Here in the upper midwest, much of the hunting is done from stands. The area is heavily wooded, and "stalking" is very hard work. Stands allow the hunter to get in place before dawn and allow things to quiet down. Never thought of this as cheating.
I think the scent of the stand hunter is carried aloft and far enough downwind/diluted to allow deer to get close to the stand without being spooked.
Nearly every year around here someone shoots themselves while climbing up or down to a stand and drops a loaded firearm ... which discharges!
Percussion shooters: remove the cap from the nipple before climbing up, pull the firearm up on a rope after you are in place. Flinters, remove the prime from the pan, open the frizzen, lower the hammer, pull it up. Or if you have a sling, decap-deprime, climb to stand. Same thing coming down: decap-deprime.
(FWIW, I've seen flinters with well-tuned locks fire with no prime in the pan! Don't rely on a half-cock notch on an empty pan for safety.)