RE: What % of the time...
Sounds like a location issue to me. Last year I hunted a friends land for free and I only saw 3 deer. This year I joined a lease and I lost count of all the deer I saw durning black powder season alone. I could never understand how people passed up a deer for "something better" when I was lucky to even see one. Now I get it.
In addition I did a lot more pre-season scouting which improved my choice of blind locations.