Big bucks here (i'll say 4.5's and older) really don't leave their core areas for anything but sex and or too much snow outside of the rut during hunting season. Thats about all that will push them out. If they get bugged, they simply hole up and hold tight during daylight hours. Or move over a mountain until the intruders leave. Most old bucks do always come back though..here anyway. They seem to really like what they have in a core area and unless it gets clear cutted they hold tight..

Add in mid Oct and they really have NO reason to move much other than feed. They have all the feed they need right in their beddingspots or core area. so why move? Water is very plentiful in just about every draw by mid Oct.

I've killed one big buck (160 class) during mid Oct. I was positioned very close to where my brother had almost killed him a year earlier and where I had watched him come out and feed in the late evenings of July that summer. I hadnt seen him since July and had hunted him all of Sept. I gave his fringe core area that I had been hunting.....a rest for 15 days. I came back in and set up on his area on Oct 15th. I had two does and a young buck come by, I was stoked with that kind of bait passing through....once they passed way on, I used a social doe call and young buck grunt to mimic a little pre-rut activity. The big 6x6 showed himself to me for the first time since July and I have a feeling I was within 100-200 yards of where he was bedded, because he came to me on a completely different route than the does and young buck, once he picked up their scent he walked right in. He was bristled and liked what he smelled.

I rarely see the big mature bucks I am targeting during Mid Oct though.. Late October and early November it gets better they have more motives to move then, thats when they start exiting their bedding areas right before dark to do their scraping and scent checkingrounds of doe family groups.

Like the guys said above, cool fronts, near bedding areas and or near something that gives them a reason to be on thier feet during the daylight.