You guys are putting way to much thought into this.....

If you don't have any 5 year old deer on your property they died. Either by natural causes or trigger.

That's about it really. You are looking all over for a theory and reason you aren't seeing a mature deer and wondering what they are doing. They aren't doing anything. They aren't there.

Did a deer that actually survives to see 5 years old seek out a hiding place on your property? Maybe, but the real question is why do you only have 1 mature deer on your property. There is no theoretical explanation as to why he was hiding in a patch of privet hedge. That's just where his luck ran out when you both met there.

"There should be a deer in this 50 acre thicket and I bet he is only walking around doing XYZ thinking ABC."

Naw.

The moral of that story is if you want 5 year old deer you need to convince your neighbors not to shoot 3.5 year olds. If you have several 5 year old deer you will see them and have the opportunity to shoot one. The reason they are so elusive is they don't exist or in such a limited number that everything is irrelevant.

And BTW - shooting the does lowers your odds of having a 5 year old by reducing the numbers of bucks born each year to replenish the pool.

It isn't scientific, there is no guesswork.... it's common sense which isn't common.