So my next question is is it even worth hunting a ladder stand unless during gun when you can get them before they wind you.

I A deer doesn't have to wind you while your in the stand to know the stand area is being hunted.

First of all, don't watch those shows on tv. I've killed deer on as many as 3 or 4 consecitive days out of the same stand. Just get in there and hunt. You can't eliminate all of your scent you can just play the wind. Have stands set up to use depending on which way it's blowing and hunt the appropriate one. Good luck.

I just wanted to clarify that it isn't about deer winding you while on stand (although that is definitely a real negative). It is about the scent you are depositing all around the stand every time you hunt. A deer doesn't have to wind you while your in the stand to know the stand area is being hunted. The human body sheds scent through hair, dead skin cells and fibers from clothing. This is what a blood-hound tracks, and deer have as good if not a better nose than a blood-hound. The human body sheds half a million dead skins cells per day. As you sit on a stand, clothing fibers, hair and dead skin cells are pouring off your body and drifting down to the ground below and down-wind of your stand. Deer can pick up on this scent for at least a week or more. They don't have to smell you in the stand; they will know you've been there if they travel through area for days afterwards.

...thats not to say Im not lookn at same area or same field, just from a different spot.