Our elk hunt last fall was 1 - 2 hours in the morning and generally 1 person 4 -5 more hours as a stalk was made watching the elk as the hunter made the move
It depends on what I'm hunting. Bears take a lot of glassing. Moose I generally call and listen. Caribou I glass a lot. Sitka deer I usually do a fair amount.
I have a pair of 10 x 40 Zeiss and a 8-12 x 42 Leica.
The older I get the more time I spend glassing. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, I started to notice that I spotted way more game when I would stop and eat or take a break. Took me a little bit to figure it out.
Glassing is generally 80-90% for me. For example, we glassed a bull for 4 full days within 4-800 yards and no play. He moved around as far as a mile between days. Sometimes we glassed for 8 hours before turning him up again. It all paid off on the evening of the fifth straight day glassing one bull we got him to make a mistake and snuck into 300 yards. Biggest bull of my lifetime and wouldn't have done it without top end glass
The deal I have with my family is that I dont start to scout for deer until July 1. Last year I spent just under 20 days glassing scouting and another 15 hunting before everything worked out on the buck in my avatar pic. Looking back at my notes last year scouting I looked at and counted over 290 bucks... How the math works out this past decade is that on average I find about 1 good buck for every 100 looked at through the glass. Last year I found 2 bucks other than the one I got that would have gone over 200" and 2-3 in that 190" class.
Each day scouting I spend 3-4 hours in the am and 2-3 in the pm.
Thinking about the last month or since May 1 I have spent pry 2-3 hours a day for 1-2 days a week looking for sheds.
Before this years elk season here in CO I spent 6 days scouting w 3-5 hrs behind the glass each day for my wifes elk tag. Turned up a real good bull on D1 looked til the last day and could not turn him up again.
My 76 year father had a 4th buck tag last year here in Co and I spent 11 days scouting and all 5 hunting. Found the buck of a lifetime (210"+++ typical frame w 15" of extras and at 37ish inches wide to the kickers the most symmetrical buck I have ever seen) but did not end up getting him. Good thing is that the Gov tag holder that chased him after us did not get him either and settled for a smaller buck.. My pops and I had him at 430 yards for 15 min but that was as close as we could get and my father would not shoot his pre 64 winchester 30-06 over 350 yds so no shot was taken.....
After late Nov - Jan I pry only average 1 some weeks 2 days behind the glass looking over the winter range around here. Shorter time frame of a hour or so a session.
Add in the time I spend on my deck behind the glass and that pry gets most of it.
in my youth I was a walkin dude type hunter . now that I am old ,fat and lazy,I am a firm believer in letting my eyes do all the walking I can get by with.
I still will put in the miles , I just don't walk for the sake of walking
Firm believer in using my binocs and when sitting....using the spotter. Could be I spend an hour or two glassing an area, could be all day. Could be I’m slowly walking in heavy timber, stopping and quietly looking ahead. Amazing what you can see through the thick stuff. I think, as most would say, your glass is a very important tool in the quiver.