I've hunted the badlands in ND a lot and my experience has been similar to what is already mentioned. I've spotted big solo bucks in mid-August and by September 1st they have been 4-5 miles away. I only re-located them due to persistence and a lot of luck. Of course during the rut all bets are off. I think scouting is still worth your time as it will give you a general idea of where to look and what type of bucks are in the area. If you've scouted and have your sights set on a certain age class or size of deer and all you've seen are smaller bucks, look somewhere else. My advice is don't be opposed to using your vehicle to cover country. Unfortunately there are a lot of roads in that area, but use them to move from place to place if you're not seeing anything. Come November I think people are moving those animals around more than anything.
I wanted to add in 2014 I had a tag and I spent nearly the whole 16 day rifle season out there glassing and looking for one deer. Rumors surfaced that the outfitter adjacent to where I was hunting put down a real bruiser. I never saw pictures but based on the description I think it was the same buck. Anyways, I had a nice "last day buck" glassed up on the first day of the hunt and he never moved from the same little 20 acre brush choked meadow in a 1 acre strip of trees. It was one of those classic protected little meadows down there in the badlands with the bottom full of trees, and that deer would be standing in the trees feeding every single day, almost all day long. You wouldn't have found him unless you knew he was there or you were really really glassing that patch of trees. I caught him outside his area one morning while he chased and bred a doe, but he was only ever a few hundred yards from his patch of trees. I had glassed him maybe a 1/2 mile from that little spot in September, so as far as I know he lived nearly the entire season in a very small home range. The big one I was after was killed probably 5-6 miles from where I first spotted him in August.