Counting the deer that i killed this past year, i have killed 52 Iowa whitetails with recurves and mostly with longbows , all from the the ground. One thing that i know for sure is that one can never say a for sure anything about Iowa whitetails. Once when riding with a farmer, he got out to open a gate to let cattle get to another field. A nice buck stood, not 50 yards away and watched. That same buck had seen him many times out doing his work and did not fear him or his tractor or pickup. A week later a hunter in a full height ladder stand, across the pond from me, drew on him. The buck turned and looked square at the hunter. The hunter froze at full draw, I think there was one of those inconvenient trees blocking his shot. I watched as he slowly caved under the draw and weight of his bow and let down, with the buck staring straight at him, the entire time. The buck simply moved on. Two days later the same buck was coming past moving straight up wind of me, about 90 yards away. Somehow a small branch fell from a tree, maybe a squirrel, without any hesitation, the buck ran straight at me, it came by me at full speed, no chance for a shot.
Which reminds me of another strange one, a hunter hit a small buck, cutting the leg. I offered to help track it, just in case. The day was very hot for November, the blood trail was almost non-existent. The four of us managed to track the deer for over a half mile. None of us bothered to take a bow other than the compound hunter that hit what he thought was solid a leg hit, turned out to be a minor nick. During that tracking, I could have easily have shot the area dominant buck and one other. They both came rushing in close to see what the commotion was all about, rut action on a very hot day. On the other side, I have seen deer watching a car that was a half mile away stop on a gravel road, bust off of their day time beds and run until they topped a minor rise in the terrain that was over a mile away. I was just glassing the valley and was sitting on that lookout for over two hours, they were up wind of me the entire time. Apparently those deer did not like cars that stop. One thing I do know about deer when ground hunting and my wife has proven on numerous occasions with close deer. NEVER LOOK THE DEER IN THE EYE WHEN HUNTING ON THE GROUND. She has killed a number of deer that were staring her down while she sat on her seat, while she stared at the tops of her shoes. Then when the deer starts moving on, she takes one smooth shot. Her closest kill was less than ten feet. She was simply resting on a blow down taking a rest, the large doe came within a few feet of her, while she had no cover.
In our smaller public lands, the deer are much better at patterning the hunters, than the hunters are at patterning the deer. The hunters do their land staking with their tree stands and march out to them, no matter what the time is, who else is hunting, or what direction the wind is blowing. Leaving the best places to hunt, where no one wants to or can put up a tree stand. It can be fun, productive or relaxing to seat in a tree stand, but it guarantees nothing.