It depends totally on the area you're hunting. If you're hunting suburbia like many do, they see people all the time. For example, Len has a spot next to a State Park complete with walking and jogging trails. On a weekend is the best time to hunt it as the park fills with joggers and they push all the deer onto Len's place. These deer see people daily stroll through their woods. They simply circle or most of the time, stand and watch them jog by. It really doesn't hurt to do a little looking around. Now if you go where my brother hunts, it's big woods in the Adirondacks. You bump a deer he's out of there. You really wouldn't want to do a lot of scouting and that which you did should be slow and quiet. I hunted a place for years that the deer bedded right up behind a neighborhood of Million dollar plus houses. I had stands within sight of some houses and deer bedded all around. I've watched deer stand and stare as people came out of their house and drive off to work. I've had people working in yards and watched deer watch them. I've shot deer and had them fall within feet of a guys tennis court. It's no problem to scout a little in such places. I too believe in low impact, no stinky scouting even under those circumstances, but it's OK to do so. Deer patterns change over the course of summer, fall and late January. You have to stay up with them. Our season is 5 months long. Deer aren't doing in January what they did in August. Hardcore, I totally agree with the trimming. Bowhunting is not a rush sport. I hunt thick stuff and keep it that way. I really don't like to cut ANYTHING. MY brother, the non hunter went out to watch me put up a stand in NY. I was up in the tree and he grabbed a big sappling about 20 feet tall and started to break it off. I literally yelled at him. "What are you doing? STOP". He said he was clearing it away becauses it was in my way. I said, it's hiding my stand. Well he had buggered it up and stunk it upso I cut it down and hauled it away. I did shoot a deer there but with my climber in a different tree 25 yards away that still had cover.
