Once again. Rifle scope is NOT a bino!

Depends on where you are. It would be a little silly to be looking all around with binoculars when the furthest you can see in any direction is 50 or 60 yards.

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No it doesn't. Where I hunt on my property, I can't see any more than about 100yds in any direction, usually 50-75yds. I have binoculars around my neck every time and I use them. Of course, I'm not hunting with a scoped rifle either but that wouldn't alter my practices.

CraigC said:

No it doesn't. Where I hunt on my property, I can't see any more than about 100yds in any direction, usually 50-75yds. I have binoculars around my neck every time and I use them. Of course, I'm not hunting with a scoped rifle either but that wouldn't alter my practices.

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I deer hunt just about every day. Very few days go by that I don't see deer. One day last week I saw close to twenty, didn't really count. I didn't use binoculars or look at any of them through the scope. If the rack doesn't jump out at me I really have no interest, although I will kill a couple of doe for meat before it's over with.

I was on a guided hunt a couple of weeks ago and the "guide" couldn't even see a couple of mule deer after I pointed out where they were. Nothing worth shooting and he finally saw them when they bounced away.

Do I miss one every now and then ? Sure. I don't care.

H&Hhunter said:

ZJ,

That's not the issue. The issue is that people glass an area with a rifle scope then find a man in their scope or those idiots who see a man with their naked eye then use their rifle scope to have a closer look.

Same with close range glassing I use binos to pick out game at closer ranges in thick cover all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've put glass on a chunk of brush at close range to see that leg or an ear mixed into the brush that there is no possible way to see with a naked eye. Proper glassing is not only about seeing an animal with your naked eye then glassing it to judge it's trophy quality. Proper glassing involves looking a large area over to find animals in the first place.

I use binos and a spotting scope and will glass a good spot for hours at a time. And you'll be amazed how often you'll finally see that critter you've been looking for that was bedded or moved into the area after hours of seeing nothing.

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I don't have a problem with any of your thinking. I just don't use them or my scope to look around. Never have. In fact it is quite rare when I raise my scope to even look at a deer that I don't shoot. When I do I know it is a deer, a buck in particular, and a pretty good one.

I'm sure it is a good tool, particularly in the west.

To the OP, I think walking over to him and educating him sternly was the exact right move. Hope it made an impression and he learned something valuable.

Same with close range glassing I use binos to pick out game at closer ranges in thick cover all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've put glass on a chunk of brush at close range to see that leg or an ear mixed into the brush that there is no possible way to see with a naked eye. Proper glassing is not only about seeing an animal with your naked eye then glassing it to judge it's trophy quality. Proper glassing involves looking a large area over to find animals in the first place.

I use binos and a spotting scope and will glass a good spot for hours at a time. And you'll be amazed how often you'll finally see that critter you've been looking for that was bedded or moved into the area after hours of seeing nothing.

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Good post on glassing. Some people know how to do it, and some don't. Some don't even care to learn, or the "weight" of binoculars is a deal breaker for them. And that's fine, as long as you aren't looking at me thru a scope I could care less.

I have pretty crappy eyesight and red/green colorblindness. Looking thru glass helps me A LOT at finding animals. There are a whole lot of times I've made good use of glass in thick vegetation, picked up just an ear flicker or the inside of a leg. Take the glass down and you would never know an animal was there, even inside 100 yards. If I'm hunting big game, I'm carrying binos. More often than not, I'm seeing them thru binoculars first. I didn't know that binoculars were actually worthless in those situations until I read about it in hunting forums.

I didn't know that binoculars were actually worthless in those situations until I read about it in hunting forums.

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LOL, I didn't know you had to have them to hunt until hunting forums. These dead heads I have hanging on the wall didn't either.

LOL, I didn't know you had to have them to hunt until hunting forums. These dead heads I have hanging on the wall didn't either.

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Hey now, I didn't say you had to have them. I said they HELP ME, and they are a very useful tool for those who know how to use them.

