I'm not a fan of the guys who say you have to spend more on your scope than on your rifle- frankly I think they are full of beans and I have the results to prove it many times over... but I do like decent glass- kind of at the least middle of the road glass on my rifle for those times when I have to shoot across a canyon or into a deep, dark pocket in the forest where I can just barely make out my target so I need all the illumination I can get. The deep dark canyon is pretty self explanatory, but the cross canyon thing caught me off guard. In good daylight I have shot a few animals at "extended" ranges and without decent glass I probably would not have seen the small bush or a small tree branch that was on the bullet path so I could avoid it or wait for the animal to move. Also, sometimes you spot an animal in a group with your binos and then you have to pick that one animal out of the herd while they are milling around and that one is the only legal one in the bunch. Happens a lot in these spike only tag seasons we have here so you need to be careful to identify your target. My Bausch & Lomb and Leupold glass make it pretty easy most of the time regardless of the time or conditions- lesser glass is a crap shoot....
Besides, I'm too cheap to spend the money on "Alpha Glass" when the middle of the road glass has served me so well...
Bob
I have an actual hunt situation, and, it isn’t the first time I’ve been in this same position....Bull hunt 2 years ago. Public land 3 mile hike on a closed to vehicle logging road.
Our group heading in at 3:30AM passed a small group of hunters on an upward incline to the top of the mountain. Not a race, but ain’t it’s always a race, depending on the area and with elk on public land ?
Our group of 4 got into position where we wanted to cover a large cut. I saw more headlamps coming up into the area from the lower side of the mountain we were on. Damn, it’s gonna be a busy morning. People were aware of the herd we were going to hunt that morning, obviously.
Before legal shooting, I picked up elk bodies moving in the cut. I couldn’t make out bull from cow in the low light, but, the elk are there.
I watched and counted up 6 elk bodies close to each other in the cut across from me...It was still not legal to shoot. I was able to range off their bodies with my Zeiss 10x45 bins....That allowed me to turn away from the killing grounds, hit my small pocket light, casting light into my cupped hands, so I could see enough to dial the yardage on my scope.
I already had my pack set up on a log for my rifle....I went straight to my NF scope, found the elk bodies, and watched their heads until I was 100% positive I had a bull in my scope.
The second I crushed the bull, the herd busted for the trees. Then shots rang out from below me.
After the dust settled. The group below me said they had missed the two bulls that were running for cover and didn’t even see the herd until they were running balls out.
My group of hunters came down to where I was and my pard who was above me, said he had that group of hunters we had passed coming up the mountain, trying to set up on top of him...He moved them along, but was within earshot of them. My pard said that when I shot, he heard them say Fûuuuuck ! Where’s the elk ?
I’m a believer, that in a competitive, pubic land hunting situation, especially for bull hunting. Having good enough glass on a scope that will let you see horns before, or at least at the same time another hunter who is running alpha bins. Can give you an advantage on making a good shot before another hunter touches off.
🦫
PS
I’ve also been the hunter who had elk shot out from under me, because I didn’t have good enough optics to spot animals.
I learned up real quick.
