Telephoto Zoom for Scouting instead of Glassing?

[OrangeCurtain]

Hi all,

Bit of a wild idea because of weight, but has anyone ever used a longer telephoto lens for scouting or glassing? I own a number of long telephoto lenses 500-800mm that I use for wildlife work, and have an adapter to glass with them. But I'm thinking of trying using the digital LCD, as I can zoom in beyond what my eyesight sees through the viewfinder or ocular adapter, and the lenses are stabilized as well with the camera.

Other than the weight penalty, and minuses or pluses if you've tried this route? The goal here is to make my photo hiking sessions into general glassing and ideally hunting season scouting sessions (timing permitting for deer patterns).

 

[OrangeCurtain]

Forgot to mention, these setups almost always require bringing a tripod as well, but some of them, like the Nikon 180-600, can be reliably handheld. Scouting ranges are out to about 1,000 yards.