Story by Tom Claycomb III

I conduct numerous “Glassing For Big Game” seminars every year at events like SHOT Show in Vegas, Dallas Safari Club’s Convention & Expo in Dallas, Safari Club International Convention in Reno plus at numerous outdoor stores like Cabela’s. Yet every year while hunting I’m constantly amazed at how much game I see when time is taken to glass. I always tell myself, wow, — glassing really works. Practicing what is taught also works.

We all have defining moments in our lives that set things in stone for us. Here are a couple of mine about glassing. Decades ago, when I’d first moved to Colorado from Texas Dennis Buhlke and I were archery deer hunting in Cherokee Park which are wide open, treeless mountains.

We weren’t seeing anything and had just climbed to the top of a ridge when he said, “let’s glass a minute.  A lot of times I’ll see something”

I scoffed, “what for, other than a little knee-high clump in the draws below you could see for miles.” However, I was sucking wind from the climb so I agreed.

Within 10 minutes Buhlke says there’s a deer. We put on a stalk and on the next ridge he said let’s try glassing again, Once again my response was, “what for you can see for miles.” He reminded me of our success minutes before.

I don’t want to say we saw deer at every stop, but glassing allows an area to be more thoroughly scanned and observed.  Over time it is amazing how much can be learned and opportunities that are presented. Another time I was headed down the mountains after a week-long deer/elk hunt. It was getting near dusk and I pulled over to use the RR. Something told me to glass the hillside about 600 yards away. Again, I argued with myself. There was only knee-high sagebrush on the hillside. My binoculars were hanging around my neck so I pulled them up and glassed. Within minutes I had picked out five to six deer on the hillside browsing.

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