If there's no one around you to get the deer moving, then there's a good chance mid-day will be slow for you.

I can't picture a gun week without any other hunters around me, at least within 500 yards, maybe it's different where you're at. On the same token, I can't imagine hunting public land around here, way over crowded. So I guess geography plays a part as well.

I expect that bow hunters and gun hunters should have two entirely different perspectives on this subject. If there's no other hunters anywhere near you at any time you're hunting, then you should always hunt like you're bow hunting, just using extra long range arrows sometimes. Gun hunters will often hunt off of other hunters around them, if four deer are together, a hunter might get one and send the other three on to the next hunter. Since there's less bow hunters, and bow season is so much longer, bow hunters don't have this luxury, so they track the patterns of deer, and try to implant themselves into those patterns. Gun hunters completely disrupt those patterns by storming the woods in droves and creating chaos. With the lack of other hunters to create this chaos, I suggest you hunt like you're bow hunting with a gun.

Maybe you should introduce yourself to the landowner of the ridge(?) If he has no hunters up there, there's a good chance he won't mind one. I don't know what it's like in Tennessee, but I avoid public land at all cost.