I had this perfect place where I had put out a mineral site, it had been doing outstanding since I put it in. Up until I went to check the tree camera the last time. Usually, I get around 150-250 pictures in about a 10 day period. The last time I put it out, was about the 21st, and today; the 1st, I went to get my camera to move it to a different location before going on a trip to Canada. But it just didn't seem right that I had only got 5 pictures in the time it was out. As I like to do, I walk over to where I have the minerals out and look how much the deer had been in it. I have one of those mineral salt blocks, and some how it been moved about 12 inches to the right. I thought maybe a deer just pushed it over there, but if he did, it would at least be a little crooked from where it was before. But anyways, when I got home to look at the pictures the first one on the card was taken the 30th. And I know that it couldn't have gone 9 days without taking a picture in such a high traffic area that it was. What really has me upset is that I was really looking forward to hunting there this year, but not if someone is going to be checking up on the site, perhaps stealing my stand, and all around ruining my hunting.
I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet unless you had someone on camera. Perhaps you have low batteries in the camera? Had that happen before and yes they can definitely move a mineral block around as well as raccoons.
If your pictures are normally doe heavy, it could be a matter of them shooting out fawns and not moving the same as prior. In the future always leave an old picture on the card, that way if it is gone you know somebody erased it.
Deer have moved big crunch blocks and trophy rocks on my property before. Are you sure the camera was still aiming at the mineral site properly and didn't get blocked by something? A big storm can easily knock a camera off target or move something in the way that wasn't there when you left it. As mentioned above, I too have had periods where I got very few pictures in late May/early June when fawns start dropping. It will pick up in 2-4 weeks when the fawns start travelling greater distances.
I will typically let the camera take a picture of me after I replace the card. That way the next time I swap cards, I can tell for sure nobody has erased the card.
I do the same, a good idea is to hold a postcard in front of it that says "If you are seeing this picture, you have been caught by my hidden camera. Please return this or I'll report you for trespassing." EDIT: Or just put a card inside the camera opening with that message if there's room.
I've had a salt block get moved over 10 feet before at one location. Ended up being deer and coons moving it around because they were so interested in it.
It sounds like you making a lot of assumptions. I'd bet the deer are doing other things. There are a lot of other things that could have rolled the block.
I've had deer move my blocks a lot. I had coons steal a Big and J deer cube from a site one time. A lot of crazy things can happen. I had a site last year get 1200 pictures in 3 weeks... Left it out another 2 weeks and I had 200. Deer change patterns and they could have done this in your case.
check low lying areas for boot tracks to see if anyone has been there. I highly doubt someone is going to do enough to ruin a mineral site. minerals leach deep into the soil. maybe a turkey hunter was just passing through and checked it out but I doubt a person is going to check your mineral site on a regular basis.
