Field of view is already an issue with long eye relief scopes and only gets worse with magnification. For those reasons I like the Leupold M8 2x. Used ones a pretty inexpensive too.
Re: regs, I just reread it and did not see anything about a suspension of bear or cougar during overlapping seasons with archery deer or elk. Seems like you could just say you were archery hunting bear and had a sidearm too, but I could be misinterpreting it.
If you have an qrchery deer tag in your pocket, and a bow with you, during archery deer season, youre hunting deer.
I would argue that in court. If the warden asks me what I'm hunting and I say bear, even though it's deer season and I have a tag, he can get bent!
