Identify deer using scope

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muddy42

Well-Known Member
I went out stalking yesterday morning after roe bucks. I spotted a roe deer just as it was getting light, maybe 4.15am. The deer was grazing about 150m away in waist high grass, between 6 year old Sitka Spruce. Boy was it hard to identify the sex, all I could see was the top of a red summer coat until eventually I saw her neck patches and ears and I walked on. I can normally tell the sex pretty quickly, but June is probably the hardest month as the woodland cover is so high and they are not yet rutting. We don't have arable or mown rides around here.

This got me thinking if some higher magnification would help in these situations to spot presence of antlers, anal tush, pistle, patches on throat etc. I use 8x42 binos and a fixed 6x42 rifle scope and I steady both on quad sticks.

I have never used variable magnification scopes and was always taught not to use the scope for spying. Is it acceptable and do high variable mag scopes at say 10x or 12x help? Clearly I would only spy stationary deer with safe backdrop etc. not widely glassing the countryside.

Thanks,
 
muddy42 said:
I have never used variable magnification scopes and was always taught not to use the scope for spying. Is it acceptable and do high variable mag scopes at say 10x or 12x help? Clearly I would only spy stationary deer with safe backdrop etc. not widely glassing the countryside.
Click to expand...

No not for me. The temptation is that you do indeed start to "scan" the countryside with a loaded rifle.
I am reminded of being "scanned" by a man (adult) with a .22 rifle when out with my dogs: he wanted to know who I was and thought that was an acceptable way of finding out.
I am of course not suggesting for a moment that that is what you would do. But for me, scope for the rifle and bino/mono for the scanning.
 
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Or another point of view is yes, assuming the scope is of sufficient quality to allow you to get a clear image at the top end of the mag range and you can hold the rifle steady enough. If you're really worried about pointed a loaded rifle at possibly the incorrect sex deer then unload and do it with the bolt back.
 
muddy42 said:
I went out stalking yesterday morning after roe bucks. I spotted a roe deer just as it was getting light, maybe 4.15am. The deer was grazing about 150m away in waist high grass, between 6 year old Sitka Spruce. Boy was it hard to identify the sex, all I could see was the top of a red summer coat until eventually I saw her neck patches and ears and I walked on. I can normally tell the sex pretty quickly, but June is probably the hardest month as the woodland cover is so high and they are not yet rutting. We don't have arable or mown rides around here.

This got me thinking if some higher magnification would help in these situations to spot presence of antlers, anal tush, pistle, patches on throat etc. I use 8x42 binos and a fixed 6x42 rifle scope and I steady both on quad sticks.

I have never used variable magnification scopes and was always taught not to use the scope for spying. Is it acceptable and do high variable mag scopes at say 10x or 12x help? Clearly I would only spy stationary deer with safe backdrop etc. not widely glassing the countryside.

Thanks,
Click to expand...
If you're only going to 10x or so use a decent set of bino's
 
I have a 5 - 30 Swaro Z6i and it's really good for this, would never use it for general scanning etc but once you have seen a deer and want to get that final bit of detail then whack it up to 20 or 30 times and you can almost see the individual hairs on the anal tush. At the end of the day it's not really much different to putting your cross hairs on a deer to shoot it, it just gives you that last minute chance to see the full detail and decide not to pull the trigger. It's really useful especially for longer distance deer out on clear fell
 
Binos to scan, much more pointy than the rifle! Is it good glass you are using?
if you can’t see much of the deer in cover then a scope at higher mag might just give you a closer look at not very much of the deer!
would not use the scope for scanning as others have said. Better to miss out on a beast than have a lifetime to regret if an accident happened.
 
muddy42 said:
I went out stalking yesterday morning after roe bucks. I spotted a roe deer just as it was getting light, maybe 4.15am. The deer was grazing about 150m away in waist high grass, between 6 year old Sitka Spruce. Boy was it hard to identify the sex, all I could see was the top of a red summer coat until eventually I saw her neck patches and ears and I walked on. I can normally tell the sex pretty quickly, but June is probably the hardest month as the woodland cover is so high and they are not yet rutting. We don't have arable or mown rides around here.

This got me thinking if some higher magnification would help in these situations to spot presence of antlers, anal tush, pistle, patches on throat etc. I use 8x42 binos and a fixed 6x42 rifle scope and I steady both on quad sticks.

