....exactly "they watch you walk by " or you get to see the flag as the wave bye bye ..i'd rather take my time and spot them first that way i at least get a crack at one !

ratrivertrapper, I was talking about approaching his stand in the dark.

My advice:

Listen to Redrider and Illinois_Dave.

...no problem I had that happen many times to me as well

Its hard to answer this b/c I don't think I hunt the same kind of terrain as you. You're probably not going to be successful picking one kind of area that deer won't be in based on whether or not is it day or night. Deer move at different times for different reasons. Sometimes they'll be in a field feeding in broad day light. Other times they will be in the bedding area before the sun comes up. Big bucks are more patternable than does, though. That's just cuz they're mostly nocturnal.

I mostly hunt travel areas or areas where feeding and bedding occur simultaneously (large clearcuts.)The key is to approach from a direction that is down or cross wind and doesn't cross the trails deer use to move through the area. If you leave no scent trail or won't they won't detect as far as the deer knows, you weren't there. If you hunt nearer feed or bed, then the deers tendency is to travel in such a way that the wind is always in their favor. Hunting those areas will show your hand and make the deer notice pressure quickly.

In the am, I don't worry about bumping deer by sound. I don't believe their night vision is as great as some ppl seem to think it is. If they don't smell me they don't know the difference between me and any of the other thousand things that go bump in the night. For daylight approaches, its the same deal except I hunt my way to the stand. Might even swing by another spot to have a quick peek and see if I can make a kill there.