Mineral site advice

I want to get a couple mineral sites established but I'm on a tight budget.
A buddy said I can just go get some stock salt and mix it in the dirt.
Yay or nay?? Also. Would this be just to give them something to keep them by my stand or will it possibly be an early season attractant?? I always want to do so much but just don't have the funds. Any advice would be great!!

 

It could very well both keep them hanging around and work as an attraction. Once you get one going the deer keep coming and you only have to refresh them every few months if even that. A lot of people on here love the Monster Raxx stuff. I'm gonna get some eventually but for now we just have a couple salt licks from the feed store

 

Stock salt is definitely just an attractant as it doesn't provide the minerals that a lot of people think it does. It will draw deer into the salt lick, but won't really help all that much as far as nutrition goes. If you really want to benefit the deer, I would look into getting a high quality mineral supplement (look at the label and get something thats not 98% salt), such as Monster Raxx Your overall herd health will improve.

 

I mix my own with salt, stock salt and calcium phosphate. Deer seem to love it and it is less percentage of salt than just a salt block etc...
No idea how cost effective it is vs other pre-mixed products out there but it's cheaper than some for sure and deer eat holes into the ground long after it looks like it's gone. They use it well into winter too, the old, "they only use them in warm weather" stuff is hooey as I have trail cam pics of deer digging in the snow to get to mineral licks.

 

If you want a mineral site...what your buddy said is not. If you want a salt site or attractant site...then he was spot on. Research the mixes out there and unless you want to spend the money making your own, I doubt you can find a better mix than Monsterraxx...it is extremely low salt content yet hit like salt for many!

Make sure you know your mineral laws though in your state...some it's fine all year round...others only certain times, ain't worth losing right to hunt and being of lesser character.

 

If you are on a tight budget, look on youtube for "deer mineral". Di-calcium Phosphate, Stock Salt and Trace Minerals can be mixed, even adding some dried molasses all for under $50 - which makes roughly 150-200lbs of mix....best way to do it IMO if your on a budget. This is what I will be trying this year.

 

I have had great luck with Monster Rax.. Great for a year round supplement for overall deer health. Not much of an attractant after the early season hunting wise. (At Least for me) I have a watering hole and a mineral site right next to each other, it is about as dominate of an early season stand site as you can find.

 

Exactly what I do, it's an old QDMA recipe. If anything works better then it should be illegal, ha.

 

Yep I also saw it on the QDMA site.

 

Is it worthwhile to put out/continue mineral sites in the winter?


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I still have deer hit mine in the snow. I have seen deer digging through 12" of snow to get to the mineral site

 

Yep, mine are still hitting mine in the snow. I have pictures of them nosing two of my mineral stumps after 10+ inches were on the ground.

 

When I was on a tight budget I resorted to using trace mineral/stock salt and Di-Cal on my first mineral sites. It seemed to work and be a good decision at the time since money was so tight. Now that I have been using Monster RAXX on a regular basis I only wished I had just saved up my $$ and start using it back then. Although, back then MR was also very new and I was skeptical of how it worked and how it would benefit the deer. I'm not skeptical any more.....

 

Not to thread jack...but I always wondered, If I was to to do something like this in the early spring and "freshen" it up in the summer...leave it alone until Oct could I legally hunt around it? Or what if I did it in early spring but the deer just kept coming to it all year would it be considered baiting? I'd love to do something like this to benefit the deer..but I wouldn't want to ruin my chances of actually being able to hunt the area come fall.

 

That's a good question, what are the rules the apply to hunting property with mineral sites? I believe you can hunt over a salt lick, is that true?


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Each state varies...in IN I got to remove all affected soil from being reached by the deer. After discussions with many DNR officers we stop freshening the sites in August and then fence off the mineral sites effectively removing the option to use them from the deer herd. If we don't do this we are 100% treated and considered to be baiting if we hunt anywhere on the property. Ain't worth that...research your state's laws.

 

Not true at all....depending on the state and in some cases sections of the state.

 

If you go to Tractor Supply you can get a big bag of Mineral Salt....kinda orange colored. It works well. The white salt the deer around here would hardly touch it. In TN you can hunt over salt licks as long as what your using is 51% salt or more.

 

It all depends on your state laws. Some states don't let you put out minerals or licks at all.


Other states require that you stop baiting and remove the contaminated soil 10-14 days before season.

 

Wow. Y'all are great. I found some mineral mix at a local seed&feed store. Got fifty pounds for $10!!
Old timer has been mixing the same stuff for a while and all the guys swear by it!!
So I will mix that in. I have a little pond at one of my stands and so I read that water and mineral site equals
Good times!!!
Is it bad that I'm already looking forward to this comming season?
Lets do this