Ep. 9: The Best Spot I’ve Ever Made and How to Be More Efficient at Glassing
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. Now picture this. It's the last day of your elk hunt.

It's been just one of those tough weeks, you know? Out of all your gear, I want to know what you think that you have at your disposal is the single most effective tool to being successful. Now, if you ask me, I would say it's your binoculars. While they don't shoot the animal you're chasing, more often than not, they're responsible for my success. I'd venture to say that for Western hunting, one of the most successful tactics you can employ is glassing.

I define glassing as the act of finding game at far off distances through a set of optics. This week, I want to tell you the story of the best spot I ever made, and it was just in the nick of time. I also want to go over ways to get the most out of your optics, how to get steady, and what you should be looking for while you're glassing. It's mid-November in Montana, and I'm guiding an elk hunt.

Now you got to get into my mindset. When I'm guiding, I want my hunters to be as successful as if I were the one with the tag. You know, it's everything to me to give them a good hunt. But there are those times when the person I'm guiding, I actually almost want them to get it even more than had I had the tag because they're just such cool people. So I think in order to really explain this story, I have to first talk about the guy I took out.

Now, his name was Mark Larson. He'd never harvested an elk before. Now, when Mark showed up, I was hoping for a fairly easy elk hunt because he told me a story of what had happened to him before he had come on this trip. Now, it had been a few years prior, but although this isn't my story, I just got to share it because it gives you the mindset of the kind of awesome dude this guy was and how bad I wanted to get him his first bull.

Now, Mark was, I would consider him a cowboy, but also he was just an all around good dude. Now, years earlier, he was breaking a horse and this new horse, he put a saddle on that was too small for this horse. The horse takes off when he gets on. His foot gets caught in the stirrup. As the horse runs around a fence, Mark's leg gets caught in the fence with the other foot caught in the stirrup.

He falls off with a foot caught and the horse pulls. As it pulls, it essentially rips his pelvis in half, snapping it. Now, you got to know what kind of a tough guy Mark is because when he got up, he held his hips together, forced on his hands, walked back to his truck and got himself to the hospital. I mean, it's just an incredibly tough guy.

They ended up having to put his pelvis back together with a bunch of metal rods through his pelvis. So at this point now he's worked up, done his PT and he can hike and he's going to hunt Montana elk. A few of the things that are working against him is when it's cold, that cold from the metal in his body, he feels it the whole time. Now, Mark was wanting an elk more than anybody's wanted an elk before. And he was ready to put in the work.

And that's what I respect. He shows up, he's got his boots and his jeans and he is just ready to go. The unfortunate part is I am doing everything in my power to find an elk and it is just a really, really tough week. I don't know where the bulls went. We're seeing plenty of cows, but we just cannot turn up a bull. So what's that mean? We just got to hunt harder. And he's right there with me.

I'm not joking. We were putting in 20 mile days for five days. Hiking is like we couldn't find the elk. We end up hiking further, glassing longer, hunting harder, leaving way before sun up and getting back way after dark. I'm not going to lie. I was wore out and I generally don't get wore out. We were hunting hard and he was right there every step of the way. I always like to think

The harder you hunt, you're often rewarded. And now it's the last day of his hunt. And I was worried that it wasn't going to pan out for him. I mean, he had put in the time getting to the position where he could even hike like that. He hunted harder than 99% of the people I'd ever guided. And yet we were still struggling to find a bull.

It's the last day and I just have the pressure on me because I want him to get a bull more than I've ever wanted anybody to get a bull before. We're hiking up the ridge. I'm hiking, stopping, glassing, hiking, stopping, glassing, get to this new base. And we've pushed in further than we did the days before into this big burn area. I'm sitting down locked off. And then I I've got my head rested on my pack. I'm glassing, I think probably a mile and a half away.

And I all of a sudden spot something that just looks out of place. Now it's starting to get a little windy, so I grab my tripod out, put my binoculars on my tripod, just start staring at the spot. I'm like, gosh, is it? It's this little, just the shine of this stick is just a little bit off. So I decided to grab my spotting scope out, zoom it into 60 power, and sure enough, it's the back tine of a bull. That's all I can see.

