How much game do we really walk past

[Lefty]

This year on my daughter's way to a bull she passed and had been within 20 yards of a 10 cow , elk. When she's trying to work her way to a bull.
Today at first light I've been glassing the sagebrush on the way into heavy Timber then out in the open after minutes of glassing were hundreds of elk that I had missed.they really were too far away for me to consider trying to get into them but I watched as other hunters went past without seeing so many elk I just think of all the times this year where I'd been close to elk and busted as elk as i passed them..


I've listed to so many hunters claiming there are no elk when I have watched them and elk in the same field of view.

This morning I took this pic and another hunter set up to glass. He missed seeing these elk by minutes.

How many elk do you think we walk past?

[Indian Summer]

I popped out of the trail to see a local guy I knew parked at the trailhead smoking a cigarette. He had the heat cranked and the windows open on both sides. He said he saw some tracks but no elk. As he was talking to me I looked past him out the other window. I let him talk as I watched about 30 elk bedded across a small draw. He went on about how they were buried in the hell holes just waiting for someone to snap a twig and they’d be gone. Finally I said that herd right there doesn’t look to worried about anything and I pointed. At first he didn’t even look but eventually he did and his mouth dropped open.


One day just a few miles from that spot I came across two guys who had ridden bicycles along a gated road. They were lazily standing right on a well used trail in a great glassing spot but had no binos out. They turned and faced me and started talking about how there was plenty of sign but so far no sightings. As they were talking I was counting elk. About 25 head single filed their way just 150 yards below us. The last one was a 5 point bull. I let them talk until the herd was about gone and casually said well there’s a few right there. They hesitated before turning around to see what the heck I was talking about. Then they freaked out but no shots were fired.

Me and another guide were sitting along that same road one day glassing the other side of a drainage. Two hunters were with us and they were glassing as well. After about 45 minutes they walked back down to us and said well… not a living thing over there. I said there are at least 23 mule deer and 4 cows bedded right there. I pointed them out to the hunters. They were nice enough guys and laughed at themselves for being the world’s worst glassers.

The amount of game we don’t see is way more than we imagine. Ever seen a mountain lion? Guess what…. they’ve seen you!

[Swede]

My eyesight is not very good and I can sure miss game. The eyesight issue was a major reason I got started tree stand hunting. I got tired of not being able to see animals that others were watching.

[Lefty]

Joe one of my goals was to track down a lion. I've never seen one before they saw me while hunting them

The woods are full of game most never see

[Swede]

Over the years I have seen several cougars from my stand. It happens about every 7-8 years on average. A person will most likely wait many days to see one unless you have some way to attract them. I am always hunting elk, so it is a total coincidence that a kitty comes by, but I am waiting at a water hole and cats need water like any other animal.

[Tigger]

I watched a forkhorn whitetail buck and a hunter walk towards each other in a willow swamp. The forkhorn saw the hunter first and laid down. The hunter walked by less than 5 yards from the buck. The hunter was about 40 yards passed the buck when it stood up and continued on its merry way. And this was a 1.5 year old FORK HORN! Imagine how many times we walk by older animals.

Given that we have our eyes pointed forward, we are destined to miss seeing game behind us. Such is the life of a predator. One thing I worked hard on with my kids is seeing game. Everyone can look, few can see. Now they are better at it than I am due to better eyesight. And I have good eyesight. They seem like they have a permanent set of binoculars on their heads!

[>>>---WW---->]

I hear ya Tigger. My daughter can see deer and elk that I go right by. Amazing!! I don't know if she sees movement or color better than me. But she sure sees something better than I do.

This post is a loaded question. But I guarantee you, we all walk past way more game than any of us ever see.

[Jhg]

My first awareness that we missed a lot while in the woods was when I was a little kid growing up in the Maine woods. Dad and I had hiked out to the truck for lunch while fishing a nice pond. Back in those days there were still a lot of overgrown skid roads we used as makeshift trails. On the way back in we discovered on our back trail a nice set of bear tracks in the mud. The thing was, they were about 10 feet from the back of our truck!

