Honestly, I have had very few encounters with mature (3.5 +) deer, let alone bucks in the time frame you are discussing. The few times that I have, I have been set up on the edge of a known bedding area. The first time was '05 and I was on in a stand in a strip of woods that is an outside corner of a field (south and west is field) and to the north is a thicket where they bed. The buck was coming to the bedding area after fighting another mature buck. You can see the result in my avatar. That was the absolute peak of the rut and deer were literally running all around me as I was gutting him. Craziest day I have ever seen in the woods. The second time was this year. It might not have been 3 hours to dark, but it was 4:00 on November 10, early around here for a mature deer to be up. The buck I entered in the contest this year was just up crusing by himself. I was hunting the northeast side of that same bedding area that time, again on the edge where it butts up to the woods to the east. The north side is again an open field and he was just skirting inside the edge. He actually never left the bedding area and he had turned back around to return where he came from when I got a shot at him.

Same stand as the first one a few years ago I got down to answer the call of nature and decided to grap lunch while I was at it. Came back and a nice big rub had been made 3 feet from my tree. No kidding! Can't say for sure it was a mature buck, but it was at least an aggressive buck.

Edit: just wanted to add that yes, it is strange that it happened two years in a row and I said I have had very few encounters to start off my reply. I have been hunting the same way for many moons now and I can't explain why it happened two years in a row other than luck.