Calling on my fellow color blind hunters - glassing advice

[Wapiti151]

Okay, odd one here. I was out on a hike today and hiked to a good vantage point to glass for deer on some winter range by the house. Never seen this discussed, and figured I’d bring it up here.

I’m color blind (red/green mainly but most earth tones are a challenge), for those that are not color blind…best way to explain it is I mostly see a sea of brown/green to my eye, but not really sure what’s brown or what’s green, the shades all blend. I can see the fall yellows, etc but anything gray, red, etc really blends in with all the other browns and greens that my eye sees. I SEE color, this is a common misconception to color seeing folk, if a color is on its own I will call it correctly most of the time…but when lots of colors are together, things become muted and blend together. Example, I can see an orange ball all day every day, now, throw that orange ball in some green grass…and it quite literally disappears.

Inherently, this makes glassing for mule deer harder for me. I consider myself pretty good at finding mule deer, better than some, not as good as others. I obviously don’t look for colors AT ALL other than the white rump, I mainly look for shapes such as legs, head shape, body shape, antlers, ears, etc. I also look for movement.

Question is, to all the other color blind western hunters out there who glass a lot (I’m sure I’m not the only one), what tricks do you use to more effectively find mule deer? I work HARD to improve my glassing, I glass year round for mule deer on hikes, during scouting trips and from the house. I am always looking to learn and improve (especially due to my color weakness), and would love to hear what other color challenged hunters are doing to be more efficient and effective when glassing.

 

[BBob]

Question is, to all the other color blind western hunters out there who glass a lot (I’m sure I’m not the only one), what tricks do you use to more effectively find mule deer?

Being color blind (red green anyway) makes no difference in finding animals at all. I've been color blind my whole life and it has never hampered my efforts to find animals. I am just as effective as the next guy and I hunt with some pretty good ones. I too see a sea of the same colored trees. I cannot tell the difference in color between the different oaks down here in S AZ. If a guy says "over by the brown oak" it means jack to me as I cannot see the difference between the brown ones and the green ones and the only reason I know there are brown and green ones is because people tell me it is so. I cannot see the different colors of the pines in the forest yet I have never had an issue finding animals. Early archery mule deer are orange pumpkins and I see them just fine. My advice is go hunt as your color blindness don't matter at all.

I'll add that I believe my color blindness gives me super vision when fishing. I have seen many trout in a river or stream that others with normal vision cannot. I've caught a lot of trout sight fishing that my buddies could not see.

 

[LongWayAround]

Interesting. I have some degree of red-green colorblindness but not as bad as you two.

I don't have any trouble finding animals, but I can't see blood very well. Especially blood on something like darker dirt or vegetation.

I saw a video awhile back where Valspar and an optics manufacturer got together to make regular color vision glasses. It seemed pretty cool to me.

 

[Wapiti151]

Thanks, I’m not saying I can’t find deer or that it “hampers” me…I find a lot of deer and am also as effective or more effective than some non color blind folks. Summer coats are certainly not pumpkins to me, I still have to look for shapes, movement, etc…not really any different than winter coats to my eye when the back drop is blended vegetation.

I guess what I’m asking is, do you or others find yourselves looking for anything specific, or have you found certain techniques/tactics that help you be more effective.

I’m continuously working on my glassing skills, always room to be better, so trying to see if there could be techniques that I don’t use…that I could apply.

 

[BBob]

I can't see blood very well.

I'm with you there. Once it dries I'm totally fuqued. I always have to have a backup buddy to call in if I need to blood trail. Luckily that's been few and far between. My buddies that have helped me cannot believe that I cannot see what is so obvious to them. I'm on my hands and knees grovelling in the dirt inspecting every little spot trying to see if it's blood and they can follow it standing up at walking pace. Very humbling.

 

[Wapiti151]

Interesting. I have some degree of red-green colorblindness but not as bad as you two.

I don't have any trouble finding animals, but I can't see blood very well. Especially blood on something like darker dirt or vegetation.

I saw a video awhile back where Valspar and an optics manufacturer got together to make regular color vision glasses. It seemed pretty cool to me.

