Years ago, after setting up my ladder stand, I climbed in to see what I could see. A 7-point came through, following my trail and obviously sniffing my tracks. He kept coming down the trail and then proceeded to chew the branches over a scrape about 30 yards away before moving on. I killed him, or his twin brother, on opening morning from that stand.
He obviously smelled my tracks and obviously didn't GAF about it in the absence of other danger signs. Maybe a older and wiser one would have.
I killed a buck in November with my ML. A spike that was with my buck fidgeted around after the shot, smelling the fallen deer now and again, and in general acting confused about the situation. He finally wandered off in the direction from which they had come. I got down from my stand and my son came over and helped me dress out the buck. Then we went back to our stands, leaving my pack lying next to the dressed buck. Soon after, the spike came back, repeated the sniffing business with the deer and my pack, actually touching it with his nose. Again, he eventually turned and went back the way he'd come from, agitated, but not panicked.
