Glassing for Elk

[matuka]

I have to admit I've hunted elk for about 5 or 6 years and have about 15min of glassing experience. Seems like lots of people do it, but I just haven't. Maybe I have the wrong idea about glassing. Perhaps I'm missing many opportunities to get on elk I didn't even know where around. I have strickly been a spot and stalk guy(mostly stalking after spotting them as I walk through the timber) When I do get to an area where there is an opening or clear cut I feel I can search it with my bare eyes and give it the once over. I always see on hunting shows guys glassing for hours all the way until its dark at times...to me that seems like a waste of good hunting time....especially since I'm in the timber most of the time walking abandoned skid roads. I feel like I have developed a bad habit of not glassing, but with a new pair of binoculars and a new season approaching I want to up my game. It just seems like you could glass a huge clear cut in about 5 min, but I must be missing something. Any glassing tips and experiences glassing that you could pass along would be great.

[csrbowhunter]

matuka,

Don't feel bad I'm the same way. I've tried to sit and glass but I've never seen any elk I couldn't see with my bare eyes. My buddy bought a spotting scope last year and wanted to sit and do that all midday and we never picked out a thing. He spent like two grand on that thing
I just use my bios after I see an elk to see how many are there and how big. But most of the time I'm in heavy cover so you can't see far. But after buying some nice leupolds last year I tried to use mine more

[matuka]

Glad to see I'm not the only one. After I posted this thread I came across an article that said "There are a couple of ways to discreetly locate elk, the first of which is glassing. Inexperienced elk hunters have a tough time with the feeling that sitting on a ridge and glassing a mountainside at dawn or dusk is wasting hunting time. They want to be out stalking around. They’re wound up and anxious to make something happen.

Watching from a distance certainly won't present a shot for a bowhunter, at least not immediately. But it does tell you where the elk are, what they are doing and when, without letting them know they are being hunted. Just one evening of glassing can create a better opportunity to take an elk than will a week of stumblin' and bumblin".

And it went on to give an example of how they were glassing one night and saw a bull and some cows feeding in a meadow until they fed into the timber...they were so excited because they knew where the elk would be the next evening. I didn't know elk would go to the same spot the next night....if so how does that work with the rest of the daily sightings? If I see an elk in a clearcut some morning what are the chances of him being there two days in a row? I know whitetail can be patterned pretty easy...I though elk were "never use the same place twice" kind of creatures. I also thought that the example of those elk feeding from meadow to timber in the evening would indicate where they would probably be in the morning not the next evening.

[saddlesore]

It mostly depends on what happens to those elk from other humans. Left alone,they won't move much , if they have cover,feed, and water at a comfortable distance.


Sometimes though,you see elk and they are moving around a little,but still moving in paraticualr location.Those elk just may be moving because someone else bumped them and they won't stop until they find a comfort zone.

Any time you try to put hard and fast rules into play while elk hunting, you are more than likely to come up frustrated

[Malloy805]

[Magic]

Deer seem to favor a certain area. After being spooked, they will be back after a couple of days.

Elk won't. If they have food, water, and are not being messed with, they seem to be happy. If they are spooked, they will find what they are looking for somewhere else and will stay there.

[matuka]

Whenever I am up high and can see all the thick timbered moutains, foothills and and basins in my Oregon spot I often wish I could for 60 seconds have one of the indicators that you see in shopping malls on their maps that has an arrow and say "you are here" ....just look out into miles of timber and have arrows float above the trees to indicate where elk are and let me see how many arrows are actually around me....even for 10 sec...must be a big wish I think it every time I'm in one of those spots.


I'm still waiting to hear from someone that is a die hard glasser for elk. I only have my heavy timbered areas as references and I have seen lots of TV where there is perfect glass land. But if there is a technique for glassing timber or areas that might have an acre or two of a clear cut here and there or a small opening peppered around....how long should a guy glass when he has covered the area with binoculars pretty well?


P.S. Sorry that I post so much as we get closer to Elk season...can't help it I'm still learning on my own how do to it all.

[ribo451]

[ElGrandeWapiti]

Preface - I don't glass much either. Just bought my first spotting scope. I plan to use this in "some" places I go where the top half of a large ridge is burned off and has a parallel ridge that is ideal to glass from and other mountains across the drainage, etc. Previously I just used 10x42 binocs, which were fine, but felt it was time to make a spotter investment.

Anyway, I think in both Mike Eastmans book (Elk Hunting the West) and David Longs book (Public Land Mulies) they share glassing techniques.

[3scar]

The glassing technique i find best is to grid the area you are looking into, making sure to not miss any of the edges and little pockets where animals may be feeding or bedded..Work the grid back and forth taking your time to look for shapes, glints of antler, etc........many times you may not see anything the first or second go around and then right before your eyes an elk with just materialize by it taking just a few steps or the lighting changing. Glassing is all about patience and taking a systematic approach into the area your looking to not overlook any of the playing field where your quarry may be found. For me and in North Idaho and Montana where the vegetation is extemely dense, this tactic has yielded the best results from mid October on when the vegetation has lost it's foliage and you can see into the various into at a great distance, often finding animals feeding, when weeks earlier they would have been obscured by the leaves. Good luck and practice patience and it will pay off in the end!

[matuka]

well I went out to do some glassing with my new vortex vipers. They are far superior to anything I have ever used. That being said, I just don't posses the skill set to glass. Clear cuts that are relatively close to me I feel I can tell if there is an animal in there with my bare eyes...and the clear cuts way far off I get bored glassing. Maybe I haven't found the right place to glass yet.


I do think I will get the other style eye cups for the vipers....I don't like light coming in the sides.

[deweymn]

A friend of mine and I glassed a fair amount last year in SW MT and we were able to see elk with our binoculars from about 1.5 to 2 miles away on a handful of instances. We had a really tough time seeing them with the naked eye even knowing where they were at so without glassing I know that we never would have known they were there. We were able to use the information we gathered from watching them in order to figure out where to set up and what time to be there. Looking back at the experience I wish we would have had a spoting scope. We were able to count the numbers of elk but were not able to determine if there were any bulls in the group or not. Glassing definitely helped us locate the elk and gave us a couple of great chances but the area we were in was relatively open so glassing helped a LOT.

Dewey

[matuka]

went out yesterday evening and tried the glassing again. I guess you really have to have a good spot to glass. So far the only spots I see even worth glassing are clear cuts that anyone else that has a vehicle can see them as well. I don't really even want to look at the areas I know are going to be crowded spots due to the ease of access. One of these years I 'm gonna get out there prior to right now. I'm glad I still have 4 weeks. I just met an old timer (90yrs old) that worked 40 plus years in the forest service locally. He is a big time Elk guy(RMEF life time member). I think I'm gonna take a few of my maps to his house and perhaps he will show me some good areas I don't even know about to glass and to try.

[Magic]

He should know some spots for sure. Plus I'm sure that he will enjoy some genuine company.