Yes. Tracking is a big challenge as well. When tracking, I tend to not look for color as much as I look for the reflection or “glisten” of the fresh blood. Luckily, none of the guys I hunt with are color blind.

 

[Wapiti151]

I saw a video awhile back where Valspar and an optics manufacturer got together to make regular color vision glasses. It seemed pretty cool to me.

My wife has tried to get me to get these…I don’t think I’d want to though. Right now I don’t know what I’m missing, not sure I want to see what I’ve missed out on my whole life…I’d never want to take them off lol.

 

[BBob]

Summer coats are certainly not pumpkins to me, I still have to look for shapes, movement, etc…not really any different than winter coats to my eye when the back drop is blended vegetation.

I guess what I’m asking is, do you or others find yourselves looking for anything specific, or have you found certain techniques/tactics that help you be more effective.

I'll clarify the "orange pumpkin" thing. They don't pop out as much as a pumpkin on the hillside would but once you get the image (schema) of early season "orange" deer it becomes just another normal glassing deer thing. I can hang with normal vision guys glassing early and late season mule deer. Same for Coues and elk.

 

[BBob]

I saw a video awhile back where Valspar and an optics manufacturer got together to make regular color vision glasses. It seemed pretty cool to me.

I tried the Enchroma about 5-6 years ago. It was pretty cool but not huge and mind blowing like you see in some of the videos. I first tried them up in Banff and the best thing was I saw was the clouds in 3D for the first time ever. I didn't know it at the time but I've always seen clouds in one dimension, there is no depth to them. The added color added depth and separation to the clouds. Very cool! The other thing was I saw red pine needles for the first time in my life. I had no idea pine needles changed colors let alone turned red. I usually see two and sometimes a very vague third color in rainbows, the Enchroma let me see five. There were other revelations but for what they cost I didn't think they were good enough for me to keep at the time.

 

[Wapiti151]

Very interesting! I too only see two colors in a rainbow, yellow and blue. That cloud thing has me wondering now, never thought about that.

Same here on early and late season deer, I feel that due to coping with the color blindness, our brain will see things that others don’t. I still can’t see the early season red coats though…it’s just another deer. But I do find a lot of deer that my hunting partners don’t, my guess is they are looking for the color, where I pick up on the shapes or movement more than them.

 

[WeiserBucks]

It must effect people differently, I'm colorblind as a MOFO and ever since I was a little kid I spot more game than almost anybody I hunt with. Deer, elk and color phase bears especially. They all seem to stand out vs the terrain in my eyes.

 

[BRTreedogs]

It must effect people differently, I'm colorblind as a MOFO and ever since I was a little kid I spot more game than almost anybody I hunt with. Deer, elk and color phase bears especially. They all seem to stand out vs the terrain in my eyes.

I can attest this mofo spots game.

Usually after he explains where it is 3 times.
I just tell him yeah I see it. Even if I'm like wtf in my head.

 

[CorbLand]

Like you, shades kick my ass. People I go with see twice the animals that I do. Movement is about the only thing that will clue me into most. I have just learned to slow down and watch for small movements. Ears flickering, turning their head, etc.

For me, it doesn't matter with blood. Unless it is on my skin or in a big pool, it looks brown. Its one reason I dont like to hunt alone.

I cant even see hunter orange against brown/tan grass.

 

[CorbLand]

It must effect people differently, I'm colorblind as a MOFO and ever since I was a little kid I spot more game than almost anybody I hunt with. Deer, elk and color phase bears especially. They all seem to stand out vs the terrain in my eyes.

It does depend on your eyes. Back in WW2 they actively recruited people with a specific color blindness that made camo netting stand out.

 

[WoodBow]

I do OK picking up animals. I am significantly slower than they guy I hunt with most but we just have different glassing styles and he is just plain faster.

