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Episode 7 of Glass Better is about the least glamorous part of glassing: staying comfortable.
Cody Nelson is filming in central Arizona, where he points out that whatever you step on is trying to bite you, sting you, rip your pants, or tear skin. His point is simple. When you glass for long days and long periods, you want to be comfortable, because comfort is what keeps you behind the glass.
Comfort keeps you glassing longer, and glassing longer finds more game. Cody Nelson’s essentials are a foam glassing pad (a GoHunt pad runs about $20) as a thermal layer between you and the ground, a seat such as a turkey chair or walk stool, gloves, a balaclava, and a stocking cap for cold and wind, a shaping-brim sun hat to cut glare, eyepiece shades, and a cleaning routine of canned air, a brush, then lens wipes. Most of it is inexpensive and light.
Everything else in the series builds on that. The three pillars of glassing are best glass, a tripod, and slowing down. None of them work if you can’t stand sitting there. This episode is the fourth thing nobody puts on the list.
If Cody has to pick the item he uses most and brings no matter what, it’s a glassing pad of some sort.
Foam pad (GoHunt). About a $20 item. Super lightweight, packs up nicely, and can double as a pillow for a nap or a splint if you ever had to. It protects your jeans and pants from wear and tear, and it acts as a thermal layer between your body and the ground or rock, so you aren’t giving away heat or taking the cold.
Phoenix Shooting Bags glassing pad. His favorite. He uses them for different things, but when he’s sitting for a long time and not carrying a heavy load, this is the one he takes.
Two more options depending on where he’s going.
Mossy Oak turkey chair. An oldie but a goodie. It already has a pad on top, and he doesn’t extend it, he just sits on it. It has a little contour and angle, so if you’re sitting on a slope, you can set it into the hillside. He uses it often when he’s by the truck or on a road looking at faraway country.
Walk stool. Cody has had his for probably 10 years. It condenses down much tighter than you’d think, so it packs easily.
His line on all of it: he finds any way he can to stay comfortable.
Cody says a lot of guys give up when it gets too cold, and his advice is don’t go anywhere. Cold has a real effect, and the fix is cheap.
Gloves. Even in mild weather. There are metal parts on tripods, and they can affect your comfort. If your hands are cold you’ll want to put them in your pockets, and then you aren’t glassing effectively.
Balaclava. Always. It helps block the wind.
Stocking cap. Lightweight or heavy duty, he doesn’t go anywhere without one. If your feet are cold, put a hat on.
The reasoning is steady body temperature. The more level he stays, the longer he can glass.
The metal tripod comment is worth a pause. If you’re deciding on legs, take a look at the Tricer glassing tripods collection and the tripod comparison page, and keep cold-weather hands in mind as part of the decision.
Staying focused is part of comfort, and glare is a distraction.
Sun hat. Cody’s favorite is made by GoHunt. He can shape the brim to keep ambient light and shine out of his eyes, so he can focus on the glass without reflections or disturbance.
Eyecups. If you’re glassing with the sun at your side, add-on eye cups go on the eyepieces and cover ambient light.
Binobandit. A GoHunt product that wraps around the eyepieces and shades your eyes the same way.
Cody says anybody who handles his glass comments on how clean it is. He’s a stickler. His kit:
GoHunt field packs. Each has a small brush, a cloth, and a bit of lens cleaner fluid. Super lightweight. He keeps one in the truck, one in his pack, and others in different pockets, so he’s never without a way to clean his glass.
Canned air in the truck. Blow the dust off first.
Brush, then lens wipes. He also uses a lens pen with a brush, but he never uses the chamois part, which he finds a little rough on the lenses.
The order matters: canned air, brush, then wipes. You can never have glass that’s not clean enough.
None of this is expensive. Cody points out that these are fairly inexpensive items, and they keep you behind the glass longer. The lineup is a pad, a seat, gloves, a balaclava, a stocking cap, a sun hat or eyepiece shades, and a cleaning kit.
Pair it with a stable tripod, a slow and methodical glassing routine, and optics you can trust, and you’ve built a setup you can sit behind all day. In Cody’s words, these are the little things you learn over the years that you can’t go without.
