Reasonable glassing distance with 10x42s

I have 10x42 EL’s and I personally feel the Pures are a little better. They’re a lot more comfortable to hold too in my opinion.
Definitely more comfortable.
Thanks, @MaddH, I have a pair of the EL 10x42's and they are amazing, but just wondering if I have to / need to make the jump up to the 10x42 Pures
I had 10/42 Swarovision EL's...great binos. Did not have or need to replace them but glad I did. Fortuitously finding a gently used pair of Pures priced fairly from a good seller onsite here made it an easy decision. Also made it easier to gift the EL's to our son.
 
To me just picking out branch antlered bulls doesn't take much. The 10 power or over and nicer glass coming in when trying to determine if mule deer is worth going after or if finer details. Elk hunting doesn't warrant a spotter unless it is from the road and long ways away glassing or if you were in a real trophy area with lots of target opportunity trying to pick the best bull.
 
My opinion is that binos are for spotting and spotters are for evaluating. I’ve spotted deer at 2mi with 8x42’s. This was my first season with 10x42’s. 10’s have an edge over 8’s for wide open country. In canyon or brush country sometimes I feel like 8’s are too much. There are things I need to pick apart that are too far away to pick apart with my eyes, but the field of view is so narrow, even with 8’s that it’s hard to look at things that are close than some distance. With 10’s it’s even worse.

How far can you spot deer with 10x42’s? Over 2mi. How far can you really break down antler quality at 10X? Maybe 400-500yds. Maybe. back to just spotting game, I felt like from 500-600yds+ the 10’s were a big advantage over 8’s. A tripod will help at any power, but 10X is not enough power that a tripod becomes necessary.


.98 mi with the 10x42’s that I bought used for $75. Zoomed in on the video I took through them with my phone and took a screenshot. The visual was better than the phone video.
 

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Added two screenshots from the video. One before the cam is in the binos, and one un-zoomed. You’ll have to open the pic and zoom in to see the elk. It’s a video. Different frames had better focus from the phone cam, and none were as good as just looking through. The point is only that you can see stuff pretty darn easy at 1mi through 10x42’s.

.98mi. $75 used 10x42’s manufactured around 2002.
 

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