Ep. 67: Remi Warren’s Keys to Productive Glassing, Part 1

When you think about spot and stock hunting, you really have to figure out the spot part before you can get a lot of those stock parts in. So being good at picking out animals is an extremely important skill to have and leads to a lot of success. I think that to be able to regularly spot game by

glassing is really two parts. The first includes where to look, but after that it's what to look for and being consistent means being able to pick out animals time after time when you're in a good spot, knowing how to find what's right in front of you that might be fairly well hidden. This is done I believe by what I consider my four maintenance of spotting. That would be size, shape, color,

and movement. Understanding those four things and how to incorporate that into your glassing is going to overall make you a more successful hunter. But before I break down those tactics, let's jump into a story on an elk hunt where

I made an incredible spot on something fairly unexpected. And when I'm l hunting, a lot of my success I really attribute to being good at glassing, and so when there's days that a little foggy or inclement weather where I can't see very far, those are generally days that success is fairly low. Now, on this particular hunt, I had a good friend of mine come up elk hunting with me, and he brought a friend to his. So I was guiding them for the first week of the

rifle season, and we're focusing on getting some milk. I'd spent the week ahead glassing and scouting and preparing where we were going to go for that first morning, and luckily I had spotted some elk, and I knew there might be a little bit of weather moving in the next day. So I spotted that evening, spotted some milk off in the distance, maybe four or five miles away, coming out into this opening, and thought, okay, let's be there first light tomorrow because we might not be able

to glass. So the next morning we start out early. We get into position. It's kind of like overcast, low cloud. We get sort sort of a little bit of fog and light rain before it gets too light and glassing kind of where the elk were, and don't see anything. But then I catch kind of just this shape in the pre light about I don't know, eight hundred yards out and I know, okay, those bushes just don't look right.

It's not light enough to know, but I decide we're going to move over and get into position there just in case. So we dropped down the canyon start working out still in that dark kind of pre light. It's not shooting light yet, and now as we're working over there, it starts to get a little bit lighter. Now it's legal shooting light. We pop up on the rise where we're planning on going, and sure enough there's a herd

elk out there. We get set up and we're trying to get a double so Joe is set up on the elk, and then Scott is buddies it's set up as well, but we just couldn't coordinate it just right. So Joe ends up shooting, drops the bull, and then the other bull runs out, but he's obstructed by cows, and so we end up getting the first bull. Like sweet, you get that bowl, take care of that bowl, pack him out, and it's it's raining, starting to snow nour

his abilities going, but hey, we're successful. It was a great, great morning and the plan came together. So now for the rest of the week, we're gonna be looking for a bull for Scott. And we start going out and checking out, you know, all the other places that we can hunt. Luckily, it's it dumped snow that day and then started to clear up the next day, and then it was kind of under these where it's like snowed,

cleared up and then burning off. So we're hunting, like I guess would be like a day or two later, and we're up on this big ridge and what I like to do is I'm just like glassing into the timber in these pockets down lower at this you know area that we hiked into. And for some reason, this one ridge, I always start thinking, Okay, I'm gonna look for shed andlers because it seems like a good area.

It's pretty remote. I think maybe there will be some sheds in here, and my thought is if I'm glassing hard enough for shed antlers, then I will probably find an elk or deer or whatever are looking for. So I'm glass and glass and glass and don't see anything, and I'm just kind of looking for those shapes maybe of a shed, but also you know other things that I searched for, ears, like the shape of an animal,

different things. And I'm glassing at this one spot and my god, this rock just looks really weird because what drew my attention to it. I've got my binoculars and um, you know, it's just it just looked like a spot in the bock. It was just really far away, maybe a mile and a half away. So I get my little spotting scope out and it's kind of windy and you know, a little bit of haze in the air,

like it's not really great glass and conditions. But I zoom in and I'm just I don't know why I want to look at this rock, but I'm just like, look at the rock. I'm okay, and look at it and like thinking in my head, I'll check that rock again. Whatever. It just didn't look right, like there's something about this rock that looked weird. So I'm glassing all over and I go back to the rock and the rocks still just a rock. And normally I don't point out in and out of my objects because as a guide I

get that all the time. Like I has been like, well, this this tree over there looks like an elk, and then they try to describe where it's at and I'm like, well, is it a tree. Yeah, it's like thirty ft long log, but it looks, you know, to them, it looks like an elk. So I don't want to waste my time looking at logs when I'm like okay, yeah, and I just kind of ignore it and glass. I'm like, god, this this rock just like it's got the perfect shape of a wolf sitting there, like it's is white rock

