As I scan the hillside roughly 3 miles away I notice movement to the right of the spotting scope.
After returning from my Eastern Oregon Elk hunts I reflect back to the reasons we had success? I can honestly say that the use of quality optics was the number one reason for the number of elk we had the oppurtunity to hunt.
I just recently purchased the new Leupold gold ring spotting scope and also the 10×42 gold ring bino’s, I can honestly say that 4-5 hours a day were spent peering though those fine optics. I know it is hard to keep looking through optics when you have not seen anything, On one day I spent 4 hours glassing the same distant slope that I saw elk on the previous day, after that time if you had not known the Elk were there the night before it would be hard to keep at it.
Some of the tricks that helped me were not looking for whole bodies of Elk but little bits of them. Legs,horns or just a flash of hide to give away there presence.
Have faith in your ability and keep the glasses to your eyes.