How do I become a better glasser?

[Str8shooter]

My .02 on effective glassing is get lasik if you wear glasses.... then alpha glass....beg borrow or steal them and get them on a tripod before first light at a high knob youve scouted first with either google earth or on foot (be careful about timbered knobs, they might look like dominating viewing points, but if the forest is dense, no bueno). First scan meadows, openings, avy shoots, grassy benches and other high traffic zones and return every 5 or so minutes throughout the glassing process. Ill spend an hour or so in a spot and after checking high probability areas for movement, whole animals, white butts, etc, I grid along areas amenable to spotting game (ie not tree tops or scree fields) and let the eyes move in the bino, it takes patience and concentration to actively look within and among vegetation in your sight window and to keep a picture in your minds eye of animal parts /textures/colors and critically, the relative size of animal parts at each viewing distance. This is what has taken several years of glassing to develop a skill for and you can help yourself by calibrating local vegetation size by you (ie the sage brush here is 3.5 ft tall, mule deer shoulder height should be roughly on par with the height of sage on that face 700 yds away in the binos). After a good look, start over and after 2 or 3 scans or an hour move 50 to 100yds (depending on the terrain), as subtle angle changes can open up new and significant views. As has been said above, once you spot an animal, study its color, texture, shape and the way light is absorbed/reflected differently on that animal versus the surrounding environment. And try and "refind" that animal, coming in from a different angle. It seems almost always after you get your sight picture established on a animal at distance, other animals stand out like a sore thumb and its really a joy to get that subtle sight picture set, and watch the landscape come alive with animals. This is why the first person to get eyes on game, typically finds the next animals before anyone else, their sight picture is calibrated. The key is to find the subtle difference at that time of day, in that particular landscape that lets your brain go into a predatory mode of prey recognition. Sometimes it's lighter colored vertical legs of a mule deer in a mostly green brushy basin that pops, or the dull rough yellow tan hide of a wapiti that has a slight difference from the texture of the tan of the late season grass its standing in. Always key in on movement, and always evaluate the landscape geometry for high percentage areas.

 

[Brian Fahs]

Make sure your vision is good, if not see an optometrist and get it fixed.

Buy alpha glass and an alpha tripod and head

Learn to grid and area and go slow and pause often

Try to keep the sun to your back. Lighting conditions and how you use them to your advantage is huge.

When you get really good glass dead solid on a tripod it is amazing how the slightest movement by
game jumps out at you. It's almost unfair. Also colors or the light reflecting off of a hide really jump out
at you.

 

[JakeSCH]

Besides the useful technical tips from before (good glass, good vantage points, keep steady, be comfortable, time of day, gridding, etc) I would say the attitude is huge. Slow down, fall in love with the search and trust your eyes.

It only takes a split second for a flick of an ear, turn a head, step out of a bush or movement to make them stand out. Sometimes you may wait hours for that split second, but it is worth it.

 

[mod700]

Good points as always, pick your spots, don't set up where your on the skyline. If possible set up in the shade so your not fighting glare on the glass if the sun is at a bad angle. Get good and comfortable, it's going to be a while. If your glassing and spot something, switching to a spotter, be sure and get a good mark on the deer, reference points, sometimes tough to re spot a deer a long ways off, after trading glass. Patience like said is a virtue, good luck.
Mike

 

[Wright406]

Here’s some additional tips that could help. Wrote this not too long ago.

5 tips for better glassing

Some key tips to help keep your glassing game on point this fall

www.gohunt.com

 

[squirrel]

always do this, and the last line is the most important... look for them where they ARE, in their preferred niche of habitat.

My .02 on effective glassing is get lasik if you wear glasses.... then alpha glass....beg borrow or steal them and get them on a tripod before first light at a high knob youve scouted first with either google earth or on foot (be careful about timbered knobs, they might look like dominating viewing points, but if the forest is dense, no bueno). First scan meadows, openings, avy shoots, grassy benches and other high traffic zones and return every 5 or so minutes throughout the glassing process. Ill spend an hour or so in a spot and after checking high probability areas for movement, whole animals, white butts, etc, I grid along areas amenable to spotting game (ie not tree tops or scree fields) and let the eyes move in the bino, it takes patience and concentration to actively look within and among vegetation in your sight window and to keep a picture in your minds eye of animal parts /textures/colors and critically, the relative size of animal parts at each viewing distance. This is what has taken several years of glassing to develop a skill for and you can help yourself by calibrating local vegetation size by you (ie the sage brush here is 3.5 ft tall, mule deer shoulder height should be roughly on par with the height of sage on that face 700 yds away in the binos). After a good look, start over and after 2 or 3 scans or an hour move 50 to 100yds (depending on the terrain), as subtle angle changes can open up new and significant views. As has been said above, once you spot an animal, study its color, texture, shape and the way light is absorbed/reflected differently on that animal versus the surrounding environment. And try and "refind" that animal, coming in from a different angle. It seems almost always after you get your sight picture established on a animal at distance, other animals stand out like a sore thumb and its really a joy to get that subtle sight picture set, and watch the landscape come alive with animals. This is why the first person to get eyes on game, typically finds the next animals before anyone else, their sight picture is calibrated. The key is to find the subtle difference at that time of day, in that particular landscape that lets your brain go into a predatory mode of prey recognition. Sometimes it's lighter colored vertical legs of a mule deer in a mostly green brushy basin that pops, or the dull rough yellow tan hide of a wapiti that has a slight difference from the texture of the tan of the late season grass its standing in. Always key in on movement, and always evaluate the landscape geometry for high percentage areas.

 

[stan_wa]

Thanks all for the helpful tips !

 

[markedtulip1814]

Great advice here!

 

[Idahowapiti]

Use the view tilt in Google Earth, zoom in and look from the spot you think might be a good glassing point. You'll get a decent idea of how much country you can see. What is difficult is if the timber is sparse or thick. Hard to tell that on google.

I stay in my glassing spot until a certain time depending on weather, and time of year. Like from daylight until 10am if it is warm and early Oct. I mentally enforce the time to leave so I don't short a place. If it is really cold, and/or snowy, that will last through lunchtime and maybe all day if I can see a lot of country. Deer will move all day when it is cold. Add in rut activity and you could see a buck any time.

Checking that spot again depends on what I saw. If I found does, I'll come back again and again. If I saw nothing, it's off the list for a couple of days, and I will probably give it another shot later. Hunting pressure moves them around.

Most of the time, I have a morning spot and evening spot picked out.

A tripod isn't critical, but it will improve your glassing. Being able to see without any shake in the glass is a huge improvement for noticing movement like a subtle ear flick or tail wag. It is rare that you'll see the whole deer a lot of the time so you're trying to pick out deer parts at distance.

Just my thoughts.

Jeremy

Definitely using the tilt view will give you a great perspective of what you will be able to see from certain knobs, ridges etc.

If you aren't using a tripod with your binos it helps to either sit down and get in a position where you can rest your elbows on your chest while laying back or use a finger or two on each hand to steady them against the bill of your hat. The steadier your glass is the more you will be able to pickup the small things while glassing.