This happened while I was bow hunting only. I had been watching a nice buck for a month or so before rifle season opened. About two weeks before season opened, I placed a stand and took my steps with me. Opening day I awoke to heavy snow on the ground, but I painted up, went to my stand, strapped on steps, and climbed up to wait. I was head to toe camo, and the stand was painted to blend in with the tree.
About a half hour after daylight I heard a god awful noise and a rifle hunter went past my stand at about 20 yards. He was wearing nylon snow mobile boots and was on the trail I expected the deer to arrive on.
I figured I would give him some time, hope he spooked the buck past me, and sat and waited. Shortly he came by again. By now I was thinking, "What an idiot!" and thought it prudent to wait until he was long gone before climbing down and having him make a sound shot.
And then here he came a third time, but this time he noticed my tracks in the snow. He followed them to the tree I was sitting in, looked all around to see where I had gone, noticed the clamp on steps, stood his rifle against a nearby tree and went to work trying to get the steps off. He looked up a couple of times, but I must have blended in quite well as he never saw me. After watching him for a few minutes I said, "Hi, how are you doing?"
He took off running, not bothering to take his rifle. Shortly, he came back and asked if he could get his rifle. He then explained that he had been walking for miles that morning, and that he thought he was about five miles from his truck. I told him to wait until I could get my gear together and that I would walk him to the road my truck was parked on half a mile away. When we got to my truck, he was parked right next to it.