The 1 Thing You Learned- Glassing Smarter

[chutinlead]

I haven’t shot off mine, thought about it though.

I was still packing a bipod around on my rifle last year so not a whole lot of need. Now I'm leaving both the monopod and bipod and tripod behind for a sturdy tripod. Not a significant amount of weight difference for the increase in utility.

 

[justinspicher]

The tripod for everything makes sense, but I am lazy and get easily irritated at getting a tripod set up.

 

[jhm2023]

One thing that stuck with me from my days as a forward observer in the Army that I still use in hunting is glass from right to left and bottom to top. It naturally slows you down because we read, write and do most things top to bottom and left to right.

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[InDeep]

One thing that stuck with me from my days as a forward observer in the Army that I still use in hunting is glass from right to left and bottom to top. It naturally slows you down because we read, write and do most things top to bottom and left to right.

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This is a gold standard for our group . Amongst many things, we will give up a morning or evening hunt to glass . It has been a difference maker for us .

 

[Oregon Hunter]

One thing that stuck with me from my days as a forward observer in the Army that I still use in hunting is glass from right to left and bottom to top. It naturally slows you down because we read, write and do most things top to bottom and left to right.

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Never heard of that idea. Great idea to make us consciously take our time and be thorough

 

[Oregon Hunter]

This is a gold standard for our group . Amongst many things, we will give up a morning or evening hunt to glass . It has been a difference maker for us .

To echo what you're saying, in one of Mike Eastman's books he said that if he had five days to hunt, he would schedule two or three of the days before the season for scouting

 

[BBob]

we will give up a morning or evening hunt to glass

In my world glassing is hunting

Seriously, down here it is not uncommon to spend 90+% of your day behind a tripod and glass. That goes for high country mule deer in many areas too, not just down here.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Since a lot of people on here are suggesting to use a tripod, another tip is to find one that serves more than one purpose. In the central column of our Ascent tripod, it stores a bunch of screwdriver bits to make repairs in the field. If you can leave other gear at home and multipurpose your tripod it helps justify the weight.

There are many good tripods out there, so I was wondering if any of you have more tips to use them in a multipurpose way?

 

[Firehawk]

Several people have stated "put your glass on a tripod" and I agree. But.....since that answer was already given, I am going to say, carefully choose a bino that you can actually use in the scenarios you will use them. My 15x Meoptas are awesome!! But only on a tripod. If I had to handhold them, I would never use them. Way too much shakiness noticed.

I learned the hard way, over years and several pairs of good glass trying, that I CANNOT use a 10x or higher glass free handed. I was good with 8x and 9x was mostly good. The 8.5x Swaros I own now, are good if I am handholding, and absolutely terrific on a tripod etc. Just because people say that 10x42 is the way to go, doesn't mean that 10x42 is the way to go for everyone. I tried, multiple times, and I failed. But I can use a good 8x and see like crazy.

So...my 1 thing that made me a better glasser, was choosing an appropriately magnified bino for the way I hunt.

FH

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Several people have stated "put your glass on a tripod" and I agree. But.....since that answer was already given, I am going to say, carefully choose a bino that you can actually use in the scenarios you will use them. My 15x Meoptas are awesome!! But only on a tripod. If I had to handhold them, I would never use them. Way too much shakiness noticed.

I learned the hard way, over years and several pairs of good glass trying, that I CANNOT use a 10x or higher glass free handed. I was good with 8x and 9x was mostly good. The 8.5x Swaros I own now, are good if I am handholding, and absolutely terrific on a tripod etc. Just because people say that 10x42 is the way to go, doesn't mean that 10x42 is the way to go for everyone. I tried, multiple times, and I failed. But I can use a good 8x and see like crazy.

So...my 1 thing that made me a better glasser, was choosing an appropriately magnified bino for the way I hunt.

FH

I think the military did a study once and found for soldiers that 7 or 8X provided the best balance of usability offhand. 10X is as high as I can go I can go without a tripod, but I'm also glassing from a pickup most of the time

 

[Newtosavage]

My one thing? Don't invest any money in a spotter until you have the best binoculars you could possibly afford. Add together the price you're willing to spend on binoculars and a spotter, then go out and spend that amount on a pair of binoculars you can mount on a tripod or window mount.

Underspending on binoculars is probably the #1 reason people think they need a spotting scope.

 

[jhm2023]

My one thing? Don't invest any money in a spotter until you have the best binoculars you could possibly afford. Add the price you're willing to spend on each together, then go out and spend that on a pair of binoculars you can mount on a tripod or window mount.

Underspending on binoculars is probably the #1 reason people think they need a spotting scope.

