I need to be able to discriminate buck vs doe whitetails at a max of 200 yds, especially in the first and last half hour of legal hunting time when its easy to mistake a buck with small spike horns during antlerless season. Binos are too much weight/mass for the job, so a monocular seems ideal.
I hunt with a red dot on the rifle, or iron sights, so there are no magnified weapon optics in the stand with me.
I can't spend a lot, probably $50 or less, on a simple optic, need and probably no more than 4x. The big optics dealers have optics in that price range, but I'm a novice concerning brand name quality. I would appreciate help making a selection, please.

Bruce--You pretty much get what you pay for. If you need it and it really doesn't do what you intended it to do---you don't have it. Over 50 years ago I had a pair of cheap binos and they really didn't double my pleasure as I was seeing two of everything. Then I read a B&L ad when B&L was quality and made in USA. I bit the bullet and spent their price and now over 50 years later I still enjoy their binos. Buy nice or buy twice they say.

I understand your point. Is there a mid-range price point and brands is should focus on?

Just a word of caution! The mono's that I have or used were very hard to hold steady making them sometimes not very helpful.

Hip

I only use one eye so a monocular makes more sense than a binocular. Years ago I was at a gun show and Leupold was there. They had a very nice new binocular out and I asked the rep. if I could get one of their returns cut in half. He said NO, but they had a very nice monocular 10X through 20X that he let me look at. I ended up buying one. (Edit: Leupold Golden Ring Compact 10-20X-40mm)

I don't see them listed on their website?? They also use to sell a small spotting scope that is very nice. Mine is 25X and I think they also came in 20X. I've only seen one other than mine "in the wild".

try looking at range finding mono's