1EAF735E-62AA-41AD-81EF-22C6DEC64338.jpeg (153.76 KiB) Viewed 2771 times

That was the last time I ever sat in a vehicle while facing the road. I always wanted to see that bear.

[Indian Summer]

One time in Pa I was deer hunting with a bunch of friends. I was coming through the woods and saw one of them posted on top of a hump. A good vantage point. Back then we wire one piece blaze orange jump suits. There was snow in the ground too so really easy to see anything that moves. I snuck the whole way from his right to his left passing behind him at only about 60 yards. He never did see me. Blaze orange… head to toe!

[Swede]

My cousin was sitting in his tree stand this last season with a cow elk 28 yards away. It was straight in front of him for ten minutes, in 100% plain view. He was focused on a herd that was farther out, and up the hill, only slightly above his line of sight to this elk at the water hole. He noticed the cow just as it started to leave. His time estimate was based on the belief that it came in with the herd above. I can't explain how these things happen, but they do. I suppose it has happened to me.

[Indian Summer]

I was walking a snowed in pack trail when I came across what looked to be a lion track. It was heading in a favorable direction so I followed it left off of the trail and uphill. It continued to hook around to the left and up on to a high hump where I’ve sat and glassed for elk many times. Guess what? I’d been “glassed”. It turns out it was a wolf and he had watched me make my way along the trail below him. After I passed he bailed off of the vantage point and crossed my trail before I ever saw his and was gone.

[7mmfan]

We have all been humbled by game that stood in the obvious wide open but were missed. I know I have more than a few times. I've learned the hard way to always approach unseen areas slowly and look at the ground that is close to me before I look at any of the distant ground. I can't count how many times I've walked up to an edge to glass the other side of a canyon and had animals immediately below me that I never looked at until they were running away. It is something that I've stressed on many new hunters that have joined me in the field, and I've watched them make the same mistake.

Game animals also know where they are visible and where they are not. They also know where predators are most likely to come from, and position themselves accordingly. My nephew asked me once why I glassed the same sage brush bowl every time we moved, probably half a dozen times. I was finally able to point out to him on the last position why, when a small bedded mule deer bucks antlers and ears became visible after finally finding the angle needed to see him.

The one that I am keenly aware of, but am ok with, is all the animals that I know I walk past in the dark to get to my hunting area. I know when I walk 2, 3, 4, 6 miles in to an area, that I'm walking past plenty of animals. However, I'm willing to walk past them to get to a spot that I can hunt effectively, the way I want to, and over animals that hopefully aren't as pressured as the ones 2-5 miles closer to the gate or trailhead.

[WapitiTalk1]

Good thread guys.

[Lefty]

I consider how many elk I got close to and saw this year. I think of the times Ive busted elk close, or heard them bust off, or hear bugles and mews and cant see the elk maybe 40 yards away or400.
The bull Andrew killed this year I looked for that bull nearly two hours the evening before and never saw him


A few years ago riding in to hunt deer I stopped when a cloud of fog moved in and dropped lots of frost in minutes. I added some more clothes drove 60 yards with a lion track across the trail.

then theyre was this guy . A ranch hand stuck and was hiking out, I had to pull some traps, a short time later the cat followed the hand nearly to the ranch.

Then this one , Im sure he jumped out of sight as we made the corner. Ended up making national news for his sheep killing and no teeth

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

All I know is I glass an awful lot more deer in a certain CO unit than my buddy who hunts it on opposite years as me (Usually it's a 1-2 point draw, and we're on alternating years). I know I don't see them all, but I'm pretty darn sure my buddy misses most .

[7mmfan]

All I know is I glass an awful lot more deer in a certain CO unit than my buddy who hunts it on opposite years as me (Usually it's a 1-2 point draw, and we're on alternating years). I know I don't see them all, but I'm pretty darn sure my buddy misses most .

That's an interesting comment. Where does your buddy live, where does he do most of his hunting when not in CO?

