I grew up bouncing deer, and still relish the opportunities to do it. In my younger years, stand hunting was reserved for opening day and early risers throughout the season. You usually sat until you got cold, then "walked around" in some nearby "public" land. Sometimes it actually was public or tax forfeit, sometimes it was unkempt brushland that nobody cared about. "Our" land was reserved for organized deer drives and morning sits. Before the age of 22 when the family camp kind of fell apart through the old guard getting too old, and some family inheritance disputes and resulting property liquidation, I shot very few deer from proper deer stands. The majority were killed about an even split between organized drives and walking around, more on the latter later. This was not trophy hunting, or even "good enough" buck hunting. This was meat in the freezer hunting with a relatively low deer population and generally poor visibility and highly pressured deer. If you saw a legal deer, the rifle best be on your shoulder with the safety off! I shot a lot of small bucks, does, small does, even a couple of respectable bucks. They all ate well. Every kill was challenging, unique and highly rewarding. Taking deer on their terms, either through skill of riflery on running, bounding, snap-shot animals on a drive, or outwitting, stalking, or blundering luck while walking around. Shooting spooked deer is a rush, and not an easy skill to develop. We spent a lot of time rolling a tire down the gravel pits hills and trying to perforate the 16" cardboard in the center with cheap surplus or the .22s.
"Walking around:" This in my world involves a mix of actual walking around, stump sitting, wind-driving, deliberate noise-making/quiet cycles, and the occasional Indian run. By far the best technique I've found is "hazing" deer. Using the wind and my scent (or another hunter on public land) along with some noisy walking to make the deer in a section of cover nervous, but not break and run. This is where the Indian run and an intimate knowledge of terrain and deer movement comes into play. After hazing a section of cover, the object is to Indian run...move quickly and with relative silence using a trail or open woods with soft ground cover such as wet leaves/soft snow or pine needles, to an ambush location exiting the cover you just hazed. Deer tend to move quartering into the wind to adjacent cover, and will prefer to travel in cover in this scenario (your secondary objective is to haze one quarter and direct headwind while indian running at the same time to narrow their options if possible). The best ambush points are open woods with decent visibility. Second best is a natural break in the cover such as a logging road or powerline, but pressured deer will usually cross these at a run so shots can be impossible unless extremely close. You'll need to jam an escape trail on the linear openings. They'll seldom break into open areas such as a field or clearcut, preferring to sit tight in their cover and not respond to hazing.
Bouncing deer: This is best done in hilly, open woods with pockets of heavy cover like blowdown areas, balsam or cedar clumps in the low spots. You approach from quartering downwind, watching carefully in the open woods for a hazed deer to sneak out of the cover on your approach. You usually won't see flags and crashing when this happens. More of a nervous, slinking walk. After an indifferent approach RE noise, get real quiet, and slow walk as if stalking a buck to an upwind quarter from the heavy pocket. Sit absolutely still and quiet for at least 1/2 hour. Failing this, approach the pocket very quietly, be ready for a snap shot. Often they'll hole tight until you move, then bug out at 90 degrees from your approach, trying to loop to your downwind. The only real trophy buck I ever shot was killed in this manner on a heavy trot in open oak woods after watching me the whole time. He was bedded under a windfall 40 yards from where I posted for 30 minutes. A variation of this is the 2 man drive, approaching the pocket simultaneously from downwind and upwind quarters converging at 90 degrees, then the downwind walker enters the cover while the upwind walker posts.
My woods are not conducive to spotting and stalking, so I do it seldomly. I have done it successfully with fresh, wet snow, but that was an extreme exception. I was very hungry for venison, and trailed a buck some 2 miles through National forest land before finding him where I had a clear shot. A very rewarding kill, but I basically ran the deer and myself into the ground. I was in my early 20's. He was a long ways from the truck.
When deer get close you can spook them and then the hunt is one when you start to loose deer from mistakes. It just raises the stakes in the game and makes it more exciting.