and it looks like a wolf. Like. But I mean, we are miles away. It's just like this weird shaped rock that hasn't you know, it's just a rock. So I told the guys, I'm like, there's I'm looking at it through my spotting scope and I've been checking it for the last hour, half hour, and I'm telling the guys. I'm like, hey, guys, there's this rock down there. It looks just like a wolf. You should check it out because it's just like, I don't know, it's a funny,

random white rock down in the bottom. It's trund to buy all these other rocks. I don't know. It just like looks like a wolf, you know. But I was like, I've been looking at it for a long time. It's nothing, It's just a rock, but you might want to I find this rock interesting. Just as I'm saying that the rock moves, sure enough, it was a white wolf down in the bottom of this canyon. I'm like, oh, okay, that's a wolf. And then I started to look around.

All the black rocks that were around it start to move as well. It was an entire pack of wolves, but the white one, which we don't really have very many white ones here there's and all the other ones were black. But the way they were curled up and

laying at that distance just looked like rocks. They weren't moving, they weren't doing anything, but something just looked off about these rocks that I kept coming back to and looking at him, looking at him, And it was very unexpected in this particular spot that I would see wolves, let alone a large pack of wolves, including a large white wolf. Once it stood up and was moving, then it was

fairly clear what it was. I ended up getting a little bit of video and photo through the spotting scope, got my big spot where one of the guys had a bigger spotting scope, I just had my little backpacking spotting scope. So I got there spotting scope out, zoomed it up sixty power, like, oh, clearly that's a wolf, and so we watched them for a little bit. They fed on some bones. Unfortunately, nobody had any wolf tags

or anything, so um, we just watched them. But it was just one of those times where I was spotting and it was it was kind of an unexpected spot. But also, you know, I was able to find those animals just by king into a few of the tenants that I feel are very imperative to glassing. There was

something wrong about that picture. I kept looking back and looking back, and then caught the movement and verified, oh, there's something there, And it was just kind of a cool spot that I'll probably remember forever when it comes to picking out animals, picking out things on the mountain, finding what you're looking for. I really believe that, um, maybe a lot of the information out there that I mean, I remember reading things in the past of Okay, you need to look for this, and you need to look

for that. But when I'm out looking, there's a way that I go about it. There's certain things that I keep in mind, but I also want to make sure that I see everything there. And it always reminds me of a psychology experiment that I remember seeing I don't know, in some textbooks somewhere, uh, maybe you're familiar with. It's like the guerrilla experiment where there's people passing a ball and they ask, okay, count how many times the balls

passed back or forth? And then in this video, maybe like a few minutes into it, this gorilla guy in a gorilla costume walks out in the background kind of like dances around, stares at the audience, and then walks off the screen maybe nine seconds total, ten seconds whatever. Then they go and ask everybody who is counting the basketball, so, okay, how many passes back and forth? Most people got it correct. Then they said, who saw a gorilla? And half the

people didn't even and realize the gorilla. Why because they were focused on one task and the gorilla was invisible to them. I kind of think of glassing is that same way where many people are looking for a deer, looking for a deer, looking for a deer, and because they're they've got something in their mind that they're looking for, they miss everything else. And a lot of times the other things are what clue you into finding an animal,

finding an elk, finding something. So I believe that there's good search parameters to have, but there's also kind of this overarching thing of what I'm looking for, And I want to kind of describe this process, but I believe it comes down to when you're looking for animals, understanding, getting your brain to react to four of the major I would say, tenants of noticeable things that trigger a response of there's something there, and that would be understanding, size, reference,

picking out certain shapes, separating out different colors, and then one of the big A factor's movement. So I'm gonna break these down into those four parts, and we're gonna start with size. Now, when you're when you're glassing, so many times I'll be glassing with a client, glassing with another hunter, glassing with someone, and I'll be looking four

or five miles away and I'll spot elk. Now they'll be looking at that same thing and not spot anything, or not spot the deer, not spot what I'm spotting. And I think a lot of it has to do with understanding the type of size to key in on on what you're looking for. Now. That involves understanding how far you're looking, understanding the magnification of your binoculars, and understanding the size of the animal you're looking for. Am I looking for? I always say like, are you looking

for ants or elephants? On a close hill? Are you looking for something really small? Or on a far out hill? Are you looking for something too big? When you look and you go, oh, that might be an l And then you realize that you're looking at a rock that's the size of a house. You know, you have to adjust your search parameters and adjust you know, the size

reference in your mind of what you're looking for. That also lends into translating into what optics to use on different varying places you're glassing, how steady you're gonna need to be, and understanding, okay, what tools for the job for where I'm looking, and understanding how steady you're gonna need to be maybe are your binoculars. Should it be a spotting scope job or a binocular job? Do I need to get the tripod out? Or is this something

that I can hand hold? Having all that, so when you throw your binoculars up, you'ren't wasting time, you know, looking at too far in the distance and a shaky binoculars where what you're looking for will be impossible to spot, or maybe spending your time on too close with the zoomed in spotting scope where you don't have a wide enough view and you're wasting your time looking that way.

