its called still hunting, take 2 steps as quietly and as slowly as you can, wait for 6 steps always looking and listening, keep the wind in your face, stay after it and it will come.
still hunt funnels around bedding areas, you will not get the drop on a deer if its in its bedding area, bucks you possibly could but does will bust you every time.
a funnel is the closest easiest route a deer could take either from a food source to a bedding area, or in the case of rut stupid bucks cruising for does from bedding area to bedding area.
also remember deer are creatures of the edge, the edge of the thickets, or just inside the woods at the edge of the field you mentioned will contain travel corridors, look for trails, scrapes under low hanging limbs, signs of deer pawing up the leaves feeding, still hunt these areas and you will see deer.
RR