I have to agree, mess with the feeder and then climb in your stand while your buddy leaves. We have to do that ALL the time at my grandparents.
This will work but there is another way to do it if you are alone.
MAKE A LOT OF NOISE, the more the better. Bang stuff, no talking. I used to go to a stand where I would spook the deer. I had the stand with me with a chain in using a binder. I beat the chain on the wood all the way in. I kept it up as I climbed the tree and set the stand. I only got quiet when settled in and an arrow on my bow.
The noise ran off the deer but in no time, a buck would walk right under me looking for the source, step out 20 yards and I would shoot him.
You will NEVER sneak in on a deer, forget it. I have run off deer sneaking in in the dark and had them come back within 10 yards to watch me climb the tree. That will be the end of your hunt. They do not fear you in the dark and will watch you. Too many times I had deer walk past me in the dark, sometimes so close I could reach out and touch them. If they see you climb, they will not go near your stand.
Once in PA I had a deer spot me. She would come up the trail and without looking up, turn and move to the next trail only to come back to the original trail after passing me. I set a dummy in my stand, put another on the other trail. She walked under me and I had meat.
Deer are so easy, I have been in the middle of a herd many times, all of them feeding. I could walk around, kneel down, knock an arrow and get a shot. WHY, because I had them thinking I was just another deer, I fool them. I have had deer standing at my side looking at the other deer, paying me no attention.
Sneak, freeze, NOPE! Act like a deer, stamp your foot, MOVE, never freeze like a predator. Do everything that you see a deer do to you.
Don't walk like a man in the woods either. Learn to walk like an Indian. Walk like a deer. Make the right noise, you will not be quiet.
Once I bumped a deer from her bed. I fooled with her by stamping my foot, moved my head back and forth. She came back to her bed, laid down not 10 yards from me. She was licking her side while I looked at squirrels all around.
I had to go to work so I walked past her, she jumped up, looked at me and I said "HA-HA," I fooled you. Once I left my stand and came upon a herd feeding a field. I acted like a deer, stamped at them, moved. I followed them within 40 yards for 500 yards. I decided to see what they would do so I put down my stand and all of my stuff in the field. I ran like a deer off to the side, breaking branches and snorting or squalling like a deer. I went back for my stuff and the deer were all still right in front of me, feeding.
I learned the deer my very first year hunting them, wrote a book and was rejected, not a famous name! Watch your videos, none of them know the animal. You really need a deer 10 feet from you with no concern to understand.