Using Minerals to help deer nutrition (PICS too)

Just wondering how many of you have tried using mineral licks? I tried out Deer Cane this year and I am impressed. Well worth the $7 for the gallon jug. I put a salt block down last winter and it had finally completely dissolved into the ground, so i dumped the liquid Deer Cane in the dirt to see if it worked. I would say it worked.

I have some nice bucks on my Wildview (see pictures) that are going to be Monsters next year. Nice brow tines on the one with a messed up rack on one side! Unfortunately, I seen this guy last year during shotgun season and he was a smaller 6 with the same messed up side, so I am thinking he got into a good fight or got hit by a car, because the rack just didn’t grow correctly again. Maybe it could just be bad genes??

Back to the deer management topic…It only took about 2 weeks and a few good rains, and now deer are hitting that dirt at different times. We also food plot Millet, Sorghum and Corn. Great for Pheasants and Whitetails!

Tim

Have been using mineral for two years now, and to say this year was way better than last would be an understatement. The deer are eating it up. Ive been using a mixture of home-made and boughten. Home-made recipe is 1/4 calcium phosphate, 1/4 blocks salt (crushed), and 1/2 mineral salt. The deer love it, and it’s fairly cheap to make, i mix it right in the dirt, usually about 20 lbs at a time. This summer i also added the 30.06 mineral for a little more supplement, and the deer are chewing that up also. It seems that now a couple generations of deer know where the licks are they are hitting it that much harder. Like TC JR said it seems to take a rain or two to really soak everything in the ground before the deer go to town.

I’ve used various mineral supplements (Buck Grub, Deer Cain, Magnet Mix) to attrack deer and had very good results. I’m sure it has effects on antler growth but that is a little harder to track. Regardless, I will continue to use them especially for early season scouting pics. Thanks for the recipe!

I used to put mineral blocks down in areas close to the farmers house where I hunted. I couldn’t put them anywhere near were I was going to hunt because its against the law here to hunt any baited stands. Norm told me that while he was getting hay later in the day he’d see deer at the mineral blocks, especially after the snow was on the ground.

Trying it myself for first time this season. Started out with round up in several 3ft x 3ft sections. waited a couple of weeks and went back with a rake and a small cultivator. Using a 50/50 mix of salt and mineral feed from Fleet Farm. I’ve had a lot of activity on all spots. Good Pictures on the ones that I’ve put they camera on.
Come Saturday we will really see if it pays off