You need a Deer Scanner. It sends out a signal and the deer bleat in return. If the bleat is constant and won't shut up, it's a female. If it bleats once, it's a male.
50 % of my blind/stand locations i can't see 60 yds in the early part of season. When the leaves fall i can see more. Half my areas have so many trees you can't even get a shot at 40 yds when the leaves are off
When the leaves are off, I could only see at most 30-40 yards from my stand.
Yeah the reason i hunt those areas is i see deer. I could get into more open woods. Then i would have to wait until the chasing phase started to see them running through.
I can't see the deer. I can only hear them. That's what I have to hunt. There are open farm fields, which the deer avoid and the thick stuff, which they love. I hunt the thick stuff by their trails.
Our ML season here runs from just after Thanksgiving until December 31, so the leaves are off the trees by then. The woods here are pretty thick, with open pockets here and there. Realistically I'm in the same boat as you, most shots would be under 40 yards, but there are the occasional openings out to 60 where you'd be threading the needle. That's why I went with the 1-4 over what a lot of people have with the 3-9. The 1-4 allows a good field of vision set at 1X and the 4X allows me the extra magnification I'd need out to my max shot.
Reading your post made me think of a scope i have in its box waiting its turn. I have a Bushnell Elite 1.5x6 with the Ger. #4 Ret. in it. Nice n crisp viewing. I am very sure it will be on one of my ML;s by late Spring