The best way to understand the size references picking out items and objects on distant hills and distant places that you kind of understand their basic size, and then compare that basic size to the animal that you're hunting. So this would be a for instance, I'm glassing way off in the distance, right, I've got my binoculars. I'm looking across the valley and I see standing tip Like, look what do you see around? Okay, there's some standing timber,

there's some rocks. There's some other things that are maybe near where I'm at as well, maybe a sagebrush bush, well, um, maybe a ponderosa tree, maybe a couple of other trees. Okay, well, what's something that I can kind of gauge the animal size that i'm looking for to what i'm looking at? Okay, how big does that tree look? Now, instead of gauging things on the height of the tree, look at the trunk of the tree. How why do you think that tree is compared to the trees that around where you're

at or you've seen. Is that comparable to the width or the length of an animal's body size? And then you can understand, Okay, I'm looking for something that's that big by maybe you know half of its body length or width, and you can start to gauge and say, okay, that's the size that I'm looking for. How much detail can you see what you're looking at a distance? Can you see the bark of the tree or can you not?

One thing I'll do many times is I'll pull out my range finder and range the hill that I'm looking at. It's funny how once you understand how far something is, or really get a grasp of how far it is, you can start to build out that size reference a lot better. Just yesterday, I was sitting looking at this big meadow that looked fairly close. I take out my range finder, go nine yards. I'm looking at it kind

of bear. I thinking, yeah, I would see a deer on this hill, which I would, but also the deer that I'm thinking I would see would be more in that reference of the four hundred yard deer where you you easily see it. Instead now you know, well it's kind of brush you over there as well. It's a lot further than it looks. Now I'm going to focus in and just realize that I'm looking for something smaller. Uh, focusing tighter, maybe get more steady, not just throw the

buyos up and give it a quick scan. Slow down, take my time. And then I started picking out the deer um in foliage that was, you know, like comparing it to Okay, those bushes are going to be about the size of the animal, and look for it will be very concealed. I'm gonna have to slow down and really pick it apart because that size reference of instead of thinking, oh, I will see the deer standing above

those bushes. Now that I realized that the deer are going to be below those bushes, so it depends on it gives me the cadence for glassing. It gives me a way to focus in and it gives me an understanding of what I'm looking at. The same thing goes for even the same scenario. This last week, I'm set up glassing. I look at my on X, I pull it out a measure. The distance I got that that area I'm glassing is five miles away. I'm looking for something very small, but I'm looking for elk you know.

I I look at it and go, well, it's a grassy opening. The grass around me and this kind of similar environment. Is this tall, I should be able to see those elk um. They're gonna be, you know, the width of the base of that big ponderosa tree. And then I start picking apart and seeing these dots and then watching those and seeing, okay, they're moving. I verified their elk They've got everything else, the right shape, the right color. Obviously their elkum. Now we can make a play.

And that play led to harvesting a good six by six bull just on a couple of days ago. So that size reference is key and understanding what to look for, but also how to spot. If I know i'm looking further way, I'm going to know that I need to be steadier. If I know that maybe that brush is taller than what I'm looking at. Understanding that is going to really help me use my time wisely to focus in.

So many times people look at a hill and they think, oh, there's nothing there because they can see what it looks, open, whatever, but they don't realize that at that distance, you know, what they're looking at might conceal what they're trying to look for. So, okay, that might be more of a scenario where I take out the spotting scope, I zoom it in just the power instead of using my ten power binoculars. I zoom into twenty and I and I

grid that I start to look slow. But also there's another hill in between here and are where I want that wide view, So I'm not just spending so much time looking so close. And I'm just gonna do the same thing, glassing off my knees, holding the brim in my hat, steadying my optics, and just combing over that stuff close in a wider view where I understand if there's something there, I should see it relatively easy, and then slowing down as I get to those more covered areas.

