So in retaliation to your above responses, earlier this fall, i found a bedding area, put a blind up a few hundred yards away from it, and instantly started seeing daylight activity. I sat in my stand a few times before opening weekend and saw a few nice deer walk by each time. Opening weekend i had two deer walk out (neither were shooters), the second weekend only one deer (small buck), and now i don't have a single daytime picture of a deer. The same bigger deer i saw before the season are still coming around but have seemed to change up their pattern and only come up after/before daylight. I'm sure the pressure of gunshots, people driving around the lease, and new sents all over have them spooked a bit. Is there any tricks to bring them back out or just have to wait on them to make a mistake?
The older (mature) bucks are wary animals, there isn't much you can do about that. Hunting pressure affects ALL the deer but older/wiser bucks especially react to it.
What gets the mature Bucks in trouble are the Does. A buck that normally would not show itself in the daytime WILL follow a 'hot' doe (even if not right on her tail).
I would concentrate my hunting to where the Does are right now. It won't be long before we will see the 'lock down' phase of the rut and pretty much everyone will see fewer bucks traveling (day or night). After that....a brief Second Rut period and then the Post Rut when bucks return to feeding patterns.
Be patient, move as close as you can to places where the Does are present and be 'ready'...because shot opportunities can occur and then vanish quickly.
