It seems that the more time goes on the more I hear about people harvesting game at longer and longer distances. Whether it be shooting a deer at over a hundred yards with a bow or shooting an elk at over a thousand yards with a rifle, their has been a steady increase of the frequency of these stories. Along with these stories usually comes a blitzkrieg of criticism which is inevitably followed by some harsh words. I read it on forums all of the time. Someone posts a story of how they took an animal at X distance and how proud they are of this accomplishment. Half of the people give the guy crap for shooting too far and the other half applaud him for making such an incredible shot. Where do I stand in all of this? Usually, in the middle. Like all arguments, there are two sides, and I understand them both. This topic walks a thin line between ethics and skill, both of which need to cohesively exist is order to make an accurate judgement on what is too far of a shot.
I remember when I first heard about people actually working out for hunting. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. All I knew about hunting was that you sat in a tree or on the ground and waited for a deer to walk by. What is physically taxing about that and why in the world would anyone workout in preparation for it? My thoughts on the subject changed drastically after I really got into hunting out west though. The animals out here live in some rugged country and if you aren’t physically prepared to even get to where they live, let alone haul one out of the mountains, you are really in for it my friend. Don’t believe me? Have your luck at a spot and stalk western mule deer or black bear hunt. When you get back, you might think differently.
Not too long ago I asked the question,”What are your favorite hunting podcasts?” on social media and was surprised at the amount of feedback that I DIDN’T get from it. I did get someone that answered and said that they had never listened to any hunting podcasts and if I had any recommendations. Of course I gave him a few to check out. That got me thinking that maybe these aren’t as commonly known as I thought and made me want to try and get the word out. Below I will give a brief synopsis of my top 5 favorite hunting podcasts, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, and hopefully give people the extra push to get on board and start listening to some like minded individuals chat about hunting.
Before I know it, hunting season is going to be here and I am going to be like a kid in a candy store. There is truly nothing like being out on a hillside, at the mercy of mother nature, with my bow glassing for critters. I wait all year for it. I eat it, sleep it, and breathe it. For this reason, I take practicing with my bow pretty serious during the off season. I remember when I first got into bowhunting and how I would pick my bow up a few weeks before season and start shooting. Every time I did this, it was almost like I had to get used to shooting my bow again, because it had been so long. Nowadays, I practice all year round, be it at 3d archery shoots or just in my backyard. This keeps me sharp all year and keeps me from having to get used to shooting my bow every year. Is this enough to get me ready for the woods though?
When I first started hunting, glassing and using my binoculars was something that I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to. My thinking on using binoculars was that I would spot something with the naked eye and then use my glass to get a better look. I actually tried to look through them as little as possible, because they would make my eyes hurt. As I got older and talked to more and more hunters I kept hearing the same thing over and over again. “Josh, you need to get up high and glass.” After hearing this dozens and dozens of times and seeing how other hunters were using their glass to their advantage, I decided that it was time for me to bite the bullet and get myself a good pair of binoculars. Knowing what I know now makes me realize how many animals that I wasn’t seeing beforehand.
I will admit, that before learning more about glassing, I said to myself I would never spend a lot on binoculars. To tell you the truth, I even considered hunting without them. That is a BIG no, no out west and I soon realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong. If you have spent anytime behind a low quality pair of binoculars you know this very well. The headaches that I use to get from staring through my glass for only a few seconds, was due to not having good optics. Do yourself a favor and buy the best pair that you can afford. Whether that is $200 or $2000, you will not regret it. The advantage by investing more money is you are going to be able to look through the glass for a longer period of time without getting those annoying headaches. The longer that you can stay put and glass, the more animals you are going to see. Trust me, I learned this the hard way with many bottles of Advil. Also, you will be able to observe animals in a crystal clear picture, rather than a blurry mess. This added benefit will come in handy when trying to field judge animals from a distance.
This is really important if you plan on having any amount of success with glassing. You want to find a few high vantage points where you can see a ton of country. The more you can see, the more you can glass, giving you the best chance of catching game in your optics. If you aren’t seeing anything at the first vantage point, move to the next and stay there for a few hours. Be mobile, but not too mobile. After all, you have to put the time in with each area to know if it’s worth being there or not. Staying in one spot like this and glassing a lot of country greatly decreases the risk of bumping animals if you were to walk said country instead. Let your glass do the walking. You will spook less game and be able to watch that game in their natural state.
So, now you have a quality pair of binoculars. The next question is, “What do you do with them?” When I first started glassing, I would just look at random areas that were far away from me and bounce around said area like a pinball. Again, not the best way to go about this. The most productive way I have found to glass is to use a grid pattern. Stay back and pick a hillside that you want a closer look at. Imagine that you are looking at a grid that covers the whole area you want to glass. Use your optics to look down each column of the grid slowly and methodically. Do this until you have looked at the whole area. Doing this makes it WAY easier to glass thoroughly and effectively. I will pick out a handful of spots to do this in from one vantage point and just keep looking at them consecutively. If there is something there, chances are I will see it eventually.
