TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
I know, I know!
I can't believe how many older and mature bucks I got on camera moving from 9 AM to 11 AM. I would bet it is the majority of trail-cam videos. And I have no idea why sudden movement pattern change.
I suspect, you now have better trail cams (faster triggers, greater triggering distance, plus video mode) than in times past. This can account for some of the observed increases.
But mainly, bucks moving during mid-day have a tendency to take different routes than most other early morning/late evening patterned movements. Often, they are actually chasing a doe, cutting a diagonal (running straight toward the doe they see, rather than "trailing" her exact path). Then, they are doing a lot of scent-checking, often traveling downwind of many trails and/or scrapes where we may place our cams.
Bottom line, we are more likely to just miss getting pics of bucks doing their mid-day rut movements. But now having better cams, we pick them up more.
Go sit on stand all day during much of the rut, and you may be surprised how many bucks you see that never step in front of your cams, and/or, they may be moving so fast your cam doesn't get anything but a blank pic.