And it's a mile and a half away. Okay, this is it. This bull's bedded. We move in. I range the ridge in front of this bull. We get set up 300 yards away. We wait for the bull to stand.

Mark steady. He takes a perfect shot and drops the bull on the last day of his hunt. He gets a bull. And I believe that that was the best spot I've ever made. When you look back at that, when I showed him what I'd seen through the spotting scope, we thought no way could anyone have spotted that animal. And I think it was just because of a few little things that I like to do and the ways that I get steady that we were successful that week. And Mark was able to get his bull.

Now, growing up, we always had this adage, buy the best glass you can afford. And there's a reason for that. It's because binoculars and optics are such a great tool, but the quality varies and it's pretty much directly attached to the price. It's because a lot more goes into making optics that are a little bit clearer, a little bit easier to look through. They've got crisper focus and more definition.

So I could go into optics and everything that makes up a good pair of binoculars, but that adage is just the easiest way to explain it. Buy the best you can afford. The higher the price, the better the binocular.

You know, you know what your budget is, but I would start creeping up toward that top end binocular if you can do it. Because out of your whole kit of gear that you can have, and honestly, I get asked more gear questions than any other questions. Out of that whole kit, I honestly believe that your binoculars are probably the most important. Your binoculars are really what gets you game in open country and Western type hunting.

Now let's say that you've got that good pair of binoculars. Okay. Having a great pair of binoculars does not necessarily mean you're going to spot more stuff in the wrong hands. A $2,000 pair of binoculars is just a worthless neck piece. It's a flavor, flavor clock around your neck. It's just a time piece that costs you a lot of money. That means absolutely no more success in the field.

And I think the first step to using your binoculars correctly is knowing how to get steady. Now that might seem intuitive, but I see it all the time. The way people glass is just a freehold. They throw their binoculars up. They're just moving around.

and they aren't able to pick out the things that a guy or girl that has the skills to get steady and do quality looking has. Now, you could take somebody that knows how to glass and give them a cheap pair of binoculars, and somebody that doesn't know how to get steady and give them the best pair of binoculars, and the person with the cheap binoculars will probably outglass them every time. It's because steady glass is good glass.

Now, I hunt with people all the time that rarely spot things, and there's a reason for that. The first step to using your optics, and this is the most basic of steps, you got to put the damn things to your face, okay?

Now, that seems like, of course, but you'd be surprised how many times people go out, out hunting, and they rarely look through their binoculars. They're looking with their eyes, they're scanning around, and then they throw their binoculars up when they think they see something.

When I'm in the field hunting, I'm looking through my binoculars probably 80% of the day. The other times I'm just walking around. Even when I'm in cover, I'm using my binoculars to scroll the focus to check even through or behind thicker cover because I know the advantage that my binoculars give me. It allows me to see the world closer, clearer, and pick up the slightest things in more detail. People are always amazed at the things that I see.

And I think I really attribute it to the time that I spend looking through the binoculars because I'm looking at the world through a more magnified, better view than just with my eyes. Now, I do catch a lot of things.

with my naked eye, as I would call it. But I'm looking through my optics probably more than I am just scanning with my bare eyes. O'Reilly Auto Parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you, the other day, I went into an O'Reilly Auto Parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there, you know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. Now, I think the best way to understand the way that I hunt with binoculars is to just kind of go through a hunt. So there's a lot of things involved in hunting. Glassing is a huge portion of it, but there's a lot of walking and moving to different spots, checking out different areas.

so i would say for my naked eye i use it to preview an area and to catch movement you can catch a lot of movement through your peripheral vision but as soon as it comes time to look through the binoculars the key is to get steady and to do that is what i call locking off so you'll see the guys they're just free holders they're just walking around free handing their binoculars throwing it up to their face

Now you might see something like that, but with a little bit of shake in your optics, what you're doing is you're stressing your eye because it has to follow with the bounce and you aren't going to be able to pick out as much detail. Just locking off and getting slightly steadier will allow you to pick out more and more detail. So the more steady the glasses, the more detail you're going to pick up later on.

