Also, around where you drew the transition lines and to the west, where the marsh dead ends into the conifers, there are tons of rubs.
I've lost count of how many spots I've scouted that match this description. In areas where it is rare for a buck to make its third birthday (very rare), two year old bucks are a legitimate and very difficult target. Fortunately, they are also the "sign makers" most of the time- most of the rubs and scrapes in heavy pressure areas are made by two year olds. What you are describing is likely the staging area of a two year old buck. There are likely similar sized trees rubbed from many years past in the same little area. The buck, when bedded in that area, may be 30 to 300 or more yards away from this staging spot, likely inside the swamp / marsh. There is a chance he will exit the swamp / marsh onto the high ground near the rubs before dark... but more likely he has already been wounded in deer season one or more times by hunters. I have watched many two year olds hold the swamp 40 - 80 yards from the rubs until dark. When darkness sets in and they are convinced that their route is safe they move up onto the high ground and may rub a tree where all those rubs are located. Hopefully there isn't some neophyte camped on top of the rubs tooting a hundred times on a grunt call (game over, happens all the time). An observation stand works well here, playing the wind, to see where you need to set up to get an arrow into him before dark. There's a good chance the buck is bedded along the river in those areas I marked, or a hummock of dry ground inside the wet swamp / marsh.
mostly because the way I've interpreted what I've read here makes it sound like deer almost always exit the bed with the wind in their face?
"Always, every time and without fail" are words that need to be left out of our vocabulary. Some of the examples we cite may make it appear that way (exiting the bed into the wind every time), but we believe a buck will exit the bedding area in the direction of his intended destination- at this time of the year, that is likely a food source. If the buck has the wind in his favor while moving toward his destination, he may move farther from the bed before dark than if it is not in that direction... but the buck is going to go where he wants. That is why it is so important to set up as close to the bed as we can without him knowing it.
If you were going to hunt this bed near southern transition line(in your drawing), what's you're preferred wind direction, and where would you enter from? The main trail leading out of this bed went North/Northwest. Where I set the stand up is in a small island of trees about 20 yards east of this trail. Before reading the beast, I would have thought a S or SW wind would have been best for this spot, that way when I exited the river, I'd have the wind in my face while approaching the area. However, after reading a lot of posts on here, I think a W, or NW (with most of a west component) is the ideal wind for this stand (mostly because the way I've interpreted what I've read here makes it sound like deer almost always exit the bed with the wind in their face? ), and that I should enter it from the northeast to keep my scent quartering away from the deer.
A southwest or west wind will likely have the buck in the bed you marked... If his main exit trail is where you marked, set up as close as you can to the bed with the understanding that daytime thermals will take scent up to the higher elevation of the bed.
Have you been able to watch the dvd's, "Hill Country" and "Marsh Bucks"? They really bring these bedding scenarios and set ups into focus.
