Outfitters’ Point of View

What Guides Want You To Know Before Your Next Hunting Trip

By Jack Orloff, Associate Editor

We asked a few of the best outfitters from around the world about the importance of optics, what clients should expect when glassing and advice on the best ways to prepare.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GLASSING

“Glassing is vitally important to the kind of hunting we do,” said Chris McCarthy, New Zealand outfitter and president of the New Zealand Professional Hunting Guides Association.

“We do most of our hunts on the South Island of New Zealand, so it’s a lot of mountain hunting. Having the right optics and knowing how to use them is 100% needed. If we can’t find the animals by glassing, we can’t hunt them,” he said.

Nate Turner, the owner of Turner’s Alaskan Adventures, guides most of his brown bear and moose hunts on the Alaskan Peninsula. He has also guided Dall sheep hunts for many years.

“I often tell my clients that there are three judgments when glassing, and it doesn’t matter what animal we are hunting,” Turner said.

First, is your first impression. That’s where powerful optics are important for sheep and brown bears to get an intimate view of what you are looking for to determine whether you should move closer.

Second, as you get closer, you will still be using optics at the midpoint of the stalk. The last thing is the final judgment of the animal.

“Some of that is visual without optics, and some with optics. It doesn’t matter if it’s for sheep or brown bears,” said Turner. “I always view it as a three-stage process.”

Turner, who was about to leave for a brown bear hunt, says he will usually spend a lot of the first few days discussing how to properly glass with the client.

“A percentage of the hunters are clueless at first until they start spotting a few bears,” he said.

“I remember glassing for over an hour early in a hunt one time, and the hunter said, ‘So, give me a clue. What are we hoping to see?’ because they had never seen a brown bear on a mountainside two or three miles away.”

PATIENCE IS KEY

When asked what clients should expect when glassing on a hunt, most outfitters agreed that having patience is instrumental.

“When it comes to glassing, it takes patience,” said Nathan Olmstead of Prophet Muskwa Outfitters in northeastern British Columbia.

“I can sit in a spot with a client for four hours and glass for all four hours. Patience is the biggest virtue, and I would tell anyone to be prepared to have patience and to sit and glass for a long time,” said Olmstead.

It’s natural for hunters to be excited and overeager to get a shot off. They’ve spent many hours traveling and copious amounts of money on the hunt. But a lack of patience can sometimes backfire, resulting in missed opportunities.

“When you are on a guided hunt, you truly have to be patient and not push the guide to make a quick judgment when he is telling you that he’s still looking,” Turner said.

At a distance, things are not always how they appear.

“A Dall sheep from below will look like he has longer horn tips than he really does. A brown bear may be smaller but is very confident, so he carries himself in a way that would make him seem bigger,” he said. “That short window of viewing opportunity you had gave him a different mannerism that led you to believe that he was bigger. There are all sorts of things that you can misinterpret when things are rushed.”

KNOW YOUR OPTICS

McCarthy, who recommends a minimum of 10x binoculars for mountain hunting in New Zealand, says most of his clients are usually well-experienced and well-practiced when it comes to their optics due to how expensive the hunts are.

However, there are times when a client is unprepared, which takes away from time hunting.

“The biggest issue we have, especially with guys who buy new rifles to bring to New Zealand, is that they set it up with a brand-new state-of-the-art ballistic turret scope and don’t understand their adjustments for shooting the rifle at long range,” McCarthy said.

“Then, we have to spend a good amount of time on the range before we can even go hunting, which delays the hunt. The hunters should always know their rifle and scope before coming,” he said.

McCarthy also emphasized the importance of using your optics quickly and efficiently, which can be paramount, especially in his neck of the woods.

“Sometimes there are issues like their bipods might be new, and they don’t know how to adjust them,” he said.

Or, perhaps, they have not set their diopter.

They need to know all those things quickly because often opportunities can happen fast and knowing how to do all those things efficiently before making the shot is needed, said the outfitter.

Turner agreed, saying clients should always check to ensure they bring the right optics that correlate to the type of hunting they will be doing.

“Sometimes, you will get people trying to shoot a sheep at 80 yards with their scopes set at 12x when they shouldn’t even have brought a 12x scope with them in the first place,” Turner said. “It’s always worth knowing the right optics needed for the type of hunt you are going on.”

PERFORMANCE AND DURABILITY

Many factors go into choosing the right optics for a hunt. Lighter optics may be better for
hunting difficult terrain like the mountains of New Zealand. Optics with a stronger magnification may be better for spotting animals at far distances, like during brown bear hunts in Alaska.

When we asked outfitters what they look for in their optics, they said the most significant factors are performance and durability.

“I have been with Swarovski Optik forever, and I like them because they are dependable,” said Olmstead.

“The people there are standup good people, and their products are very strong and durable, and that is what it comes down to durability and the support you need when something does happen,” he said.

Olmstead prefers direct dial turrets and says clients are usually more consistent while using them.

“I don’t like it when guys show up with dope charts because they rely on them at 200 yards or 800 yards, and it wastes so much time,” he said.

McCarthy prefers top-end brands that will pull in light at the end of the day.

“For me, we look for optics that will gather that light right in those last three to five minutes at the end of the day,” McCarthy said.

“We do a lot of free-range hunting, and being able to see your target animal in those last few minutes of the day is crucial,” he said.

Turner recommends a wide field-of-view and good light transmission to his Alaska hunters. “Those are essential characteristics to have for the kind of hunting that we do,” he said.

Whether you are hunting in Alaska, Canada, New Zealand or anywhere in the world, having the right optics and knowing how to use them correctly and efficiently before a trip will increase your success in the field.

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