I incorporated some dead wood and live brush into a ground blind 60 miles west of San Angelo once. I got settled into the blind early one morning in October. It was still dark so I rested my chin on the top of my bow and closed my eyes to wait for daylight. After a while, I heard the live bush making a slight noise. My first thoughts were 'rattlesnake' or 'skunk'. Without moving, I opened my eyes. There was a doe that was eating leaves off my "blind". Her nose was no more than 3 feet from me. I'm pretty sure I wasn't asleep but I never heard her approach. After a while, she moved on never having known how close our encounter was.

I will always believe that the best way to kill a mature buck is to observe his movements and set up an ambush ground blind made from natural material. If you can get in the immediate vicinity of a deer, you don't need to see 500 yards.