Is anyone here establishing their own mineral licks for whitetails?

If so, what are you using and how are you establishing the lick?

I just buy a bag of trace mineral salt from the feed store dig a small hole dump about a gallon in and leave it.

Don't know anything about the area you hunt, but ion some cases around the country mineral licks don't really accomplish anything as there are natural mineral deposits in the soils in an area.

Might want to check with the state game department or agriculture department if there is one and find out if there is some place yoiu can send or take soil samples and get them analysed and see what minerals may be lacking.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I just buy a bag of trace mineral salt from the feed store dig a small hole dump about a gallon in and leave it.

My ranch is so close to the Gulf that I seriously doubt that salt intake is an issue.

Ive used just about all the dump on the ground salts.

They are a great way to get trail cam pics.

Ive never killed a deer off of one though

I use the 25# mineral block for cattle. Clear the surface vegetation in about a 5' circle. Dig the block into the ground 1/2 it's height. Dump a bag of Solar Salt large pellets around the edge of the mineral block. Pour a gallon of liquid deer attractant (Deer Cocaine, etc.) on top of the salt to attract the deer to the lick. I have had deer come and lick the ground long after the block is gone. Check state laws. Some do not allow blocks with food (apple, etc.) in them.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
I just buy a bag of trace mineral salt from the feed store dig a small hole dump about a gallon in and leave it.

My ranch is so close to the Gulf that I seriously doubt that salt intake is an issue.

Most minerals preparations are salt based though.

Phosphorus and micro-minerals would be likely to be what your deer lack if anything. Micro-minerals (copper, zinc, etc) are expensive. Could feed bone-meal.

I have put out a combination of di-calcium phosphate and trace minerals. I took a 50 trace mineral block and broke it up with a sledge hammer. I mixed in about 15 pounds of di-calcium phosphate. I put that mixture in a small hole and basically stirred it into the dirt.

This is what the QDMA recommends.

Thus far nothing has hit the licks.

Dicalcium phosphate and micro-minerals are what bone is made of. Dical is not that palatable though outside of feed mixes. Ground bone...ie: bone meal is basically the same thing but more palatable.

Used to be easy to find and common feed-stuff but fear of mad-cow disease made it regulated. You might see if you could find some and try it in same fashion.

$250 fine to try hereabouts. $2,000 if you are successful.

Your game laws may vary.

Legal here. Regardless, I do not plan to hunt over them. These are purely for health.

Putting out salt or any kind of bait for any species is illegal here in Montana.

I am uncertain of the true value. I have trail cam videos of bears hunting the lick during fawn drop time.

I do put minerals out anyway. Try one quarter red feed salt, one quarter barn lime, one quarter mono/di calcium phosphate, and one quarter 'Sweet Lix' for goats.

1 part Di-calcium phosphate

2 parts Trace mineral salt, the red and loose kind without the medications.

1 part Stock salt

2 boxes Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda. This is Sodium Carbonate which is the primary ingredient in Deer Cane

Directions:

Put entire 200 lbs into one hole

-Dig or tear up a circle in the soil about 36 inches wide and about 6 to 12 inches deep

-Dig ground Mix your mineral mixture with the soil.

-Pour a couple gallons of water in the hole to start the mix leeching into the soil

-Do this in early spring and late to early fall

-feel free to add something sweet to get them to find it

I have a ton of hogs. I fear any sweet substances will have them all over the mineral lick.

Has anyone else encountered this issue?

I use the 50lb bags of trace minerals. It’s cheap and works well for my intended purposes. Depending on the size of the property I usually put 1 out for every 100 acres which is more than needed. I am able to get a lot of pics to see what is running around on the property.

My wife likes to sit on the porch of our cabin an watch the deer, hence I dig a hole put a 50# block of white salt in it cover the hole and pour a couple bags of DeerCoCain on top of the dirt. Then turn the hose on and let water trickle into CoCain or 2 days. Within 2 weeks the deer are down to the 50# block and keep coming back one year efore I repeat. Been doing this for 25 years.

Thanks everyone.

I think one thing that I need to do is wet these places down. There has been some rain in the last couple of days so that may help.

One of the unique things about my ranch is the close proximity to the water. It is so close to the Gulf of Mexico that I can literally hear the boats on the Gulf. While I am using these trace minerals with the salt, I am not sure that it is doing any good. From what I read, salt is not as issue being that close to the ocean.

I am going to make a few more. Rather than use the trace mineral blocks, I am going to use the bags of the trace minerals.

I have been reluctant to use an attractant given the number of hogs around. I may try it on one to see what happens.