I have never used variable magnification scopes and was always taught not to use the scope for spying. Is it acceptable and do high variable mag scopes at say 10x or 12x help? Clearly I would only spy stationary deer with safe backdrop etc. not widely glassing the countryside.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I’ve found the same particularly at this time of year with cover so high.
Folk will probably use their rifle scope if it offers more magnification. I prefer binoculars due to their wider field of view and thus hopefully knowing more about what’s around the deer. The riflescope may draw me into the “zone” as it’s a more narrow field of view and likely to lead to the shot as soon as the deer is sexed.
At 150 metres (?) you say and not much apart from a red back. I’d have to get closer if possible to be sure of antler or meat and two veg. I don’t rely on just an anal tush at this time of year since I saw a DDM bloke cull a juvenile Buck with one some years ago
I hope it all works out and best of luck
 
My stalking scope is a x18 and the decision to shoot a deer isn’t taken when looking through the binos but when looking through the scope because it will give you so much more information on which to make your decision. And like Foxshot says !!!!!!
 
I have 12x Binos and they are great. I use my sticks a lot to support them when stuff is further away and never felt the need to spy them further with the scope until I was ready to take the shot.

Besides, I prefer to not have to mount the rifle every time I want to look at something. Extra movement, extra noise, extra strain on your arms and just extra faff.

I used to be fixed 6x42 on my rifle. My scope is now 3 - 12 variable and it mostly stays on about 8 but yes, that extra magnification has made a huge difference mostly for confidence in longer shots. Saying all that, if I’m laid up prone overlooking somewhere, it’s easier for me to use the scope than move with the binos. Where do you stop with magnification though......
 
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Variable mag scope, 3-12 or whatever tickles your fancy (low mag, big field of view, light gathering etc etc). But before the rifle is ever pointed at anything, it's with a view to shooting it, ie, it is a deer, clearly identified by your binos.
 
You should never point a rifle at anything other than what you intend to shoot if you start using a scope to scan for
deer sooner or later you will find you are pointing at something or worse someone.
I have heard it said that if you are pointing it at deer then there is not going to be anyone where the deer are not true as
I found out.
I have never used a scope to scan but! Stalked in to 150 yards of a group of hinds among peat hags deciding on which
one to shoot I spotted movement of what I presumed to be a hind somewhat closer just its back visible above the edge
of a hag.
Turning the rifle on it I realised I was lined up on a brown bobble hat turned out it was a guy with a camera photographing the deer .
Scary! And apart from anything else I don't think the game dealer would have taken him.
 
Why are so many people talking about scanning for deer with a scope and how bad it is? At no point did the Op mention scanning, they said to spot details on a stationary deer. May as well post about how it's not safe to shoot in the dark without a light or while doing 40mph on a quad bike. No wonder people don't bother posting and asking questions on here very much when 80% plus of replies are irrelevant.
 
nun_hunter said:
Why are so many people talking about scanning for deer with a scope and how bad it is? At no point did the Op mention scanning, they said to spot details on a stationary deer. May as well post about how it's not safe to shoot in the dark without a light or while doing 40mph on a quad bike. No wonder people don't bother posting and asking questions on here very much when 80% plus of replies are irrelevant.
Click to expand...
No what was said was if you start to study deer with the scope than its very easy to be tempted to just use it to scan
the surrounding ground for deer which is bad practice.
 
muddy42 said:
I went out stalking yesterday morning after roe bucks. I spotted a roe deer just as it was getting light, maybe 4.15am. The deer was grazing about 150m away in waist high grass, between 6 year old Sitka Spruce. Boy was it hard to identify the sex, all I could see was the top of a red summer coat until eventually I saw her neck patches and ears and I walked on. I can normally tell the sex pretty quickly, but June is probably the hardest month as the woodland cover is so high and they are not yet rutting. We don't have arable or mown rides around here.

This got me thinking if some higher magnification would help in these situations to spot presence of antlers, anal tush, pistle, patches on throat etc. I use 8x42 binos and a fixed 6x42 rifle scope and I steady both on quad sticks.

I have never used variable magnification scopes and was always taught not to use the scope for spying. Is it acceptable and do high variable mag scopes at say 10x or 12x help? Clearly I would only spy stationary deer with safe backdrop etc. not widely glassing the countryside.

Thanks,
Click to expand...
Don’t see any problem with that.
 
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