Now we're going to jump into the next segment, which would be shape. I think one thing that is important is having some form of search parameter. I call him search parameters, like this thing in your mind that you're looking for. Now. You never want that thing in your mind that you're looking for to just be the whole animal standing there. Very very few times is that what I noticed? But if I really think about when I'm

out spotting. I've tried to do this as I was thinking about this podcast and really trying to build it out. When I spot things, I just see them now it might be a piece of them. Most of the time, it might be something that is off about what I'm seeing. There's just something that catches my eye. I don't necessarily know exactly what first catches my eye, but it's always something that catches my eye now that just translates immediately in my brain to elk, dear, whatever I'm looking for.

It is funny because when you're when you're thinking about a certain animal and I'm when I'm looking for elk, I probably seem more elk than dear because I'm I've got these certain search features that I'm looking for. But one thing that's very um universal as far as spotting, you know in in different game animals is the shape thing. I think the wolves that I spotted, what caught my eye was the shape the outline. Um, there's something about the shape that I was already searching for that picked

up my eye. So I don't necessarily look for the whole animal, but I look for certain shapes. So I'm gonna break down some of the certain certain shapes that you can have in your I guess like in your mind as the search parameters. The first would be an outline. What's the outline? What's the silhouette of the animal you're looking for? At distance? Many animals, even if you see the holy animal, they're blocked out, they're darker, and you're

just seeing the silhouette. So think of the silhouette in a three sixty view. You've got the side profile, the broadside, the what do you see in that silhouette. You've got the head with the nose shape, You've got a neck that swoops, You've got a back, and then you've got the rounded end of the rear end. Then you've got the vertical legs. Think about that silhouette, and then you've also got the underline of the body. So you're looking

you're thinking of a silhouette. Now let's turn that silhouette facing you. What do you see. Well, now you've got more of that ear profile, that kind of Mickey Mouse silhouette. You've got the long neck, and then you've got the line underneath the chest and the legs. Let's flip it

around to the back end. What do you see. You might see the same ear profile if the heads up, but if the heads down, you might just see kind of a rounded back end and the legs or you know, this kind of dish profile the hips where it goes up from the hips and you start build out that. Really think about these profiles, these outlines, because those like understanding those types of shapes of the animals you're looking for is really going to help you spot what you're

sitting there. Defined One thing that I heard a long time ago, like when I got started, when people are talking about glassing, is that they'd say, like, look for look for the lines, look for these lateral lines. There's a lot of lines and animals that I think really stand out. One of them is the is the line of the leg The legs are this vertical that goes to this horizontal that doesn't necessarily seem natural in all

the other natural stuff. Another one of the lines is that line of the back, or the line of the belly, the line of the neck, but honestly that that back in belly line, these two parallel lines at distances or whatever. It's kind of this. Yes, there's things that are laying down, but it's this this kind of unnat trill natural thing where it looks slightly different than the environment around it,

while everything else might be broken up. Um, the bushes have more of a fringe, the trees and logs have that What is this shape and what are these lines that I'm looking at when I'm still hunting. This is something that I actually try to key into, is these lines through forces I'm moving through really thick cover, I'm looking for not necessarily vertical lines, but horizontal lines. Or if i'm glass and close, I'm looking for those vertical lines of the legs, little pieces that kind of symbolize

or trigger my mind to say, there's an animal. And there are things that often get looked over when you're moving slow, when you're in thick cover. You know, keeping those search parameters and understanding those lines and just bringing up mental pictures of what animals look like, the certain shapes and silhouettes, and then the type of lines that you're looking for. Don't look for the animal, look for those lines and then key in and focusing on that.

Another thing I noticed that I kind of look for is is I start to think off shapes. That's when I even talk about maybe looking for something that is very hard to find, and you'll pick up things that are easier. One thing is is shed antlers. I kind of in my mind think find a shed, find an antler, because what that will do is that triggers my mind to start thinking of that off shape, that shape of

an antler. Sometimes I'll find sheds. Sometimes I'll find antlers attached to an animal, and that might be something that I pick up along the way while I'm sitting there glassing at distance or in thick cover as I'm still hunting, something that immediately tells my brain, Oh, there's an animal there, this is what I'm looking for. And then again those rounded shapes. There's a lot, especially if you're like spring

bear hunting. One thing I'm always trying to think of when I'm spring bear hunting is is look for the round. Look for that curve of the back, the bear feeding that the round at any position, this kind of unnatural round object that's in whatever I'm looking for, or a piece of that round object, kind of thinking of breaking it down into pieces legs, ears, back, neck, um hit, Like, just think of the pieces of the animal and build

those mentally, even before your glassing. You know, it seems very strange in a way where you're like, the easiest way to find deers look for deer. People that just look for deer don't spot as much as the people that understand to look for pieces of what they're looking for, and they've built out in their head these mental images

