This one's for you Tom, i want to see your mineral lick trail camera photos. As some of you might know, i haven't been able to establish one for a few years now, the deer have totally avoided them. Throw me some tips and tricks while your at it...
Have you tried minerals on a rotting log yet? I put some on a chunk that weighed about 75 pounds and the log disappeared in a few months.
Thats what im going to do this year. Find some rotting logs and half bury them, with trace mineral blocks on top, salt around the base and commercial mineral supplement covering the the whole thing. Most likely Monster Raxx. I know "salt" does nothing for the deer, but i have to get them attracted to the area first ya know?
When I start a new site I will dump a 50 LB bag of corn on top of the new site just to jump start it and help deer to locate it. After that I just refresh the mineral as needed, this works great for me.
Caleb I do not use any corn or any feed to get a site started. I am going to put pics from a new site that I started last year. I did something different on this than I did in the past instead of just raking up the dirt and working in one bag I used a shovel and turned all of the dirt in a 2'x2' area until it was loose. Then I poured a bag over it and turned the soil and mineral over and over again to really work it in. Then I poured a second bag over the top to get it started. Then I just added a bag May, June, July and October. As you can see they are still going to it. The weeds are blocking the fact that the hole is getting bigger. You can see he is standing down in the hole.
I believe ya Tom, I've tried it all. Mixing it in with the soil...putting it on logs...putting it in water. The deer are just not interested in it. They will walk right on by. I'll figure the secret out this year though...no worries Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Caleb I do think if you set up a site like Pat does on a big stump and pour a bottle of attractant over the mineral and let it soak into the stump it will work for you.
My guess is one of two things, either they have a natural mineral lick around the area and simply don't crave additional mineral or someone else locally has about twice as many mineral sites per acre on their property than would normally be needed. The only time I've seen deer not find and use mineral sites is due to the latter. Not many areas in the country have naturally occurring mineral sites but lots of people utilize mineral sites. The last thing I've also seen is local farms having a large supply of salt blocks out for cattle.
The hottest and now only one I have I did it in a somewhat remote area. It's less than 10yd off a trail with cover around it. When I started it I poured a line straight of the trail to the mineral site. I've tried to establish others in the area with no luck at all in all different areas just to see what worked and this one was my last go at it. It's been established now for a good 3 years and I don't have to put minerals out very often. It slows down a little about half way through season but, starts getting hit hard again about this time of year. Ill go out in April and freshen it up an then a few more times throughout the year. I also do not hunt over it. But, they come in from all different directions to get to it. I'm about to start one on another property and can't wait to see how it does.
I have two Monster Raxx sites and they use one pretty frequently, the other, not so much. But I think that could be due to like CoveyMaster said - someone else in the area or on a neighboring property could have a more established mineral site that they're comfortable with. Either way, good luck and I hope it works out better for you this year
was it in the same boat last year, tried a few bags and nothin hit it. tried a few different things and didnt make as much of a difference as one would like, like u said on log, in water, mixed in soil, in grassy areas, in wooded areas. we have about nothin but pines. after going back and fourth with tom, and talking to him on the phone he helped me out and gave me a few of the ideas i tried. i just put out a bag yesterday at a new place that i havent tried yet. im really really hoping it works out cuz it cud be a killer spot come bowseason. hopefully they hit the site and i will order a few more bags when i get some of the smell good stuff, i can attest the deer do respond to that stuff. i guess i should thank you again Tom for taking the time to help me out.
My best success has been when using a stump and our one mineral site is called just that, "the big stump". If you look closely deer have gnawed on it quite a bit over the years. When we established other sites on our property we couldn't find suitable stumps so we tried a log and it worked just as well this past year. In years past we always used some shelled corn and made sure we mixed the mineral in with it. We still occasionally put corn at these sites but as Tom mentioned and proof was last year, with the Monster RAXX we didn't need it to keep deer coming.
I got one log lick set up this morning. I found 2 pretty rotten logs and laid them together in a cleared out depression. There is a little water in the bottom...what's the opinion on that? Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
That sounds like it should work Caleb. The deer like to drink the water after it rains and it is easier for them to paw up the dirt.
IMO water is fine with how you describe. After they start digging at it you will end up with water in it anyways, look at the picture with my son Allen sitting on the stump above ^^
This will be my first year setting up a mineral lick - Planning on order a bag of Raxx soon (is there still a 20% discount coupon code, or did that expire?) Just need this damn snow to melt. I will be creating my 2014 outdoors thread soon and will include updated there!
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one having problems getting a site started. I got 14 bags of MR for two locations and have corn feeders near by I get hundreds of pics of deer in the corn feeder no action on the mineral site at ether location I have a stump in one location with a creek near by??? I will try the shoveling of the dirt more than I have so far and track this thread:p