There's more than one way to kill a buck, so to speak. Fair enough?

I agree with 22-rimfire. Binoculars are for looking over the countryside in an effort to identify game--or spot hunters and hikers. If you have already figured out that the deer is a deer and not a person, I see no reason not to look at it through the scope.

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+1.

I carry a quality but relatively small and low-powered set of binoculars. Easy to identify species at long distances, but tough to count points on a rack at 400 yards with small objective 8x binocs.

Once the animal is identified as a potential target, I will use the clearer image and higher magnification of my Leupold VX-III 4.5-14x to determine if I'm going to shoot or not. If the critter is worth taking, then I'm already on target.

That said, I would NEVER look at another hunter through a mounted scope. Good way to get shot at.

One has zero business hunting big or small fur bearing game without a pair of binoculars, plain and simple. If one chooses to he/she does not know *** they are doing and should be home watching television.

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Really? I called coyotes for years without packing binos. Didn't need them for the situation at hand. In fact, they were counter productive.

FWIW, I have seen many opportunities lost on some decent bucks by folks who were looking through their binos instead of their rifle scope...

wankerjake said:

Hey now, I didn't say you had to have them. I said they HELP ME, and they are a very useful tool for those who know how to use them.

There's more than one way to kill a buck, so to speak. Fair enough?

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Fair enough. I would actually like to have a good pair, but have never been able to quite make myself spend several hundred or a thousand dollars.

22-rimfire said:

There is a big difference between scoping a deer or other game animal with your rifle scope after you have identified the animal, as opposed to simply using the rifle and scope to enhance your eye sight to search edges of fields, the woods to identify some odd coloration/angle/reflection, or in other words identify things that just might be the deer or game animal you are hunting for. The second are binocular activities.

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this sums it up real well.. Spotting a group of dear to count points is one thing.. But hell yes use your bino's for general spotting

Fair enough. I would actually like to have a good pair, but have never been able to quite make myself spend several hundred or a thousand dollars.

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There have been threads on this topic. My choice for woods use are Leupold Yosemite 6x30 and for more general use Nikon Monarch 8x42. I like the Leupolds, but if I were scanning edges of fields and so forth I would prefer the Nikons. ($100-$120 & $300 respectively). A lot of folks like the Vortex binos where cost is critical. Obviously there are better binoculars and you pay for them. I can't afford ones like that, but if I used them all the time, I might try to afford them.

Meh, never carried binos. I hunt the backcountry where seeing another hunter is exceedingly rare. So I scope anything that looks promising without a second thought during general rifle season. If you're not wearing visible blaze orange like the law requires, you deserve to get scoped. Period.

bad_aim_billy said:

Meh, never carried binos. I hunt the backcountry where seeing another hunter is exceedingly rare. So I scope anything that looks promising without a second thought during general rifle season. If you're not wearing visible blaze orange like the law requires, you deserve to get scoped. Period.

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That is in my book really careless and asking for disaster .. And a lot of states like mine you are not required to wear orange..

If you're not wearing visible blaze orange like the law requires, you deserve to get scoped. Period.

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Unreal. You really ought to think about why scoping people without regard may not be appropriate. If that really is your standard of practice, you have no business out in the woods with a rifle. Period.

Quote:
"If you're not wearing visible blaze orange like the law requires, you deserve to get scoped. Period. "

Oh my goodness. I hope you are trying to be funny here. If so, you are not funny at all. If you are serious, I'd like to know where you hunt because I never, ever wish to be in the field wherever you are, sir. Your comments is so wrong on so many levels.

I was hunting deer one time when a fellow came galloping through the woods on a horse just after daylight on opening day. He had no idea about deer season. The look on his face was delightful to see though when he saw a two hundred pound pumpkin ensconced up under a bushy pyramidal evergreen with a rifle in his lap. After I advised him, he headed out of the woods.

I`m sure that situation happens far to often. Some you see (like you) and some you don`t. So much for hunting safety!!!!