I respectfully disagree
I don't think they are random at all, or they would die much more quickly and never achieve their age class.
I think they have very well established routines. I think the older age class animals just have more than one, maybe many more, routines than a younger age class deer may have developed prior to being killed.
I younger deer might bed in the same area and go to Kroger every day. An older deer, that has survived many seasons might bed in multiple locations and shop a different store each day depending on where he bedded. What appears to be random with no rhyme of reason to the hunter could very well be exactly what the deer has been doing it's entire life with little change.
A deer has established these routines over their life cycle based upon daily encounters. The longer they live the more safe routines are established. A deer isn't going to feed or bed in my backyard every day if my dog chases them each time they show up. No dog, no threats during the daily activities in an area establishes one safe routine for daily activities. I believe they accumulate multiple safe daily activity schedules over their lifetime. If one of those previous safe activity schedules is suddenly changed through hunter intrusion, house construction, coyotes, whatever they just move on to another one that they have developed over the years.
I believe that deer are very much creatures of habit, they just have more than one habit.
My opinion