I use the bags of trace minerals. The hogs will use it some the bears in this part of the country love them. I’ve got pics of up to 4 bear at a time on the mineral sites I’ve started. Th bear really use them in spring and summer not as much in the fall. I keep my sites running year around strangely enough I’ve got pics and video of coyotes using them as well

try mixing a box of ARM & Hammer laundry soap into the ground, the deer up this way go insane for it. Do not know why but I was told by an old timer to try it an it works great.

Interesting. Is this a powder? Can you give me any more specifics?

Larry,
The Arm & Hammer mix that Drummond posted is used by the 'old timer's a lot here in Missouri.

Another one that gets used up here is 'Trophy Rock'. It's a trace mineral.

quote:

Originally posted by 2th doc:
try mixing a box of ARM & Hammer laundry soap into the ground, the deer up this way go insane for it. Do not know why but I was told by an old timer to try it an it works great.

Arm and Hammer Washing Soda is what you want, it’s sodium carbonate

quote:

Originally posted by drummondlindsey:

quote:

Originally posted by 2th doc:
try mixing a box of ARM & Hammer laundry soap into the ground, the deer up this way go insane for it. Do not know why but I was told by an old timer to try it an it works great.

Arm and Hammer Washing Soda is what you want, it’s sodium carbonate

Baking soda is 100% sodium bicarbonate. I wonder if this is the same thing?

I don’t think it’ll work but I’ve never tried it. They are similar but different kind of like water H2O and hydrogen peroxide H2O2

quote:

Originally posted by drummondlindsey:
I don’t think it’ll work but I’ve never tried it. They are similar but different kind of like water H2O and hydrogen peroxide H2O2

BIcarbonate does not change acidity while Carbonate makes food stuff basic (antacid). Imagine yourself eating greens everyday an antacid like Tums would be very nice to have available to you. A deer has more stomachs than you and I but you get the idea.

Larry,

I think you are going to get the biggest bang for your buck with the other, high nutrition food plots you are planting. Adding lime to the soil in food plots prior to planting will increase soil calcium levels and improve crop growth. Soils test will help target levels to apply. Dolomitic lime is a combination of calcium and magnesium carbonates.

Most soils in Florida are naturally acidic. Sodium bicarb is going to raise pH but could create a localized situation where the soil becomes alkaline and calcium is precipitated out.

Tom

I had to go to the ranch today for a delivery.

I checked my mineral licks. Well, five of them anyway. Last Saturday, I stirred them up. I also added an Antler Max block on top of each. I chopped up the block with an axe.

It is safe to say that the blocks were absolutely destroyed. As best I could see there was none left. None as in absolutely none. The rest of the lick was somewhat stirred up.

I had some bags of minerals for cattle with a wide variety of minerals including all of the important ones. I poured about 10 pounds in each lick. I also poured a box of the Arm & Hammer discussed above. I mixed it up and poured about a half gallon of water over each.

I will be interested to see what happens.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I had to go to the ranch today for a delivery.

I checked my mineral licks. Well, five of them anyway. Last Saturday, I stirred them up. I also added an Antler Max block on top of each. I chopped up the block with an axe.

It is safe to say that the blocks were absolutely destroyed. As best I could see there was none left. None as in absolutely none. The rest of the lick was somewhat stirred up.

I had some bags of minerals for cattle with a wide variety of minerals including all of the important ones. I poured about 10 pounds in each lick. I also poured a box of the Arm & Hammer discussed above. I mixed it up and poured about a half gallon of water over each.

I will be interested to see what happens.

Looking forward to the report.

I am probably going to stop by next week on my way to turkey hunt. Hopefully the news will be good.

I stopped by yesterday. The few that I checked all had activity, even a lot of activity.

There are some minerals for grazing cattle that have a fair amount of calcium and phosphorus in them. I put them out. They seem to be working well although the hogs are hitting it as well.

I put out a pallet of Trophy Rocks ever year. T

You can pour 5 sacks of cow mineral salt on the ground and let the rain and snow work on it for a short time and you have a mineral lick that will last many years..Its illegal in Idaho.

It most Whitetail areas why worry with a mineral lick, most ranches use feeders that work off a time clock, and spread corn..works better than a lick..The Texas ranch I hunt has 8 such feeders and blinds..Many of those ranches have so much brush and all have ice pick thorns, that the only way to hunt is from those blinds..I love to walk hunt whitetails in the simi arid regions of Texas, and hunt mule deer horseback in the Big Bend of Texas..I don't disapprove of blind hunting its just no my preference..

Keep in mind that the goal is to grown bigger healthier deer not just attract deer.

In my area, salt does not work. I am so close to the Gulf that I can literally hear the boats in the Gulf. There is plenty of natural salt around.

