You can believe what you want. If he's a nice buck like you say, he's not stupid. He very well may come back, but I'll bet he'll be eyeballing that stand to see if you're there. I had an incident a few years ago with a very nice buck. I went to the Adirondacks for a quick bow hunt. My brother told me of a stand he'd put in but never hunted. I got in it with his directions in the dark. About 10 I'd had enough and was half way down the stand when I looked to my right and there he was watching me. About the time our eyes met he turned and left. I carried in my climber that afternoon and climbed a tree about 50 or 60 yards from the stand. Later I was sitting there and out pops the same buck from the swamp, about 50 yards from the stand and to my left. I was facing the old stand. He stood there for 10 minutes without moving a muscle staring at the stand. Then he started head bobbing the stand and me with no shot of course. He started circling the stand to his left my left. He'd move a few yars and stare at the stand. I lost sight of him in the undergrowth a couple times when he was behind the stand, but soon I'd see his legs walking. He made a 270 degree circle around that stand, stopping along the way to stare at it. It totally consumed him. He finally got back to me and I shot him at 14 yards while he stared at the stand he'd seen me in that morning. It was the most educationalexperience I everhad about smart bucks.... and I got to see it first hand. He stalked that stand like a predator.