Scouting trips- How long do you spend glassing an area

[PhillyB]

I am just curious...

when you head into a fairly new area on a weekend scouting trip where you are trying to cover some ground and also find animals, how long will you spend glassing an individual basin or hillside?

Keep in mind, you have never seen this hillside or basin, but from the looks of Google Earth/ topo maps it looks great. You are there as the sun comes up, how long will you give it before moving on?

 

[Beastmode]

Could be all day could be an hour or two. Its a hard question to answer. There are a lot of variables. What kind of cover is there? How big of a basin is it? Is there sign of animal activity in the area? Are there many other basins that you want to cover? Can you glass all drainages in that basin from one location or do you have to move to get better angles? Etc.... Many factors....

If it's a quick scouting trip maybe a few hours, if you have plenty of time I might stay there all morning/day and try a new basin that evening or next day.

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

That depends on a lot of factors like Beastmode mentioned. In places I know, I have sat most of the day and glassed them.

Is there another place you want to glass that same morning? If not why not spend the whole morning there. Can you get to the other place before the prime morning glassing is over.

Are we talking about an area with cover or folds in the terrain or not? The more cover, or the more broken the terrain is, the more likely an animal is to just "materialize".

It may be worth identifying multiple spots that you want to glass the basin from. I often get at ground level on Google Earth and determine what I will likely be able to see from certain glassing points and identify multiple spots to glass from to check out one basin.

 

[Rent Outdoor Gear]

One good morning will tell you a lot if you're there from first light... You'll see a lot of what the basin has to offer - then you can decide whether to stay and try to get to know some of the better bucks or if you should move on to the next basin. Umpqua and Beastmode made some great points - there are a lot of variables that go into your decision, and finding a great vantage point on Google E so you see most of what the area has to offer in one session is time very well spent. If I found a huge buck - I'd probably camp on the area or move to where I had the best view of him and try to learn as much as possible about his bedding/feeding habits and the other deer around him. If all I saw was 140 bucks all morning, I'm going to head over the ridge into the next basin.

I also try to give myself easily accessible options when choosing glassing/scouting routes and locations. I'd like to have 4 or 5 basins I can check out in succession - sometimes you can glass 3 or 4 within a quarter mile. Pay attention to the direction of the sun in the morning and evening so you can glass with the sun at your back as much as possible and you'll make the most of your time.

Good luck and share some photos with us!

Coop

 

[robby denning]

The whole morning. If I've found big tracks, maybe morning/evening/morning. Big deer don't usually move far in a day, but don't always stand where you can see them, so more time is usually the best bet.

 

[a3dhunter]

considering the question, and my last couple scouting trips, I'm going to say maybe a couple hours. Depends on if I keep spotting animals or if I feel I covered it well, and that will depend on terrain.
I have found several places in the last few weeks where the bucks did not come out of cover to feed until the wind died down around 9am, so that was a better glassing time than 6am with the wind kicking up 30-40 mph.