Jack
Technique and timing may have a bigger affect on your hunter's situation rather than the scent used. Evidently he knew the buck that he was hunting was the dominant one for the area and when all the lesser bucks tippy toed around MR. Big but this one particular buck( your hunter) did not. Timing and presence just pushed him over the edge. It wasn't the scent, so much as that everyone else (all the other lesser bucks) respected Big Buck's position and this one ( your hunter) didn't. His knowledge of how to trip Big Buyck's trigger is what kept him getting big bucks. Any lure probably wopuld have worked as he demonstrated.
For that reason I'd believe him.
