I can tell you that the past two years, some of my hunters have come scouting without scent, sound control. Just wandered around talking and checking things out the day before season! To me, not a great idea, but they see big deer wandering around that day, and then it takes about two days of hunting, sneaking in before daylight and sitting on stands until after dark, using scent control clothing, sprays and everything before the big bucks come in. They sit and watch does for days because the bucks still smell them from their scouting trip, and won't risk coming into the area for a while. If they'd wait til opening morning to scout, with nobody having been in the area at all for weeks they'd have a better chance of shooting the first morning and being done. The locals who have plenty of time to scout and set stands usually tag out opening morning, so make a scouting trip 2-3 weeks in advance, set your stand, cut everything out of your way, go away and stay away until opening morning, then hunt. Or trust your outfitter to set a stand for you if you can't make a trip early. Pay your outfitter or his guide to get you to that stand opening morning, quietly,scent free and by the best route. Don't go looking for the stand the day before or try to get there with a map and directions in the dark. Your chances will be better, and you can move your stand in the middle of your second day if you want. I have a guy who has killed a big buck both years he has hunted with me, but instead of using the ladder stand I had set, he trims branches and uses his climber 50 yds away. This year he used a different tree, I don't know why, cause you can spit from one to the other, and both the deer he killed could have been killed from my already set stand and probably without sitting in the rain for two days waiting for his scent to clear.
Another man chain smokes and I have found two of his trees, days after he leaves, because I can smell his cigarette butts under his stands and walk right to them.