Glassing For Elk – High Vantage Points

Glassing For Elk – High Vantage Points

Guest Post By Jeff Jensen

Glassing For Elk – High Vantage Points. If you have hunted the thermals from morning up the slopes, you will find yourself on the highest points of your hunting location by mid morning.  Now it is time to settle in and glass. There are some basic rules to follow to be effective in glassing for elk from these high vantage points, and some tricks that I have learned over 30 years of guiding.

Get Comfortable Glassing For Elk

It’s critial when glassing for elk that you get comfortable. Also, find a location that allows you to glass the “wind”.  The elk will be following their nose to their bedding areas. And being able to glass these travel routes is crucial to locate elk during the day.

A comfortable sitting position will allow you to glass for longer periods of time without the need for a break.

Location, Location, Location

Find a location that offers a large canvas to glass, but offers views of the travel routes between bedding and feeding locations. And as always, remember the wind.  In finding that high vantage point location, make sure to use good cover backdrops.  Glassing for elk from open ridges and slopes may offer the best views, but it exposes you to game…often it is non-target game, like a mule deer that will tip off the elk to your location. Stay off the skylines and keep yourself with cover behind you.

Topo Maps are Key

One of my favorite tricks, especially in areas that I may not know as well, or have not hunted numerous times is to open my topo maps on my phone. I will mark my glassing location with a waypoint and record the day, time, current weather conditions and prevailing winds.  Then, I will use the topo to study the terrain to find hidden springs, “holes of timber” that may be hidden from full view to look for travel locations, trails, and other signs as well as elk.  I use the topo to look “over the hill” so to speak, knowing some locations are likely to hold elk out of glassing view and you will have locations to keep an eye on for elk traveling from other prime locations.  Knowing where bulls may be bedding, moving to wallows or alternate bedding areas, or shifting to a new location to beat the midday heat will give you locations to focus your attention.

The onX App combines critical land data with on-the-ground exploration to build your perfect map.

Patience & Persistence

Glassing for elk is no doubt an exercise in patience and persistence.  Put your optics on a tripod, clear the brush and ground cover so you can be comfortable and quiet.  Look for the horizontal in the vertical of  woods – very little of the forest is “horizontal”.  Don’t over examine a single “possible”, keep checking it for movement or changes.  If you over-examine, you can create tines, butts, ears and all sorts of animal parts out of “trying too hard”.  Create a grid of your glassing area and glass the grid in sections.  Make note of any locations to return to so you can check for changes. Maybe that limb just changed location and can now be clearly seen as a tine.

When it comes to glassing for elk, patience and persistence, like so many other facets of life, do pay off.

Be a Good Listener

Listening skills are something that everyone can improve on. When it comes to glassing for elk, your ears will often direct your eyes to the right location.

Optics Gear List:

• I run a 10×50 in my chest pack when I need to stop and glass the open ridges and slopes.
• If I know I’m going to be hunting inside heavy timber for the day, I’ll keep the TORIC 8×42 in my chest pack
• Depending on the length of the back country hunt, I will take either the TORIC 27-55×80 Spotting Scope or the TORIC 15×56 Spotting Binocular…Mounted on Carbon Fiber Tripod of course.