Do bucks travel more during day or night in rut?
Total buck movement is roughly balanced between day and night during the rut, but daylight movement spikes during the seeking phase — particularly the first cold front of November. Outside of that window, bucks default toward dawn and dusk movement with a midday spike during peak chasing.
Pre-rut and seeking generate the most observable daytime movement because bucks haven't yet locked down on does. Once peak breeding starts, individual bucks alternate between 30-some-hour lockdowns (mostly stationary in cover) and cruising bouts that can happen any hour.
Midday sits during peak rut consistently outproduce evening sits for some hunters because cruising bucks moving between estrous does don't follow the dawn-dusk rule. The seeking-phase mornings on cold-front days remain the highest-percentage daylight movement window of the year.