Blood trails are a REAL problem for me. I am on hands and knees for a bloodtrail that a normal person can follow at a walking pace.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Okay, odd one here. I was out on a hike today and hiked to a good vantage point to glass for deer on some winter range by the house. Never seen this discussed, and figured I’d

Question is, to all the other color blind western hunters out there who glass a lot (I’m sure I’m not the only one), what tricks do you use to more effectively find mule deer? I work HARD to improve my glassing, I glass year round for mule deer on hikes, during scouting trips and from the house. I am always looking to learn and improve (especially due to my color weakness), and would love to hear what other color challenged hunters are doing to be more efficient and effective when glassing.

Just hunt them in the sage flats!
Honesty it just takes time...you figure it out..I usually spot stuff before my non colorblind buddies.

Small spray bottle of hydrogen proxide works great for blood trialing. Follow the bubbles!

 

[Wapiti151]

Like you, shades kick my ass. People I go with see twice the animals that I do. Movement is about the only thing that will clue me into most. I have just learned to slow down and watch for small movements. Ears flickering, turning their head, etc.

For me, it doesn't matter with blood. Unless it is on my skin or in a big pool, it looks brown. Its one reason I dont like to hunt alone.

I cant even see hunter orange against brown/tan grass.

Sounds like our color blindness is similar. I don't have as big of problem when it comes to not spotting them, I think just because our brains learn to adapt...but there are certainly times depending on the deer's location and proximity to certain vegetation where I simply can't see it at all until I can catch the movement. I always wonder, and have this "fear" that i'm plain looking over deer and can't see them because of their location. The good thing though, is this "fear" of missing or not seeing a deer forces me to slow down and be more methodical with my glassing. Taking that extra few seconds or minutes to really focus in on a shadow, or what I think is movement. Another thing that I have found that I do is look for odd movements in the vegetation, more of a "gut" feeling that the movement was caused by something. Often times, I will then focus in on that piece of sage or whatever...and low and behold there is a deer sitting there feeding, but the deer doesn't stand out until I catch that movement of an ear or a head...then by brain will "see" the rest of the deer.

What's interesting for me, is I really only have this issue with deer...most other game I can see very easily.

and cool point you made about the WWII recruiting, never heard of that before but makes sense.

 

[CorbLand]

Sounds like our color blindness is similar. I don't have as big of problem when it comes to not spotting them, I think just because our brains learn to adapt...but there are certainly times depending on the deer's location and proximity to certain vegetation where I simply can't see it at all until I can catch the movement. I always wonder, and have this "fear" that i'm plain looking over deer and can't see them because of their location. The good thing though, is this "fear" of missing or not seeing a deer forces me to slow down and be more methodical with my glassing. Taking that extra few seconds or minutes to really focus in on a shadow, or what I think is movement. Another thing that I have found that I do is look for odd movements in the vegetation, more of a "gut" feeling that the movement was caused by something. Often times, I will then focus in on that piece of sage or whatever...and low and behold there is a deer sitting there feeding, but the deer doesn't stand out until I catch that movement of an ear or a head...then by brain will "see" the rest of the deer.

What's interesting for me, is I really only have this issue with deer...most other game I can see very easily.

and cool point you made about the WWII recruiting, never heard of that before but makes sense.

The darker the animal is, the better for me. Elk kick my ass if the back ground is tan.

Good glass helps a ton for me as well. A guy I hunt the most with has Razors and I compared them to my NLs. Even knowing an animal is in the FOV of the Razors, I still struggled to find them.

Like @Sccritterkiller mentioned, I do way better in the desert than I do in the mountains. I think its because they skyline themselves more often.

 

[Caseknife]

I'm not colorblind, but I get your frustration. The passenger window on my '94 Toyota has been tinted and that really screws with my spotting animals driving down the road. My dad taught us kids not to look for the whole animal, but legs, ear flickers, horizontal line between two trees only and that has helped me immensely in being able to spot more game than many of my friends. I don't have any little tip to help, sorry.

 

[MassNTrash20]

I too am blessed with the color blindness. While summer deer appear as orange pumpkins to some, I struggle finding deer the most during this time of year. Oddly enough, late season deer with gray coats are much easier for me to see.

It seems "one size fits all" doesn't apply to all color-blind folks.