To each his own. Anytime there is a gear related question a person’s answer is based on two things. The area they hunt and their own hunting methods. Even when I hunted places with ample cover the mulies spent quite a bit of time in the open. So that was the most user friendly place to locate them. Also a way to look them over without getting busted and blowing them out. In those areas 10 power binos is never too much. On an early high country hunt like some in Colorado or say Wyoming anything worth shooting is above timberline. Yes there are some decent bucks lower but it’s not the area to place your bets. Those 200 inchers that Non Typical Outfitters consistently puts on the ground are glassed up from the highest peaks and the ridges that connect them. A guy could use 12 or 15x glass up there. Nobody in their right mind would be up there without a quality spotting scope and a tripod let alone relying in 8x binoculars. I have no experience in an area like Colorado’s eastern plains so I can’t comment on the right tool for the job in a place like that. But in my experience big mule deer bucks keep their hides intact using very similar methods as pronghorn antelope. Hiding in the wide open where they can see their predators and usually before the enemy spots them. They commonly disappear before hunters even know they were there.
