I have almost always seen the biggest bucks being active in that type of weather (as long as it's not extremely windy). I think the deer in your area were probably active but were in a different corridor than the one you were in. Stay on them! The Michigan regular firearm season is winding down right now but I saw an awesome buck about 400 yards out which is just beyond range (for my comfort) two nights ago. From that range I could easily see antlers before picking up the binoculars. And then we had extreme wind yesterday. We have a muzzel loader season coming up so that buck could still be a possibility.
If your firearm season just started I would guess the rut is in full swing so more than likely the bigger bucks have the hot does pinned down in the thickets and won't let them out of their sight. I watched an interesting documentary about that recently about this and shortly after that (and a few days before the opener of our firearms opener) we watched a shooter buck in the cut cornfield next to our house that acted exactly that way. He had kept that doe within 10 yards of him all day. She would stand up every now and then just cowering, and only move a few feet at a time and lay right back down unless she was willing to stand for him to do his thing which was always over really fast (I can relate!).
NBG