of the parameters that they're seeking. Because what happens is as you look, I can throw my for me, I feel like I'm very good at glass and very good at picking out animals before other people because I throw up my binoculars and I don't have to analyze everything. I let my brain look at it and then it just triggers there's something there, or then I focus in

on that. I can scan a hillside probably two or three times faster than most hunters because I have these search parameters, and obviously it happens by doing it a lot and practicing. I mean, just like anything, it takes practice. It sounds weird, but glassing practice, yes, it makes a

really big difference. Of people say, well, you know what to look for, Yes, I know it to look or but I've also trained myself to look for certain things that trigger in and I can I can throw my binoculars up, scan a hillside, or sit down and grab out the spotty scale and know what to do when, and it utilizes my time better in those especially those times when it's gonna be easier to spot animals, or in those times where it's very difficult to spot animals,

I'll generally spot them. There's very little that gets by me because I have these search parameters always going. I'm the type of person that I could be driving down the highway sixty miles an hour and two miles away spotted deer. It's just because I'm always looking. But my brain triggers into those certain features. There's certain shapes, and I understand the size reference of where I'm looking at what distances. That comes with practice, and it comes with

kind of building out a mental picture in your mind. Now, the next two I think are are very key, and that would be color and movement. What I want to do is I want to break those down in a little more detail next week. So for this week we just cover in size and shape. Next week we're going to talk about the color and movement, and those are probably two of the most important things the key in on and the easiest to really get started. But I want you to start building these mental pictures before we

build out coloring movement into our search parameters. When it comes to glassing your homework for the week. On the next hunt that you go on, I really want you to start thinking about this size and shape reference. Now, if you aren't hunting, maybe you're new to it, maybe you're new to this whole spotting thing. Throw up images like look through wildlife photos, look at different silhouettes, and start thinking of like building out this idea and this

mental thing of what you're looking for. I mean, for me, it's an exercise in it's something that just happens. I mean, I'm always constantly, I think most hunters, I'm always thinking about the animals that I'm chasing. I'm always thinking about mule deer, but I'm also thinking about when I go out. I'm looking at the terrain that I'm in, and I just really try to picture what is reasonable that I might see. I don't really try to picture this big

animal standing out there. The ones that I miss are like the ones right in front of me, often because I'm always looking further or thinking that they're more concealed. So maybe I gotta add in my homework is just gonna be adding more of that, like big animals standing there, Hey, I'm right here kind of thing. Um. But what I would suggest is just kind of start to think about those shapes, like look at the photo, break it down in your mind of little pieces, little parts, like what

does that look like? As I talk about it, I just visualize it. And I think that there's a big aspect of just visualizing these things before you ever go out, before you ever get into the field. Maybe you're new to it, this is something that you can do. Study pictures of animals in those environments and not just clear pictures animals, pictures of a hillside and what do you see and what might it look like? And build those search parameters in your head. You want these things to

be automatic. You want to be the guy that can throw up the binoculat spot something that's very hard to spot. And it's not because you have a Like, having a better eye is really having a better mind. It's understanding what you can see. Now, there is something to be said for having good vision. You know. Obviously, if you've got contacts and you'ren't wearing them, that you probably aren't gonna see as much. But a good eye means understanding

what you're looking for. That takes practice. And if you don't have all the time to practice understanding and looking at those those references and and really building out that mental picture you think about it, get your mind trained to find things for you and let your eyes do the looking, in your mind do the spotting. And I think that that's what's key to this whole process. So that's your homework till next week, and then we're gonna break down the other part of that tips the color

and the movement. And I think by the time you combine all these things together and looking at at it that way, I think you're gonna be a lot better at spotting. So I really just wanted to break this out for you. I think that it's a it's a really good tip it's a really good tactic, and it's me just trying to dissect the way that I do things. I've been doing it my entire life. I've been doing

it profession only. I've gotten really good at it. But I believe that it's very hard to explain sometimes how you get better at certain things unless you kind of talk in this way of like I really try to dissect what I'm doing. So I hope it's helpful, and I hope it's something that you can enact in your next hunt or in any hunt. As always, you know,

feel free to make this a two way conversation. I try to, you know, obviously it's like right in the middle of hunting season, but honestly, if I get a little bit of service or in the evenings in the mornings, I love to, like look at those messages. I read almost everything. I just maybe don't have time to respond to whatever. So um, keep those messages coming because I really it really like encourages me and gets me fired up to hear so many success stories and other things.

So I just appreciate you all until next week, keep a share by catch you guys later.