Twin Elements Podcast · Hunting Tips & Tactics
Everything (Leupold) Optics: Tips & Strategy For Better Glassing
We get asked about our glass more than almost anything else in the gear bag, so we're jumping in properly this episode — the binoculars, spotting scope, and rangefinder we're currently running, when a spotting scope actually earns its place on your back, and a handful of glassing habits that have made the single biggest difference to how many animals we actually find.
In This Report
The Gear
We're both running Leupold, aligned with what Venture Hunting stocks.
Ayden — BX-4 Range HD, 10x42. Built-in rangefinding is the big draw, genuinely useful for rifle guiding at Spotted Safaris where I can range a deer for a client — "107 metres... now 120 metres" — without swapping between binos and a separate rangefinder. It's slightly heavier than James's set, and that shows up as more shoulder and arm fatigue over a long glassing session. The archery-specific rangefinding versions read down to about 12 yards.
BX-4 Binoculars
James — BX-5 Santiam, 10x50. Chosen for the extra field of view in the mountains despite the added weight, though it's actually noticeably lighter than my BX-4 despite the bigger objective lens. Strong low-light performance and genuinely fog-proof — a real change from previous high-end brands that would fog up when breathing hard on a climb. Waterproof, with a lifetime warranty, which matters given how hard this gear gets used.
Santiam Binoculars
Spotting scope — Leupold SX-4 Pro, 20–60x85, paired with a Leupold Alpine CF-425 tripod (adjustable 5″–58″, lightweight, quick-attach base plate). We keep this deliberately lighter than the heavier Manfrotto tripod we use for filming — that extra weight buys stability in high wind, but isn't needed here. The scope itself is around 2,040 grams — not light, but genuinely lightweight for its resolution class. Good glass on a flimsy tripod is like putting the crappiest fuel you can find into a Formula One car; the pairing matters more than either piece alone.
Spotting Scope
Ours is angled rather than straight, which is easier to sit behind for a long session — you look down and relax your neck rather than lifting to eye level over and over — though it does take a touch longer to get your eye on target initially compared to a straight scope. A side-mounted swivel lets you rotate the angle so the scope can point left or right rather than only dead ahead, which makes a long sit-and-glass session on a mountain far more comfortable depending on which direction you're actually looking.
One piece of kit worth calling out: the MagView phone adapter, which magnetically attaches your phone to the eyepiece for digiscoping. Two real advantages here — your phone's camera zoom often holds resolution better than pushing the scope itself out toward 60x, especially in low light, and it lets you actually record a fleeting glimpse of an animal before it disappears into cover, for later review, trophy assessment, or showing a hunting partner exactly what you saw.
MagView Adapter
Rangefinder — Leupold RX FullDraw 5. Small enough to sit in a binocular-harness rangefinder pouch on a lanyard for a fast, one-handed raise-and-range. We prefer this over a binocular-integrated rangefinder for actual bowhunting distances. James is currently trialling a magnetic clip attachment to cut hand travel down even further. It's also got arrow-flight prediction — punch in arrow weight and FPS and it'll flag whether a shot might clip vegetation on the way to the target — not something we've configured given most of our shots are inside 30 metres, but it's there. It'll also integrate with Onyx, letting you range a spot and drop a waypoint straight onto the map, which fixes the classic flat-country problem of misjudging exactly which bench or rise an animal was actually standing on from a kilometre away.
Rangefinder
When Spotting Scopes Earn Their Weight
We haven't always carried one on every hunt, but they've become increasingly central as our hunting has shifted toward targeting specifically mature animals rather than just going hunting. The core trade-off is simple: is the extra couple of kilos worth it for the resolution gain? For genuinely long, patient glassing sessions — Hunter Valley reds and fallow, mountain boars, Montana, or somewhere like New Zealand chasing tahr or chamois — the answer's yes.
At Spotted Safaris, a typical morning starts with the first hour spent near the car glassing a floodplain, spring, or basalt ridge before we commit to a multi-kilometre stalk. Ruling out a mob from a vantage point — confirming there's no 28-inch-plus stag in it — saves miles of walking and, just as importantly, saves us contaminating the wind and alerting other, better animals further into the property.
It's the same logic judging a boar from a distance. From a long way out, all you can really say is roughly how big he looks. Get him properly in the spotting scope and you can start reading the finer detail — how much lip curl is showing on the tusk, how much ivory is visible — the kind of detail that tells you whether he's actually worth the two-kilometre stalk in, or whether you'll be disappointed once you're standing next to him.
In the Field
Trophy assessment on deer works the same way. From a kilometre out, binoculars alone might confirm "long-antlered chital stag, worth a look" — but the spotting scope at 20–60x can reveal a broken brow tine or busted point that's completely invisible at binocular resolution. That matters a lot for guiding decisions, since a stag that was a client's dream animal three months ago might not be appealing at all once he's broken up during the rut.
