I think like anything else,what comprises "thick" cover and "woods" varies all over the map,and there is a big difference between a Maine hardwood ridge where a guy can see easily from 50 to 175 yrads(and where a 6X is very useable),to a regrowth cutover area where visibility is 10-30 yards,where IMHO,a 6X is a lot less than ideal...or tangled new growth whips where the same thing applies.
From what I have seen on TV a lot of whitetail habitat in treed areas of the midwest is what I would term pretty open country compared to what many of us back here have to hunt every day,and among the still hunters and trackers I know from the northeast, not a single one uses a fixed 6X for any of their deerhunting on foot, here.Lower fixed power and lower end variables rule the roost.
A wider filed of view comes in handy when a buck is moving through such cover and the focus should be on not only staying with the buck but also seeing where he is headed as you look ahead and make the split second decision to kill him in the opening ahead of him,because anyone who swings a rifle to lead a running buck in the woods, with rare exceptions(he hit a real BIG opening), is doing it all wrong.
He who swings with moving game in the woods is doomed to failure.
The buck's line of travel should be determined, and sights aligned on the next opening,the shot released just as he hits the opening or slightly before,depending,and this must all be done, sized up, and executed in fractions of time,with a staionary barrel,or slightly moving.To the extent the barrel is moving, it is not done to lead the game, but merely to position the rifle and sights to the opening.This is in contrast to more open country hunting where follow through with a moving rifle works well.
The wider field of lower power scopes always seemed to me to be more amenable to this style of shooting than higher magnification scopes provide.
Not to say that 6X is unuseable but neither is it idealand sooner or later,under someconditions, you will come to grief with it.