I have found that the hogs are hammering my mineral licks. I am going to get the minerals off the ground. There are some cheap Moultrie gravity feeders. I am putting some of them out. There are also some smaller things my brother found that holds about a half gallon. I am going to put a number of them out.

The minerals last longer if you set them out on a stump. After a year the deer will start to dig a hole to get to the nutrients that have absorbed into the soil. You can also send out a soil samples or check the land maps at your local ASCS office. Most of the nutrient data should have been gathered. All of that information is free and to the public.

I originally put out a trace mineral block that I broke up with an axe plus about 20 pounds of di-calcium phosphate. These were mixed in with the dirt. Nothing.

Next I added the soda soap that some referred to above. Something hit it. I could not tell if it was hogs or deer. I suspect it was hogs.

I found some bags of minerals for cattle that have all of the right things in them. I put out 50 pound bags where I had put the other minerals out. These were hammered. I have reason to believe that hogs were doing this.

It has become increasingly apparent to me that anything left within the reach of hogs is a total waste. They are going hammer whatever it is.

I came up with an idea. I purchased several of these cheap Moultrie gravity feeders that hold 40 pounds. I have strapped these to pine trees where the access is 39 inches off the ground. This is hopefully high enough to stop most of the hogs from getting into the minerals. I put these out about a week ago. I have cameras on some of these. In about a week and a half I hope to go back . If this is not successful, I do not know what to try next.

I have another problem. Hogs! I have only owned the property 9 months. Some of my most prime places last year have not a single deer on them. They are covered in hogs. I do not know why the change.

We are going to trap some. I am going to make a few trips and hammer them good and proper. My wife is going to Europe soon. I am going while she is gone. I will sit in the stand at night and hammer them relentlessly with the suppressed 300 Blackout. If anyone else has any ideas, I would love to hear them.

Do you have any trail cams? Proof positive what is hitting your mineral licks.

My experience at a friends place with hogs in Alabama is that they deplete and area, and move on. They don't all leave, but the bulk do and you are back to the few you had before. Worst damage I have ever seen to the landscape. Looks like a rototiller went through every place you could get one.

Good luck with the eradication.

Jeremy

Too bad that is it illegal to use Temik aka Two Step. Thirty years ago we had a bad problem with wild dogs attacking our cattle herd. They killed about twenty calves and made another 150 head break out. One got hit by a transfer truck and in exchange we got hit with a nice lawsuit. My Dad also had to hire a group of cowboys to herd up cows from as far as twenty miles away.

We tried to hunt them. My brothers, the other farm hands and myself took turns watching the herd at night. You may kill one every four nights if you were lucky but we were still losing calves.. We had about 300 head of brute cows and all of them were Black Angus. It was a long June and July. Keep in mind that during this time there were no coyotes or wolves like there are now. We also did not know about keeping donkeys in your herd to kill predators.

Temik was a legal insecticide back then and we always had a good amount around because we farmed peanuts. My Dad started to mix temik with ground meat and called it a Temik Burger. In one week there were no more problems with wild dogs and I got to go back to sleeping in air condition at night.

Word got around and other ranchers discovered how effective my Dad's recipe was and the NC Cattleman's Association actually used his term the Temik Burger. I know that he was not the first to coin this but his story is good.

I remember that a local farmhand mixed temik in cool aid and gave it to his wife. She died instantly and I think he actually got the death penalty.

Poachers and burglars use this chemical now in South Africa. A burglar will feed it to a dog before he robs a house. A table spoon will kill a rhino so poachers love it.

They call temik the two step poison because whatever eats it takes two steps then it will die. It is illegal to use today because it kills everything including the buzzards that eat the animal you are trying to poison. The last time that I heard it was used legally was for a really bad rabies epidemic here in Eastern NC.

quote:

Originally posted by farbedo:
Do you have any trail cams? Proof positive what is hitting your mineral licks.

My experience at a friends place with hogs in Alabama is that they deplete and area, and move on. They don't all leave, but the bulk do and you are back to the few you had before. Worst damage I have ever seen to the landscape. Looks like a rototiller went through every place you could get one.

Good luck with the eradication.

Jeremy

I have a couple of cameras that have the lick and the feeder in line. These were definitely hogs.

There is an insane number of them. They are not leaving. They are getting ready to get their ass shot one way or another . If there are enough in the daylight, I am going to hammer them with buck shot at close range. The suppressed 300 Blackout at night with subsonic ammo.

I have a big bastard who needs to see an orthodontist. He stood on his hind legs and knocked the unit off a feeder that was 5.5 feet off the ground!