My “Secret” Lightweight Glass for Hunting

Heavy-duty carbon legs and ultralight Vortex scope.

Old School Glass

When I was a kid, our family only owned one pair of binoculars. We used them infrequently, sometimes to field-judge a mule deer, occasionally to locate one. This was the 70s and the 80s, and we hunted the way my dad and his friends had hunted for years…with very little attention to binoculars and no concept of a spotting scope.

I have always read outdoor magazines. Outdoor Life, Peterson’s Hunting, Sports Afield, Field & Stream. In the 80s, I started noticing articles about spotting scopes. I thought they were really cool, but had no real concept of buying one. It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I finally bought my first spotting scope. It was a mid-weight Leupold Wind River unit, and it changed my life forever.

Evolution

My new spotting scope started to play a prominent role in my hunting activities. I found that I could sit for literally hours and continue to find game without moving much and I was hooked. My cheapo 1970s tripod was pilfered from my dad and the only way to use it was to sit under it. Worked for me.

One fine November day in 2003 I was watching my wife put a stalk on a bull elk in a snowstorm with her muzzleloader in hand. I was watching from a state highway as the herd had drifted in close and they were between me and her. While I was watching, along came some friends of mine in their big (noisy) diesel pickups. Once I got them to quit hollering hellos, I showed them Tammy making her sneak. One of them set up their big Swarovski spotting scope on a full-height tripod and invited me to look. I…was…blown…away! Suddenly my prized spotting scope wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I knew I was doomed to own one of those big sweet scopes.

Swarovski Bliss

I figured out a way to cash in some credit card points on a last-years-model Swarovski 20-60 x 80mm HD spotting scope and set it on a brunton pistol-grip ball head mounted on a carbon-fiber manfrotto tripod. This was a deluxe setup and it has served me for about 13 years through 238 inch muley, an 89 inch pronghorn, some nice bull elk, and a 172 desert bighorn. I live out west and I use that sucker to view for miles and miles.

My favorite technique is to hike to the highest vantage point with my setup. Occasionally I can get my 4WD to the location I desire, but either way, I spend a lot of time spotting. This scope is perfect, until it isn’t. While on a central-Idaho elk hunt last year, then another this year, I realized the 12-pound setup was both inconvenient in the mountains and also not too useful in woody country.

A New Idea

Last year, I noticed that Vortex had come up with a very small spotting scope in their top Razor line. It is an 11-33 x 50 scope that weighs only 25 ounces, the same as my 10×42 binoculars. Hmmm. With a scope that light, I could also use a far less beefy tripod. Together, they’d result in a setup that weighed in under five pounds. Fit into a backpack, this would be a serious weight savings over my other setup. Purchase made. I bought the Vortex scope in a local store and a Davis and Sanford carbon fiber travel tripod on Amazon.

My wife and I took this system out mule deer scouting and backpacking this summer. It truly is lightweight. We quickly realized that life is about compromises. The little scope couldn’t reasonably come close to matching my big Swaro for either scanning or judging horns. It didn’t perform as well in the twilight either. However, it did provide a bridge between the binos and the bigger scope.

A Newer Idea

Locating elk in some tough conditions.

While we hunted my daughter’s bull elk in Idaho in new and somewhat deep October snow, I elected to take the big scope up on the mountain. Again, slogging uphill with the extra weight in calf-deep snow wasn’t at all fun. It did allow me to really home in on the elk, but was nearly worthless for scanning at those closer ranges.

On day two, one of my daughter’s friends joined us for the hunt. I noticed he had twin binoculars to mine, Vortex Viper HDs. The twist was that he’d mounted them on a small tripod like my Davis and Sanford. I noticed he was exceptional at locating the elk, so I took a look at his setup. Impressive. The binoculars on a tripod at least doubled their usefulness at locating animals. As soon as I got home from that trip, I purchased a tripod mount for my binoculars and tripod.

Sheep Hunt

On my wife’s 2017 desert bighorn sheep hunt, I brought both my heavy setup and my new lightweight system. My dad was relying on hand-held binoculars and those just weren’t cutting it for him. I decided to loan him my lightweight system. He’d use the binoculars on the tripod when we were close to the mountains, then swap out the little Razor scope when we were farther away. This made a huge difference for him and helped him to be an effective spotter for our hunting party.

In 2017 I finally learned what so many hunters already know. Binoculars mounted on a tripod are wickedly good at scanning for animals, far better than hand-held. Now I have a perfect lightweight glass setup for hunting situations where glassing is going to take place within a mile or two. I’ve found that just putting the tripod in with the binoculars gives such a significant upgrade.

My Gear

Now I use a Davis and Sanford Traverse carbon fiber tripod. It uses an Arca-Swiss plate system that is smaller than my Manfrotto gear. That part is annoying, but Arca Swiss is king in the photography world. I mount small quick-release plates to my Razor spotting scope and to the Vortex binocular mount attached to my Vipers. It is easy to quickly switch back and forth between them, depending on my needs. I occasionally will shoot, or have someone else shoot, from my Manfrotto tripod and ball head. I think I will purchase another QR plate and the business end of a bog-pod so I can quickly attach a rifle rest on the pod also.

This setup is sweet. The D&S tripod has quarter-turn leg nuts and it is very fast to deploy. With its rather pedestrian (even a bit ghetto) ball head, it weighs 3.2 pounds, as confirmed on our kitchen food scales. The ball head takes some getting used to as it is basically too loose, too tight, or medium. It doesn’t have a lot of finesse, but it works ok for me. It pans nicely and I adjust the vertical with my hands.

When the binoculars are mounted, I can pan and do the vertical with pressure from the bridge of my nose and eye sockets. I can keep my hands elsewhere while I glass. This setup is hard to understate. I love it. It isn’t exactly like it turns my 10x binoculars into 15x. It is more like going from an old TV to Ultra4k. The magnification isn’t increased, but the sharpness increases by an order of magnitude. The binocular view, thus steadied, is actually better for scanning for animals than the Razor spotting scope. Together, they make a light and versatile system.

Cost

The system costs a touch under $800, which is $140 for the tripod (bargain!) and $700 for the Razor. I already had the $600 Vipers so I don’t count sunk costs! Compare this to the $4,000 Swarovski/Manfrotto system, and it represents both a bargain and huge versatility. If you were just starting out, you could get by with some Vortex Diamondbacks at $200, but for lightweight scopes I would not go below the Razor at $700.

I love this new setup. Now I have my backpack/backcountry/less-open country setup to compliment my big glass. Being a Nevada hunter, I will never give up the big outfit. It simply is far better overall for wide-open country. This new setup is great for your backcountry trekking where the spotting distances are closer. You can teach an old dog a new trick, and I’m thankful that my daughter’s Idaho elk adventures have provided me a learning experience!