Yup. I'd bet most don't have true mineral supplementation sites, they merely have attractant/bait sites which over-deliver salt and under deliver any other "trace minerals" many hardly have that even. I know.....
I have. I spent quite a bit of time talking with some seriously knowledgeable deer folks. The guy that turned me onto Purina has documented deer over several years adding noticeably more mass, stickers, drop tines...its crazy. Im a skeptic so it took me long time to try something different. My 1st year using it was 2017. Deer had their faces in it all summer. Uses molasses as attractant rather than lots of salt or fruity flavors. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Would you mind posting the front of a bag when you get a chance? Finding a lot of different pictures on Google just looking for the right one.
I'll admit....all my research has led me to 4 products I'd recommend for true mineral sites personally: -Monsterraxx (no longer commercially sold) -Real World's Maximizer (now they offer with EHD technology) -Grandpa Ray's -The Purina mix being discussed. Are there more? Sure...but these seem to be the most nutrient dense mixes out there with the proper levels of calcium and phosphorous....lower salt content...key nutrients many ignore...
Those are the only ones I'm aware of. Great success with Monster Raxx. Deer in my area did not touch Grandpa Ray's for some reason. Will check out Real World and Purina in the near future.
I'm moving away from any of them and beginning this year I'm focusing more on micro-nutrient/mineral content of my food plots. It makes more sense to me to supplement the forage that the deer are eating for nutrition than to provide another concentration vector for disease transmission. It's also a known fact that deer are more attracted to forage that is more nutritionally dense so I expect it to be a win win win change. Besides due to the conservation department and CWD fears...supplemental mineral as well as feed stations are probably going to get outlawed here before long anyway. If that happens I'd prefer to not be pulling provided food stations, cold turkey, from a deer herd that now expects it to be there.
Only one I've tried was Monster Raxx and I had the same luck you did with Grandpa Ray's. Should try it again though.
I have had great luck with doing this. 2 parts pasture mineral (I buy the one with the lowest salt content) 2 parts Big 6 Mineral salt (Basically 96% salt with trace minerals) 1 part dried molasses (for attractant)
Bottomline is this: One has to decide whether they are preparing or desiring to implement a site based on overall herd health of the deer OR merely for attraction purposes. There is nothing wrong with either, so long as legal where you are...but I just get extremely sick of folks pretending to be doing it for the health of the herd and all you have is a salt lick with "trace mineral" IF even that.
I am going to ask my daughter if her store carries Purinas antler max, my local feed mill does not carry purina.
Centra Sota Little Falls, she is going to check and get back to me, hell she will order a pallet if it sells.
Jake not that easy to get the mix, Purina has 2 plants in Minnesota the stores can only order the products produced in the plants in the state. The mix suggested by Covey is not available in Minnesota but my Daughter is going to cross check ingredients to see what is available.
The one mentioned by Booner you mean? I don't think I mentioned any in this thread or any other thread in quite a while. I always just bought dical and range salt and also trophy rocks.
Lol, not me...I grow some nice ones but rarely kill any anymore. I'm not even worthy of mention next to Boonerville. My gosh, even Tyni kills more big bucks than I do...that's sad.