The upgrade in glass quality has made a real difference too. Our old, cheaper spotting scope did the job on the 2023 USA elk hunt, but it meant a lot of back-and-forth uncertainty — "is it busted or not?" With the current setup, from five miles out, James could confidently call a bull "six-by-six, not broken," which the old glass just couldn't reliably deliver.
Glassing Technique
At a glance, vs through the spotting scope. This mule deer buck lays bedded in the shade of this beautiful Montana landscape. Each crack and crevice potentially holding the animal of your dreams. This is where glass makes the difference.
Know where to look, by time of day
Rather than a blind grid scan, anticipate where animals will actually be. At first light, check the short-feed benches and skylines first, before wasting time on heavy timber. Micro-terrain features matter too — a dam bank crossing 800 metres away will show a boar clearly against flat, open ground. Shade tracking is a big one: a bedded animal's shade shifts through the morning, and between roughly 8:30 and 10:30am the shade thrown by a tree can sit well off to one side, not directly underneath — costing missed stalks when hunters glass straight under the canopy and see nothing. By midday, the shade sits back under the tree again. Transition corridors between open feed and bedding cover are worth a dedicated pass once the obvious open ground has been cleared.
“Rarely do you see a complete animal standing in the open. Train your eye for the smallest identifiable piece.”
Much easier to see this mule deer doe now. But that's what we're up against. These animals have adapted to blend into their surrounds. Rely on quality optics to find them and maximise stalk opportunities.
The "windscreen" grid method
It looks daunting at first, although, if you apply a systematic methodology and approach to your glassing, you can efficiently uncover what's hiding!
Rather than one broad left-to-right sweep, treat your binocular field of view like a car windscreen: scan systematically within that single view — top-left to top-right, drop down, back again — racking focus on anything that stands out before moving the whole "vehicle" onto the next section of terrain. Confirm or rule out each flagged spot — termite mound, sunlit bark, or actual animal — before moving on.
Apply the grid ideology. Tick off box one, work to the next, and continue to do so gradually until the whole mountainside is covered.
Look for fragments, not whole animals
Fragments
The top few inches of a bedded stag's main beam above the grass. An ear, a flick of tail, a patch of off-colour hide. A horizontal line in chest-high grass — that's exactly how we've picked out banteng cows at 400–500m, looking specifically for a horizontal line rather than the whole animal shape. Vegetation height changes the calculus too — a "small boar" assumption can be very wrong once you're standing in waist-high grass right next to him.
Trust the instinct-flagged movement
The white flicker of a chital deer hind's (female) ear alerted us to the presence of another twenty or so animals. They sure do blend into their surrounds!
When something registers as "that moved," even if you can't say exactly what — hold on that spot for as long as it takes, sometimes minutes, rather than writing it off. Most of the time it's a bird or a falling leaf, but the best long-range spots we've made have typically come from disciplined follow-through on a flagged movement rather than a clean, obvious sighting.
Move a metre, reglass
Move a Metre, Reglass
A tuft of black hair was all it took to locate this bedded feral pig. The difference between a successful hunt and a missed opportunity.
Especially in timbered country, a step or two left or right can reveal exactly what a tree trunk was hiding — the rear half of a deer, a second antler, an exposed ear. Don't treat one glassing position as final; re-angle before you move on.
Physical comfort matters
Physical Comfort
A stabilizer/quiver combo frees up both hands for glassing. Holding the brim of your hat while glassing adds a small but genuinely real stability boost, connecting the binoculars more firmly to your skeletal frame. Sit down and rest binoculars or the scope on your knees whenever you can — it dramatically reduces shake and improves your confidence in an ID, even mid-walk if something catches your eye. Find shade and a windbreak for long sits; discomfort leads to rushed, lower-quality glassing.
Talking a hunting partner onto the same spot
How would you talk your hunting buddy into these elk? Difficult, isn't it!
Precision matters here — "see that tree" is nearly useless in country with a million similar trees. Establish one genuinely unique reference object first — a distinct rock, a skyline feature — confirm you're both looking at the same thing, then use clock-face directions and short, precise distances from that anchor to walk your partner onto the target. In flat, close country, start very close (10–20m) and build outward through a specific, describable chain of features rather than jumping straight to something distant and ambiguous.
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The Adventure Continues
Join the Twin Elements team as they head back into the field.
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This piece is adapted from Episode 40, "Everything Optics & Glassing," of the Twin Elements Podcast. Catch Twin Elements at the Kayuga Broadheads stall at the Wild Deer Expo, Lardner Park, Victoria, 11–12 October.
