Had a long reply typed up - somehow my phone deleted it so I will be concise.
Last 5+ years we have made a point to test anything and everything we could think of in relation to mock scrapes. 50+ scrapes a year across southern and central Iowa, all monitored with cameras. Ranging from the most unpressured elite farms, to nearly every piece of public in the southern half of the state. Any scents we could find, different licking branch mediums (various branches, various vines, various ropes, etc), different heights, ranging from waist to head height.
The complete consensus - location is EVERYTHING. You can have the most perfect oak branch or vine, perfect height for the deer(not too low and not too high so they can’t reach), with most natural scents available, blown out mock scrape, and them SUCKERS will use the dang hedge branch 6’ off the ground covered in some synthetic scent because it is 25 yards away and they just like the location better. Maybe a higher concentration of natural deer scent in that area. It is a reason to stop the deer for us, in an area they would have been anyway, and a stand location we would have had without the mock scrape. We don’t think of them like corn piles - where this will draw deer to a certain area regardless of normal travel patterns.
Consensus - try multiple things, we don’t get caught up in the marketing of any of it. Many many ways to skin the cat on this topic, IMO.
