Glassing Question

[CasperOutdoorsman719]

When I watch Fresh Tracks/OYOA, I see Fin glass openings in the timber from a high vantage point. My question is, doesn't that create a problem with morning thermals blowing scent downhill? I have seen other guys do this as well, so it must not be too big of a problem but is a question I have wondered about. Thanks for helping clear things up for me.

 

[Nunyacreek]

I think he is usually glassing from far enough away that it doesn't matter.

 

[emrah1028]

And he's said that a lot of that type of footage is "b-roll" and not necessarily in the exact place he's hunting so as not to give away his hunting spots on tv.

Emrah

 

[hank4elk]

...and he can get busted just like any normal person....well,sort of... lol BF is kinda para-normal.

Consider your approach to glassing site too.

 

[CasperOutdoorsman719]

How do other people in here find elk? The 2 times I have been elk hunting, I have just kind of wandered around based upon areas that looked good on Google Earth hoping to find elk. I am sure that I might bump into an elk sometime, but it seems like getting on a high point to look for elk might be more effective. Since the elk might be a ways off, those elk might probably wouldn't smell me but I wondered if this was something that anybody else had encountered.

 

[Laelkhunter]

When I watch Fresh Tracks/OYOA, I see Fin glass openings in the timber from a high vantage point. My question is, doesn't that create a problem with morning thermals blowing scent downhill? I have seen other guys do this as well, so it must not be too big of a problem but is a question I have wondered about. Thanks for helping clear things up for me.

I was under the impression that MORNING thermals flowed UPHILL as they warm up, and EVENING thermals flowed DOWNHILL as they cooled ?? Of course any kind of a wind could change that and make a big difference.

 

[Elkmagnet]

Thermals fall down the mountain before the sun warms the air once the sun comes up things get turbulent for a while followed by an uphill shift. The opposite is true for the evening.
Wind is the x factor. When the wind and thermals are conflicting (which is often the case in the mountains) you may not get a steady thermal.
I've found elk and large mule deer bucks choose beds in areas where the topo causes the thermals and wind to shift often. I feel it can't be a coincidence

 

[Elkmagnet]

As far as glassing it is usually across canyon or miles away so wind is seldom a factor

 

[mevertsen]

I set up right out in the open. Deer and elk can be spotted at quite a distance with a good pair of binoculars or a spotting scope and TRIPOD. It took me many years to learn this from a buddy AND get the patience to glass for a long period of time, picking every part of a particular spot apart, including where I don't think there should be animals. I got to where I could spot 50-60 deer in a 4 hour period last year, where I could hardly find deer before I finally learned how.

 

[RobG]

I've been busted by elk/deer standing out in the open glassing like Fin often does. I don't know he does it, but I can't disagree with his results I like to have a tree or something break up my outline.

 

[Big Fin]

When I watch Fresh Tracks/OYOA, I see Fin glass openings in the timber from a high vantage point. My question is, doesn't that create a problem with morning thermals blowing scent downhill? I have seen other guys do this as well, so it must not be too big of a problem but is a question I have wondered about. Thanks for helping clear things up for me.

As some said, we are usually very far away. Also, we usually come in with the wind in our face, so in the dark of morning when we are hiking up hill, we have the down slope thermal in our face. Not that it matters, as it is dark. Point being, once we get set up at daylight, we usually have already walked through the area to get there, so thermals rolling downhill to where we came from is not much of an issue.

As for glassing in the open, I will do that if there is no cover. If cover allows, I will surely do what I can to break up my outline. Some of our pronghorn or elk hunts are almost void of cover in the places we glass from. Often we end up hiding among rocks.

A lot of it is how I have had to adapt to the requirements that come with filming. There is a reason we do so much glassing. TV works out best if you can glass them from afar, get some distant footage of them before we start our stalk, then figure out the best way to get a hunter, possibly two hunters, and one or two camera guys in a place for a shot. We screw up our share of them, for sure. But, not much we can do about that when we are trying to capture footage. Just comes with the gig we have chosen.

 

[jimss]

The wind in Wyo is usually blowing 20 to 50 mph from the west so you often don't need to worry about thermals!

 

[Arch Stanton]

David Long has a great chapter on glassing in his book Public Land Mulies. Its geared towards mule deer but there are some great techniques discussed