I used to buy the dark brown ones from the farmer's coop for cattle, and place them in the woods. The deer loved them. So did the bear and porcupines They do sell specific ones for deer that I think might attract them even more. I am going to get a few of them this year and put them in the woods.
One thing I tried many years ago that the person swore was a deer magnet... was called Deer Cocaine. It was a powder that you mixed with water and poured into holes. And it soaked in and the deer fought each other off with sticks to be king of the hole. Well that stuff never worked. I used it as directed and my deer did not like it at all.
I also used an apple powder and that used to bring deer in. But when they discovered no apples.. they left.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
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My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
About 5 years ago, I got a bunch of the Deer Cocaine, made a few spots with this mixed into the dirt, and the deer went nuts over them. They made huge holes in the ground trying to get it all. I didnt really use much for minerals the next few years, but then last year I decided to give it a try again. I did the same thing as last time, and the deer never even touched it.
__________________ Captain of Team 13, Natural Bone Killers
I saw an episode of "The Bucks of Tecomate" one evening and they discussed this during "The Management Minute". They do that during every episode and discuss QDMA. They were creating mineral sites in conjunction to their food plots. They dug a hole about a foot deep and wide enough to entrench a tray about the size of one used to buss tables at a restaurant. They dumped in somemineral stuff, mixed it around with the dirt, and then covered it back up. They then spread a little corn over the top of it to attract the deer to that area. I assume the tray was used to keep the minerals from soaking too deep into the soil. But that says something about mineral sites when one of the poster-boy ranches of QDMA uses them right next to their food plots. That would tell me that mineral sites definitely have some merit.
__________________ Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my handgun...
IME: Salt and mineral blocks work well in areas where there arefew cattle. Ifthere are lots of cattle nearby the deer get their supplement from the rancher. Have tried nearly everything at one of our places and nothing works: All the neighbors raise cattle.
We use salt licks and have success w/ apple blocks as well. We ahve used bag salt melted into water and poured over stumps and they will lick that stump smoother than a peice of sand paper can. We have them digging into the ground making holes. Now one year we bought minerals and salt and mixed 50/50. The hated the minerals and if you taste them they are terrible bitter, but loved the salt. So we mixed 70 salt- 30 minerals and then they would work it over, again poured on stumps!
Deerr cocaine has some luck but you have ot refresh evry 30 days or so and if you have a lot of rainfall even more. If you hunt in some states you must have your blocks and feeders out of the woods 30 days prior to deer season, but if you use the loose salth mineral combo it will soak into the stump or ground for year round use.
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"There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory." --American author and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910)
I live in what they call the (Grape Belt) our area has thousands of acres of Grapes, it's mostly a Agricultural Community, Farms, Cattle ect. Plus there's an abundance of Natural Gas underground so there's also Hundreds of Gas Wells. Next to the wells there's a (Brine Tank) salt, the Deer love these spots. We also put out the Mineral Lick's (brown) and salt blocks, they do attract deer but there's so many other options for them that it's a hit and miss with them with all the crop fields, corn, soy beans, pumpkins, cabbage, ect. Plus all the apples trees and acorns it's a never ending smorgasbourg for the deer. If you really want to attract deer, plant apple trees, it takes awhile for them to mature, but once established you'll have deer comming to them all fall and winter. In our state it's considered (baiting) if we use salt blocks. The one's we put out are there just to help the deer, we never hunt them. But with all our natural crops around, that's where we set up. It's funny that you cant bait say with apples, but you can hunt apple orchards and all the other crop fields.
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Those who hammer their Guns into plows will plow for those who do not. Thomas Jefferson
After doing a bit of research and finding out that there mineral needs are very similar to cattle I started using the dark brown mineral blocks for cattle; I put a trail cam over the area and notice that the does hit it more just before they have there fawns and the bucks hit it more when they are growing horns. It really does not have as much attraction for them during hunting season but I noticed over a couple years time that the deer population seemed a bit better looking and the buck horns were noticeably better, it makes enough difference here in the pine woods that I keep one out year round. Lee
Off Topic--Mineral/Salt Lick
