RE: blind or stand
I hunt treestands almost exclusively. Many times when I shot a deer others were directly under me or even down wind. I prefer to be up about 20 ft with the bow. My gun stand this year is 40 ft up. No BS, my gear ropes are 20 ft long and it took two of them to reach the ground. The stands with brackets are also very easy to relocate very quietly. With my old T-lock stand and 7 tree steps I can be 20 ft up a tree and in position in 5-10 minutes with very little noise. A couple of times I have set them up in the dark of early morning only to have deer around me by the time I was pulling my bow up. Those " old" does are really smart and will pick you off very easily and the big bucks sure like to follow those smart does. Also, I think you get shots at more " relaxed" deer from above.