Basic Animal Movements and Glassing

When it comes to glassing, animals are generally in one of three movement categories: feeding/watering, bedded, or transitioning from feeding/watering areas to or from bedding areas. At each of these times animals move at different rates. So the pace at which we glass should also vary. When animals are up and moving they are easier to see for two reasons; first, they are generally more exposed, the more of an animal you can see the more likely you are key in on recognizable features and notice it’s presence. Second, they are moving more, as movement increases so does the likelihood that the passive element of the eye will detect that movement triggering the recognition of that animal. At these times beginners will even find high success glassing from the tripod which will hone their game finding abilities for situations with low game numbers or limited game movement. At this point game is at it’s peak of movement and you should be glassing as fast as you can effectively find game, making movements just slowly enough to see animals, while covering as much country as possible.

When animals are feeding or watering, they are still up and moving, but movements aren’t as fast as they are in transition from feeding to bedding. Animals are typically more exposed because good feed typically comes from more open country, but the rate at which they move slows. The slowing of the animal’s mass movements means their steps are smaller and head movements become more confined, accordingly the pace at which we glass needs to be slowed as well.

When bedded, animals are at their most limited movement of the day. Now identifying movements may simply be a deer twitching its ear because a fly is bugging it, a small, quick turn of the head to see something moving, or chewing their cud. While animals will re-bed to maintain their protection from or exposure to the sun, it is an occurrence that happens at a slow pace, and in a brief time window. Occasionally, you will luck out and an animal will be silhouetted and easy to find, but the majority of the bedded animals found will be in the shade or tucked into brush. The characteristics you register in your mind during periods of greater movement will begin to pay off significantly during bedding times. Over time the number of bedded animals you find will increase, up to the point that you discover mid day glassing is as effective as glassing during periods of high game activity.

As you can see, game movements vary throughout the day, as an effective glasser the rate at which you glass will correlate to the pace at which animals move, and will vary throughout the day. Adjust your glassing rate to what you are actually seeing; simply slow your glassing until you being finding animals. This will be a useful tool for the rest of your hunting career, as it better informs you of game movements, which will eventually play into the planning of stalks as well as where and how you look for animals in the future. Understanding the rate that animals move is an important part of the establishment of good glassing mechanics, and as you hone your technique, the results will become more and more significant over time.

We have been building a strong glassing foundation, in the next post we will dive into the mechanics of how to glass: picking terrain features and determining the most effective ways to glass according to specific country. Following that, we will dip into picking a good glassing spot.