Good point Troy, I have had family and friends tell me their scrape went dry, and some do, But most of the bigger ones in well traveled areas will have fresh tracks in them, and the licking branch will still be being used, even if the dirt has not been ruffed up in quite some time. I killed a nice Buck (Big 6 no brow tines) years ago when he came into clean an old scrape out for the first time that year.
I could tell a story of where the term Licking Branch come from.

Let's hear it....

This is great advice guys... Keep it coming

If your hunting a state with multiple deer tags, you can dissect the urine bladder while field dressing an early season deer, drain the urine into a container (I used those little variety pack bottles from the camping section of walmart, very cheap) and refridgerate it. Useittofreshen upyour mock scrapes, there's really nothing better than fresh urine from deer in your neck of the woods. Bucks in your areas are used to smelling doe A, B, C, buck A, B, C, etc...I made sure to keep any ofthe blood from the frield dressing out of the urine.Hang that samedeer urine for rattling and grunting.

One other note... scrape hunting isnt easy, often during the scraping phase of the rut when I hunted them hard, does would lay up near them so getting in and out wasnt a walk in the park. Bucks also often visted them in the middle of the night in pressured areas. As with any hunting spot pressure is key.. my best scrape hunting area today is remote and rarely does a human ever walk in there let alone hunt it. Good luck and set up downwind of the those scrapes or scrape lines, have a good exit and enterance route and keep your human scent out of that scrape. I used rubber gloves and rubber boots always when doctoring and often all you have to do is tear up the dirt even without urine, deer notice that freshly tilled soil..

I read anotherpost on a website and they were talking about Jackie's deer lures. I might try these sents out. They seem like they have everything that I would need to start some mock scrapes. They have a mock scrape powder and licking branch gel along with doe pee and and a mixture of buck and doe estrous. They are priced pretty good also. For everything that I would need it would cost me right around $30-$40 for the full season. Anyone every tried these scents before and if you did, how did you like them?

NowI read On Woody's forum this is the ulitmate concoction:
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You puree 2 apples put in a gallon milk jug, twinkle in the jug till its 3/4 full then add 1cup of plain household ammonia.leave loosely covered for a week,then its ready to use.Yeah it reeks especialy what Im using this season thats a year old.I fill a 16oz soap bottle with it and duct tape the lid for safety.I get lots of pics of deer and other critters checking these scrapes.[/align][/align]http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=44237&highlight=mock+scrapes[/align]

I use jackies deer lures with good sucess try his mock scrape powder I have had good luck with it.

i usually make them around the last week of October. I've been using the Active Scrape stuff but haven't really had too much success with it.

hambone, this is a very interesting concoction and that is a lot of twinkling.

If you want to make a scrape that works you make them like I do. First you scrape up the leaves and dirt really close to where you would park, and you don’t want to hunt, or think any deer will go. Next, you tell the idiot hunter that you are forced to share the land with that you jumped a really good buck on a scrape and tell him where it is. He will park his butt right there, probably for the entire season. Mock scrapes work great!