This is my first year hunting, so I've been figuring it out as I go. I've spent about 2/3 of my time still hunting, and about 1/3 in brush blinds of one sort or another. I've seen a total of three deer with a bow in my hand, all of which were within 10 yards, and all illegal to shoot for one reason or another, so it's tag soup for me.
I've got a couple of trail cameras in the area I hunt most often (a remote corner of public land accessed from private land), and that helps me at least know that there are deer there (and some nice bucks too, actually), but they're mostly nocturnal.
With respect to scents - this certainly isn't definitive, but I've been trying to coat my boots and lower half with calming scents (basically, it smells like deer piss, much to my wife's dismary), and my trail cameras have picked up deer frolicking along my paths just a few hours after I've passed, so there may be something to it.
Next season I'm going to acquire me a climber tree stand and try that - I like the idea of looking down into these extremely brushy clearcuts where deer are so obviously bedding, but never deign to show themselves. I'm also going to spend some time in the off season punching trails into bedding areas so that I can get through the forests and clearcluts more quietly - and also, hopefully, funnel the deer through areas I can pick 'em off.
