Here is my two cents on the issue and I spend a lot of time observing whitetail with cams
First off his home range is likely around 5miles square and you are only seeing a very small window of his life. The time of day he visits the portion you have him on cam he may never visit during daylight. But during the season this can change food sources and other factors like pressure
The rut does often increase daylight movement but some bucks just have minimal daylight movement. Some bucks don’t seem to have the same drive and are almost paranoid so the focus on self preservation
Changes in weather can break up a routine causing a buck to travel in daylight more or in area’s he normally would not. If there has been bad weather that has kept him hunkered down get out there as soon as it breaks. High winds, rain, snow or extreme temps are what I am talking about
You may want to fan out from the location you have two choice fan out into other possible locations in his range and hope to find daylight movement or ride it out in the locations you found him and hope he changes
Some bucks will only move in daylight in bush that is basically un hunt able. And when I say this I am a guy who hunts really nasty crap most won’t
The problem is you may not be able to locate/access his areas he moves in daylight or he may never break his routine
I have a large 10pt that for the life of me I cannot locate where he moves in daylight and he has never broke do to weather or rut. I have not succeeded to get one single daylight pic. This is public land where I am not restricted to landowners permission. This is my second year chasing him and I scout very hard year round
My opinion fan out and scout other locations for possible daylight movement. If you can’t find a location try to target him on weather changes and the rut in areas you know. If you can’t find him in daylight keep cams on those locations for the season regardless to see if there is a seasonal change you can use next year
The biggest thing don’t get fixated on bucks that show only low odds opportunities and see if you can target a buck that provides more opportunity to connect
I will warn you now when it comes to whitetail there is a million opinions out there and not every buck follows what he “should” do. The above is just my observations but I only target public land bush bucks
|