I feel like the exception to this is sheep hunting where a high end spotter is essential in determining legality of rams. Dall sheep specifically a guy could get by with cheaper binos since spotting white sheep on a mountain isn't the hardest thing in the world. All other critters I agree though.

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[AZ_Hunter_2000]

I feel like the exception to this is sheep hunting where a high end spotter is essential in determining legality of rams. Dall sheep specifically a guy could get by with cheaper binos since spotting white sheep on a mountain isn't the hardest thing in the world. All other critters I agree though.

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It is a nicety but not essential especially for determining legality. There are other methods to determine legality.

Can give one ram skull to three different biologists whose job it is to age rams and you'll likely get three different answers.

 

[Dos Perros]

When you glass, actually BELIEVE there is an animal there. It’s like a Where’s Waldo book: you know he’s there, you just have to find him. You do that, and you’ll look harder, more completely, and turn up more animals.

Several times I can recall glassing, becoming discouraged, and then doubling down by forcing myself to believe, and boom picked up a buck. It’s real.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

When you glass, actually BELIEVE there is an animal there. It’s like a Where’s Waldo book: you know he’s there, you just have to find him. You do that, and you’ll look harder, more completely, and turn up more animals.

Several times I can recall glassing, becoming discouraged, and then doubling down by forcing myself to believe, and boom picked up a buck. It’s real.

How do develop and maintain that motivation/confidence?

 

[Dos Perros]

How do develop and maintain that motivation/confidence?

Hmmm, good question. I think I'm new enough to glassing that I can still remember when I was a real novice. I also remember glassing with other folks, thinking I had things covered, and then someone would say "ope! got one" and it was a place I had looked already. So it's sort of weird reverse confidence in that I know that there very well could be animals in there I just haven't seen yet, and that just makes me try harder.

I think I've developed some of this when I've been in more master glassing spots where I knew I was going to sit there for a long time, either I could see a lot or I didn't have a better option. I didn't have anything pulling me away, distracting my effort.

Lastly, I started with post-rut rifle hunting cagey public land whitetails. Those dudes would only come out last 5 minutes of light it seemed. Maybe a little bit more movement on the AM side. And so it took me seeing elk on their feet at noon a few times to really learn that any time of the day an animal might stand up and give me a chance to see him. That helps me glass harder even at those mid day times.

I will say finding animal #1 is hard, and finding animal #2, after my colors and body size are calibrated, is much easier.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I just created a new thread at this link about The 1 Thing You Learned- Varmint Hunting. Thought it might be relevant to you guys, so check it out

 

[shoeshineman]

One thing that stuck with me from my days as a forward observer in the Army that I still use in hunting is glass from right to left and bottom to top. It naturally slows you down because we read, write and do most things top to bottom and left to right.

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Thank you! Never thought of this but makes 100% sense when I think about it. I bet you have a bunch of forward observer tricks that would apply to hunting. Any tricks on getting into/out of spots without being detected?


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[Blue72]

I went from a tripod to a monopod and that dramatically changed how I could spend more time glassing.

I love the freedom you get with monopods too…I use one often

i also found if you use lower 7x magnification binoculars on a monopod, the image is so still you think it’s actually on a tripod

 

[nphunter]

I have a couple of things to add;

Take advantage of items lying around or on your person to steady with. I use my trekking poles and loop the wrist straps around each other to make a great adjustable bi-pod for my binos. Shed antlers work well and so do sticks, anything to rest the bino's on and still be able to maneuver them.

Practice, don't just go out in hunting season and try to find animals, do some glassing intense stuff like shed hunt or find bedded deer midday in their summer range. I know I'm picking an area apart when I start picking up shed antlers while glassing.

Perspective, when glassing try to find something to put things in perspective. A coyote, elk, deer, even a person can give you perspective on the distance you're looking at. Once you turn up a deer (or your target) start glassing areas you've already looked because your brain now knows exactly what to look for instead of what you thought you were looking for.

Location, know where to glass, you can glass a hillside all day long and if there is nothing on it you are just wasting time. Pay attention to the shade as well as the wind direction, I've found deer and elk both prefer to bed on the leeward side of the mountain when the wind starts cranking, which means to spot them your normally going to be sitting in the wind.

Glass sizing to task, If you are hunting timber leave the spotter at home, a lot of times when archery elk hunting in the timber I will leave my bino's in the truck and use my 7X range finder instead. Other times 10's aren't enough and the 15's need to be used or even a 20+ magnification spotter. If you are able to move closer to glass do it and you will be amazed at what you can turn up, sometimes closer isn't an option and you need to have the biggest best glass you can to pick apart a mountainside.