I few years ago I had a buck I could never get a shot at. (I think I had been hunting the same buck for 3 years.) I finally figured out after intense scouting and hunting that he was traveling from 3 different bedding areas and would not come into any fields (atleast not in the daylight). I couldn't get him on camera, but only caught glimpes of him during the rut. Mostly early morning and right before dark (mostly not at all). I figured out where his general travel area was based on rubs and scrapes. How I finally got him was, one morning during the peek of the rut, it was raining and I figured he would want to freshen up his scrapes. It was kind of foggy, and early morning. As soon as it quit raining he came walking from one bedding area going to another one eating acorns and redoing scrapes. I grunted at him and used a doe bleat. Now he is on my wall.

Sometimes with difficult deer, you just need to put yourself in the best possible spots, and hope that he slips up.

Supposedly deer have to eat atleast once every 12 hours, so theoretically they can't always stay in the dark. (something to do with bacteria in their stomach making them sick if they don't)