Let's go with standing. Now I'm walking, I'm looking at this hillside or other things as I move along. Let's say within the out max, say 400 yard range. This is great for just standing and giving it a scan.

But when I'm standing, the way I hold my binoculars is I've got my binoculars up to my face. And instead of just holding them out with my elbows out, the binoculars get heavy and it causes bounce. So what I do is I bring my elbows down into my body or my chest. I have my hands around the binoculars and then I grab and pinch the binoculars between the bill of my hat.

What that does is my hat is on my head, which is a straight line to the ground down my legs. So as I'm standing, I'm locking my elbows into my body or my trunk and then my binoculars onto my hat. It's like a grounded effect. It's straight to the ground and is way more stable than just throwing binoculars up and freeholding it.

Now, let's say we've moved through and we get to this bigger basin and we're now looking at what I would say, maybe that 400 to 1,000 yard range, maybe out to a mile or just under a mile, maybe that 1,500, 1,600 yard range. For that, I want to be even more locked off. Now, it might not be an area that I want to spend all day looking at, but it's something that needs some investigating. So for that, I'm going to do what would be sitting down, getting grounded.

By getting grounded, I'm adding even more stability to my entire setup.

I'm going to be able to spot more. I'm going to be able to see more detail. So when I'm on the ground, I've got my pack on. I'm sitting on my butt with the pack as a backrest. So that's going to stabilize my upper torso. Then I've got my feet planted on the ground with my knees up. I've got my elbows locked to my knees. So what that's doing is it's putting everything that's holding the binocular more points of contact on the ground. It's just a lot more stable. Now I'm locking my hands to the bill of my hat and I'm glassing and scanning.

This is great when you're moving and checking new areas because you're sitting down and you're able to pick out even more detail.

You can even take that a step further and almost what looks like you're taking a nap, lay down, get your head rested on something because you want to be stable. If I'm walking and I come over a ridge into a new base and it's almost like I'm laying down, I'm on the ground, I'm locked off and I'm looking, I'm just covering it and getting a better source of information of what's over there by taking a steady look at it before I move on.

So many times, that's how I've spotted animals that I probably would have otherwise glanced past by just standing there, scanning while standing up and then moving on. That bull that I spotted for Mark, just picking out that one tine was because I was practically laying down, got that glass so steady that I was able to see the slightest shine off the back tine of a bull at almost a mile away.

So there's a lot to be said for being steady. Now, what if you're overlooking an area? Let's say you've got to what I would call a glassing tit or a glassing knob. That's an area where you've got a great vantage and your primary function for the day is just looking over that country. At that point, I'm going to get even more stable. I'm going to break out the tripod.

Now, I write for Western Hunter Magazine and I've worked a lot with a company called Outdoorsman. They make adapters for tripods for glassing. And that's kind of how I got into using a tripod with my binoculars.

Because in the southwest, those guys, they're trying to spot coos deer. It's over huge expanse of open country, very hard to see deer, and just that little bit of stability. What it does is when the binoculars are stationary without you moving while on that tripod, it allows your eyes to scan what's in the field of view of the binocular. Because of that, you're able to pick out things at further distances than you can while holding it because of the shake.

So just that tripod action allows you to move your eyes and focus inside what's in the binocular and then move the binocular on the tripod and then scan that new area.

you'd be surprised. I mean, I can spot with my binoculars two and a half miles or more, depending on the game when it's on a tripod. So you go from a pair of binoculars, a lot of guys have trouble spotting stuff 400 yards away with because they're just standing there to now being able to use the same piece of equipment to reach three, four miles out. I mean, I've hunted in Nevada for elk, sat five miles away with my 12 power binoculars on a tripod and started picking out bulls in the timber.