This is an absolute MUST, especially out west. The difference between using a tripod and not using one is like night and day. I started spotting so much more game once I added one to my gear list and because of this, my confidence sky rocketed. This made me even more focused on the task at hand, because I knew that I would see something eventually. It gives you the ability to spot the slightest movement that you would never see, if your optics weren’t steadied on one of these tools. Another perk, is that once you do see something, you will be able to lock your binoculars in place so you don’t lose where you just spotted that monster buck or bull. No more saying, “Now where did I see that elk?!” This is a great way to keep an eye on bedded game as well. We all know how tough it can be to see bedded animals. They blend in incredibly well bedded or not. So, in my opinion, if you are toying with the idea of getting a tripod or not getting one, stop right there and just get one. You ABSOLUTELY will not regret it.
Do you see the elk? This is how well they blend in.
This sounds funny right? It might, but it is the truth. The next part of the equation is WHERE to look. You can glass for hours upon hours and not even see a hair if you are looking in the wrong areas. For example, when it is hot, what is your natural instinct? There are a few answers to this, but I bet none of them are, “I immediately go and stand in the sun and stay away from water.” You probably said something more along the lines of, “I get in the shade, take a nice drink of water, and attempt to cool off.” Who am I kidding? The most common answer was probably to go inside with the air conditioner. Well, the quarry we pursue doesn’t have air conditioners, so they have to settle for the shade and water option. If you hadn’t already guessed it, I am telling you that you should be glassing into shaded areas and around water during these hot periods of the day. These are the spots where game is going to tend to bed down for the day. The opposite goes for when it is really cold out. Game is going to tend to concentrate more on the sunny hillsides, rather than the shaded ones in order to warm up, especially in the morning after a cold dark night. Look for where food is most plentiful. This is where you are going to want to look come feeding time. I always tell someone, if you want to see people at meal time, you go to where the food is and they will be there. The same applies to finding game. Let the mountains tell you where to look. Once you do this, you WILL see more game.
Glassing is a very time consuming yet extremely productive way to hunt out west. Not everyone can do it, for the sheer fact of how much patience it involves. It definitely isn’t for everyone as is most things in life and that is ok. If you put the time in though, you will soon see how well this works and the more animals you see, the more you are going to want to sit up on a hillside and look through your binoculars. It gets addicting, trust me. I hope these tips were helpful and if you have any tips of your own, feel free to comment with them down below.
As I write this, January 2015 is coming to a close along with the AZ archery deer season. It has been a LONG season that started back in August for me here. August filled my mind with hopes and desires for bear and deer. The only thing August didn’t fill was my tags. That season ran into September. After that it was back to the bears in early October, followed by scouting in November for the archery deer hunt the coming December/January. January also held an archery javelina hunt, which is a tag that I was fortunate enough to fill. If I had to describe how my season went, it would be a long stretch of rugged, up and down mountains with some valleys scattered throughout. It’s a good thing that I enjoy rugged mountains.
I am sure that you have heard many people say that hunting is all about luck and that someday you are just going to get lucky and get your opportunity. I don’t know about you, but that sounds really discouraging to me. When I think of it like this, it almost makes me wonder why I am doing this and if it is even worth it. If hunting is all about luck then there are more than a few guys that I know who “get lucky” every single year they go hunting. How is this, if it is all about luck? What separates these individuals from the rest? Give up?
The sun has started to make it’s daily climb up above the mountains. Your thoughts seem to be the loudest thing in the woods at the moment. Silence is pushed to the side with the crunching of leaves not far away. As fast as this sound comes, your heart starts to beat faster and faster. Adrenaline and curiosity envelop your whole being. What is it? Is it what I am after? Is it a squirrel playing tricks on me? It is then that reality hits you with the welcoming sight of antlers coming into view just 20 yards away. Curiosity turns into relief, but it isn’t over yet. Ever so slowly you raise your bow up, clip on your release, and begin to draw back. As you look through your peep sight and try to control the sudden blitzkrieg of shakes that has just come over you, that 20 yard pin that has become so very familiar begins to rest just behind this monarch’s shoulder. Breathe in, breathe out, squeeze the trigger. You watch the arrow bury into the vitals of what you have worked so hard for. Chaos erupts through the mountains as your quarry takes off quicker than they appeared just a few minutes ago. You did it. All of the scouting and hard work finally paid off. Hopefully…..
I don’t know about you, but I wait all year long in anticipation of that magical time when I can grab my bow or rifle and head out for the start of hunting season. Getting up before the sun, enjoying a hot cup of coffee while embracing the peacefulness of the outdoors, and finally grabbing my pack to start the morning’s journey is something that I truly cherish. That rush of adrenaline that comes over you when the silence of the woods is broken by the sound of something walking towards you or the glint of an antler that jumps out at you through your optics is a foreign feeling to a lot of people. Unless you have experienced these things firsthand, it might be hard for someone to understand why we obsess over this time of year so much.
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