I would think that for it to be considered 'deer hunting' you would have to be attempting to kill deer. If no weapons are present, obviously that would not be your intent. I do think it may become an awkward situation if you had to explain to some LEO just what excactly you were doing in there, though, and that you hadn't 'laid' your weapon down moments before he saw you.

I would think that scouting from the ground without any climbing device would yield the same results in terms of scouting.