that I’d only use out of the truck or on shorter glassing hikes due to weight. Definitely found myself dumping any unnecessary items out of my pack at camp last year as fatigue settled in over the week so focusing on keeping a lightweight setup this year.

Will buy my own spotters when I go on my first mulie hunt or elk rifle hunt.

 

[BigLou]

might want to check out the sig Zulu6 binos. mine are 16x which I love, but they also have a fabulous gyro system that stabilizes the image...and also pretty affordable!

 

[Smokeslider]

I'd recommend upgrading binos and borrowing tripod from friend for next hunt to see if you like glassing with Bino/tripod setup.

 

[cuerro viejo]

no point in bino’s if you have rangefinder.

 

[skudster351]

no point in bino’s if you have rangefinder.

I always take my bino's with me and use them pretty frequently to be honest. It helps a lot while looking through the timber and into shadows.

 

[cuerro viejo]

I always take my bino's with me and use them pretty frequently to be honest. It helps a lot while looking through the timber and into shadows.

sig range finder is 7x and 1/3 the weight