I have a friend that is an excellent hunter, has killed more animals than me. He grew up hunting the Palouse of SE Washington. Open wheat field country. He is great at finding deer in this ground. However, you put him in the mountains with timber strips, buck brush, sage brush, etc... and he struggles mightily. His eyes and brain just are not accustomed to that ground and slowing down enough to pick the ground apart looking for pieces of deer in brush. I'm no glassing guru, but I have learned to REALLY slow down and pick ground apart in the last few years and have gotten much better at finding animals with glass.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

All I know is I glass an awful lot more deer in a certain CO unit than my buddy who hunts it on opposite years as me (Usually it's a 1-2 point draw, and we're on alternating years). I know I don't see them all, but I'm pretty darn sure my buddy misses most .

That's an interesting comment. Where does your buddy live, where does he do most of his hunting when not in CO?

I have a friend that is an excellent hunter, has killed more animals than me. He grew up hunting the Palouse of SE Washington. Open wheat field country. He is great at finding deer in this ground. However, you put him in the mountains with timber strips, buck brush, sage brush, etc... and he struggles mightily. His eyes and brain just are not accustomed to that ground and slowing down enough to pick the ground apart looking for pieces of deer in brush. I'm no glassing guru, but I have learned to REALLY slow down and pick ground apart in the last few years and have gotten much better at finding animals with glass.

Oh it is absolutely a locality thing, and about patience. I grew up in MT. He's an OK whitetail hunter. I think he's getting the hang of it now. But the first couple years he'd tell me the deer numbers were horrible, then I'd show up and find deer everywhere. I think what happened was he started his mule deer career by spotting easy deer. Broad daylight, summer coats, green CO alpine. It made his eyes think they were all that easy, so he'd move on fast if he wasn't finding animals. But those same deer can hunker in buck brush for hours and you won't see them.

It also helps that I'm using binos on a tripod. Big game changer. He was using a Leupold spotter to find animals because his cheap binos were so bad.

[Lefty]

whitetail hunter..

I came from Minnesota. My wife was a SE Idaho mule deer huntress , see could spot 10 times the deer I couldn't find.


I was taught how to find whitetail deer in Arkansas," look for rabbits". What I eventually found out good glass!

No more Bushnell

[7mmfan]

Good glass makes an enormous difference. Using it makes an even bigger difference! I see guys all the time walking through the woods, looking around, and never pull their glass up to their eyes. Many of them are walking right past animals that I know for a fact are there. I'm sure I've been spotted walking past known game animals too though.

Trumpkin, you're right, glassing off of a tripod is a game changer. I still haven't caved to the point of carrying that setup around with me, but I do carry extendable shooting sticks with me that extend to eye level. I can stand or sit and put my binos on those and it makes an enormous difference without the weight of the tripod.

[Swede]

I see guys all the time walking through the woods, looking around, and never pull their glass up to their eyes. Many of them are walking right past animals that I know for a fact are there.

Now that is quite an observation.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Good glass makes an enormous difference. Using it makes an even bigger difference! I see guys all the time walking through the woods, looking around, and never pull their glass up to their eyes. Many of them are walking right past animals that I know for a fact are there. I'm sure I've been spotted walking past known game animals too though.

Trumpkin, you're right, glassing off of a tripod is a game changer. I still haven't caved to the point of carrying that setup around with me, but I do carry extendable shooting sticks with me that extend to eye level. I can stand or sit and put my binos on those and it makes an enormous difference without the weight of the tripod.

I also am packing a giant spotter with me when I hunt alpine mule deer. The tripod was coming either way. You could look into the Granite Peak tripod for your binos though!

[7mmfan]

I bought an Amazon Basics tripod a couple years ago. For the spotter its subpar, but serviceable. For the binos it would probably work just fine. It weighs virtually nothing and costs about the same, which was the main appeal. Maybe I'll give it shot this year.

[Lefty]

I bought an Amazon Basics tripod a couple years ago. For the spotter its subpar, but serviceable. For the binos it would probably work just fine. It weighs virtually nothing and costs about the same, which was the main appeal. Maybe I'll give it shot this year.

I found a Video camera tripod, Heavy duty.
However I tend to use my binos when I walk in,
The spotter I usually only use off the pickup.