Just as I was beginning to think the afternoon photo session would be a bust, a yearling buck walked past the blind, no more than 10 yards away. As instructed, I hunkered back into the darkest corner of the bowhunting blind and was careful not to move when the deer was looking my way.

I’m not accustomed to being so close to a wild deer. Like most Texas deer hunters, I’ve been brainwashed into thinking high-rise blinds hold the key to deer hunting success.

Put me 20 feet above the ground and I feel like I’m doing some serious hunting. The highest “blind” that I’ve ever hunted from was a 60-foot tower made from an oil drilling derrick. The climb was frightening and the lofty view was terrifying for anyone with a potential for nosebleed or a healthy fear of heights.

In most of Texas, tower blinds give hunters three distinct advantages. The obvious plus is a better view over the low brush of West and South Texas. Height also puts the hunter’s scent above the game. White-tailed deer have a keen sense of smell.

Finally, from an elevated position, the deer are less likely to see you. Hunters used to say that deer never look up, but that’s hardly the case in Texas, where whitetails have decades of experience in eluding hunters in tree stands, tripods and free-standing towers.

Deer will look up. They will be alerted to movement in a 20-foot tower. They will learn to stare at blinds to see if the blinds are occupied. They will catch a human scent drifting down on swirling air currents.

Over the years, I’ve seen deer do all those things on many occasions. That’s why the idea of sitting on the ground in a modified, camouflage tent with deer all around me seemed so convoluted.

“Just sit still and make sure you don’t have windows open that allow you to be skylighted against the opening,” coached my bow-hunting friend.

“What about my scent? Won’t the deer smell me?”

“Sometimes they do,” he admitted. “I can’t explain how it works, but the ground blind has an amazing ability to keep your scent from filtering out, even when the deer pass downwind. Keep the windows on the upwind side closed so the wind doesn’t blow through the blind. If you bait with corn, don’t put it downwind of the blind.”

That first buck was a yearling. I’d scattered corn near the blind in hopes of holding deer long enough for photos. When I snapped the first photo, the little buck was eating corn about 15 yards away. The digital camera makes a distinctive electronic sound.

The young buck threw his head up and stared anxiously at the blind. I sat perfectly still, and the deer soon went back to eating corn. After a few more photos, he never again looked at the blind.

Thirty minutes later, a mature eight-pointer walked into the setup, and I figured there was no way a wily adult buck would put up with my camera antics. He acted the same way the yearling acted, however, getting spooked when the camera first clicked, then settling down and ignoring it.

Bowhunting doesn’t appeal to me, but I could imagine how effective the bow blinds would be at 75 to 100 yards, easy rifle range.

Bow blinds have three obvious advantages over tower blinds. Bow blinds are much less expensive. Prices advertised by local retailers in the past two weeks ranged from $35 to $400. The second advantage is mobility. Most bow blinds weigh less than 15 pounds. They can be set up or taken down in a matter of minutes. Safety is another advantage. Most deer hunting injuries occur during climbs in or out of tower blinds or tree stands.

All that’s needed to convert a bow blind to rifle hunting is some form of solid rifle rest. For most hunters, that means shooting sticks or an adjustable-length bipod. If the blind’s windows are close enough to the ground, you could even use a rifle-mounted bipod to create a steady rest.