It's because of the steady nature of putting it on the tripod allows you to pick out so many more details than if you're just freeholding it. Now, just because you might not be in big open country also doesn't mean you shouldn't be using your binoculars. I think one thing that gets overlooked all the time is people that hunt timber or are still hunting through on a way to a glassing area forget to use their optics in that because they think that they can see so close.

The trouble is, is your eyes focus on the brush and everything in the way. When you throw your binoculars up, what I'll do is I'll still hunt through a piece as I'm going to a glassing area. I'll put my binoculars up and then I'll just scroll that focus because what that focus does is it changes your depth of field that you're looking through and past brush. If there's something, maybe say just behind a big cluster of timber,

You'll be zoomed in and you'll be able to focus on each focal length beyond what your eyes capture. I've caught so many animals that way that have led to a successful hunt just by using my binoculars, even in close quarters. So just because you might not be in an area that is wide open where you can see for miles doesn't mean you shouldn't also use your binoculars there. Honestly, binoculars are one of the most effective tools we have. And to get good at it, you have to practice.

Now, people always ask, well, what do I look for? That's a great question because I'm not necessarily looking for a whole animal when I'm glassing. What I'm looking for is a piece of the animal. And that piece of the animal I'm looking for is something that looks out of place. Now, in that story, when I spotted just the back tine of a bull, what it was was the way that the sun hit that. It had a sheen that the other branches didn't have. And because I was steady, I was able to pick up on that.

Think about the shape of an animal. A lot of things that I look for are the flat lines that really kind of stand out in nature. The lateral line of the back, the flat horizontal line of the back, maybe the dark or the vertical line of the leg.

a piece or the round shape of the ear, the shine or bifurcation of an antler branch for mule deer, say, or the way that the beam grows on an elk with tines coming straight out of it. Things that look slightly out of place for the terrain or the background around them. If you've got an area that has very little white,

the white patch on a mule deer stands out. But if it's really white, maybe the dark colors stand out. It's things that look different than everything else you're looking at. I rarely look for the whole animal. Most oftentimes, I'm just looking for something that looks out of place. You

You create these mental pictures as you get used to glassing and start finding things. What did you pick out on that? Was it an ear? Was it a movement? Now, moving animals are easy to see, but what about the stationary animals when it's tough, when you haven't seen much? What do you look for then? Well, that's when you really have to key into the specific little pieces that just don't look right.

The pieces that identify that's an animal, but I don't know why that's an animal at this point. It needs a closer look. And that's where your spotting scope comes in. When I'm glassing, it's 99% of the time through my binoculars. I rarely will just sit and scan an area with my spotting scope because it causes a lot of eye strain to close one eye. You'd be better off putting your binoculars on a tripod, covering an area, and

and then using your spotting scope to get just a closer look and identify maybe some things that looked out of place or some areas that you think, well, maybe an animal will be hiding in there. But overall, the key to glassing is getting steady and creating a mental search note for things that just look out of place.

I have a saying. If you were to go out with me hunting, generally in the morning, what I'm going to tell you is let's put our balls all over this hill. And what I mean is your eyeballs. You just got to remember that right there is the trick of the trade. And I talked about glassing this week because I got so many questions on glassing.

And I know last week we did a little Q&A. There's just a pile of emails and messages about how do I find stuff? What should I be doing when I'm out there looking? Glassing was the number one thing that I got questions about. I think rightfully so because it is probably the most effective tactic. It's kind of hard to talk about. It's a little dry. When you're out there glassing, it can get boring. But you just got to get out there, keep doing it, keep practicing, keep those little tips in mind.

The other thing that I got asked about a lot was just gear. And out of all the gear, boots was probably up there in the top. So next week, what I want to talk about is boot selection, foot care. I've even got a great story for you about a guy who got gangrene by not following the rules of foot care and boot selection.

That's a dangerous thing to get in the elk woods. So we'll cover that. And then I might even, after that, jump back into just a different avenue of glassing or spotting game before your friends. I think that'll be cool. So we got those. Still don't have a good sign off. But until next week, put your balls all over the mountain. Your eyeballs, not gender specific. Adios. Adios.

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