I used to hunt exclusively from a stand, whether up or down. Then, back in the mid '70s, when I started to hunt the Adirondacks I began still hunting in earnst. I learned my lesson up there after the first two years of no deer sightings. I first hunted there the same way I hunted in the Southern Tier of NY.

Find sign-scrapes, rubs, trails, and set up accordingly. Problem is, in the Mountains, you could sit a week on a scrape line and not see a deer. Same way with trails. You have to go find them each day, and I developed into a pretty good still hunter. Have had great success since.

Pretty much it all depends on the conditions and gut feeling.