"In my neck of the woods, a stand about every 40 acres is as close as you'll ever need them."

That is just about right. One has to carefully place the stands so the he/she does not spook the deer while getting to the stand. All our places are small-80 acres. Each place has a heavily wooded deer sanctuarythat we almost never go into, especially near deer season. One place has the greenbrier patch from hell that deerlove to bed in.