Thank you all for your advise.

I got my stand put up yesterday. Our shotgun season starts in 5 days, so I probably should have had it up a week or so ago to give the deer time to get used to it. I was careful to make sure were no metal parts that would bang around and make noise. I also purchased a bottle of Carbon Scent Shield without realizing that it turns everything black! The sprayer on the bottle was defective, so I have to transfer the spray to another bottle and go back and spray the stand today. I don't know about spraying it on my clothes though. They say it is ok to spray it on the inside but won't the carbon turn the underclothes black? I saw a recipe on here for a homemade scent blocker; maybe I'll give it a try.

You are right about safety being a big concern in a tree stand. My stand came with a body harness, so when I'm up there I'll be strapped to the tree at all times. I always take extreme cautions when dealing with loaded weapons, and I always clearly identify my target before shooting. To many people get hurt because of haste or carelessness, I'm not going to become a statistic.

Slow bodily movements are the key eh? The only time I've gone deer hunting was 3 years ago with my brother. I didn't have a license, so I was just tagging along with the camera. This was his first hunt as well. We got the bright idea to sit on top of a stick pile smack dab in the middle of their trail. It was getting late in the day, and we were getting tired of scanning the horizon for any signs of life. Then, directly behind us, we heard sticks snapping in the woods. Slooooowly we turned our heads and came face to face with an 8-point buck. For about 5 minutes (at least it seemed that long), nobody moved, we just stared each other down. My brother was shaking like a leaf as he slooooowly tried to swing the shotgun around and turn his body slightly in order to get a shot. That was enough to send the buck thundering back into the woods to live another day. That's never going to happen again by golly. This year we will have the tree stand and a homemade blind, along with camo and more attention payed to scent concerns. Oh...here is the rest of the story. The wind was blowing our scent straight at the buck. As a scent blocker, we had smeared doe urine all over our Carharts and hats. That buck must have thought we smelled sexy...haha.