What’s the perfect glassing setup for opportunity?

[Bow2prince]

I’ve been doing a lot of debating over the last year on what the best optics setup is for opportunity hunting, not trophy hunting. I’m early on in my western hunting career and am totally good with young bulls/bucks and cows/does so I’m not concerned about being able to see and estimate exact size of the antlers but instead just want to see that there’s an animal there. My thought has been to carry 10s on my chest and then 15s in my pack and do not go spotter. It’s way more comfortable to glass for extended periods of time using 2 eyes so I don’t plan on going with a spotter but curious on others thoughts. Right now I have Razor HD 10x42s and am looking to add to those. I only plan on buying one optic this year which my head has been thinking about the SLC 15s and have thought about switching my Razor HD 10s to stabilized next year. What are all your thoughts on best optic setup for simply spotting animals?

 

[handwerk]

For my western rifle hunts I'm using my 10x42 Geovids to find game and Swaro STC to get more detail at distance. I do also have 15X Geovids but I will usually pick the STC instead.

 

[sandhillhunter]

I’ve been carrying compact 8x32s in my bino harness and 15s in my backpack the last few years. Have not missed having a spotting scope but I haven’t been trophy hunting either.


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[swavescatter]

You're basically describing me. I primarily hunt out west and glass 500 yds and out mainly. 16x42 Sig Zulu6 HDX stabilized binos find game for me out past a mile holding with one hand. I run a fancy rangefinding bino for dialing my scope, but you could get by with a cheaper unit if your shots are 400yds and in.

So to answer your question, stabilized 16's with decent rangefinding 10's that can go on a tripod if needed. No spotter. Sometimes I'll bring my 15x56 Maven B5's out if I'm going to be sitting in a single spot glassing for an hour plus (rare for me).

 

[Stinky Coyote]

When I was sheep hunting lots I just ran my 10x32 ultravid HD’s on my lightweight sitting height tripod extended in hand while hiking in and like that it balanced well in hand and call it poor man’s image stabilizer as when you need to glass right hand on bino and left hand on lower part of tripod near hip was pretty dang stable even when standing with pack on and puffing lol. When I could sit down was fast to open tripod and clear an area. Only needed to pull nikon ed50 13-40 spotter out when judging a ram. That nino did it all. Had a Leica crf1600 on pack waist belt or chest strap or somewhere handy like that depending on pack. Now I’d just roll same way but Sig 8x32 6k on tripod and while it’s no alpha glass for tearing apart mountains when seated for hours I bet I’d still find a ton of sheep but the Sig on tripod would be how I hiked then prolly still carry the 10x32 ultravid for the eye comfort of glassing for hours when reaching destination spots. Still would roll the ed50 for judging. Those binos know how to find sheep but when puffing on foot the tripod in hand trick was game changer for stabilizing. And I could check everything on the fly while hiking. And set up so fast when I found stuff and really figure out if it was time for a spotter. Rifle in Kifaru gun bearer. Only needed hiking poles for hike outs if I killed something, so they lived in pack. After a decade long obsession on just sheep that’s how I ended up rolling. Hope it helps. And I was lucky enough to be able to hunt em 1.5 hrs from home so could scout all summer and chase all fall, lots of boot time and figuring out a system to keep looking over the next high point. You get tired of unpacking stuff to sit down and glass etc so you just adapt as you sweat so you can keep checking basins and everything in between.

 

[RockAndSage]

I’ve been doing a lot of debating over the last year on what the best optics setup is for opportunity hunting, not trophy hunting. I’m early on in my western hunting career and am totally good with young bulls/bucks and cows/does so I’m not concerned about being able to see and estimate exact size of the antlers but instead just want to see that there’s an animal there. My thought has been to carry 10s on my chest and then 15s in my pack and do not go spotter. It’s way more comfortable to glass for extended periods of time using 2 eyes so I don’t plan on going with a spotter but curious on others thoughts. Right now I have Razor HD 10x42s and am looking to add to those. I only plan on buying one optic this year which my head has been thinking about the SLC 15s and have thought about switching my Razor HD 10s to stabilized next year. What are all your thoughts on best optic setup for simply spotting animals?

You're good - your thinking's solid, especially on the next purchase being the SLCs.

The only thing I'd offer is to consider adding a small, packable spotter at some point, especially if you'll be hunting any open territory or stuff with views beyond 2000yds or so - something like a Kowa 55 or 554, or maybe a 66 or older 664 if you can find one. Something light and reasonably compact. At some point, you'll want to check something you think you're seeing in the 15s, or plan out a route or stalk, that the 15s just don't have enough power for. Or, you'll see some rimrock or shadowed brush that may not be worth walking to bino distance to check out, but would definitely be worth glassing with a small spotter. Personally, I'd do the small spotter before upgrading the chest binos, but your overall plan looks good.

 

[Rich M]

I've done 3 western hunts with a pair of 10x leupolds. No complaints.