Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Mineral blocks for deer

Do deer frequent mineral blocks? I’ve never put them out, always had some type of stock on the place I’ve hunted. The East Texas paper company land I’m on now does not. What’s best to put out or am I wasting my time?? Thanks in advance!!

I have tried Grainiac blocks. They seem to like them.

I put out powdered minerals, salt, calcium and molasses a couple times a year for deer. Recipe from youtube and cheap to buy at the feed store.

The does sure like it this time of year.

I tried a variety, but finally decided that rock salt worked the best.

Dig a trench. Poor it in. Put back the dirt, The salt will seep into the dirt, and the deer will worry the dirt. For one thing, done this way, the salt lasts longer. Second, the deer get trace minerals out of the dirt. Third, by keeping the deer from directly eating the salt, you keep them from overdoing the salt. Too much salt is bad for the deer. They fill up on salt and then fill up on water, which then leaves them less room for food.

I use mixing salt, because it is the cheapest, but I've used rock salt and conditioner pellets as well.

Most parts of Texas have more than enough Salt in the soil to support wildlife, do a soil test on your lease, it should tell you what you need to know Texas A&M will test your soil samples and send you a report on the results, look up the process on the A&M web site. Rio7

I use a combination of "Trophy Rocks" and salt blocks rom the feed store.

The issue you might have is when they're hitting them. I see the most activity in spring and summer, fall not so muck. They're useful to keep deer around in the off season, and when you put a camera on them, you'll get an idea of what's around.

I get more activity on my ground licks than with blocks on my lease in AL. I either find depression or create one with a shovel or an old rotting stump and pour either fine mixing salt or trace mineral in there. If you can find an evergreen with shade that is a good place as well as it will hold moisture better.

Best just before a rain. The rain soaks it into the soil. Even after the mineral or salt is visibly gone they paw around in the hole making it bigger.

If you have water at your lease i guess you could dissolve it a drum of water and dump the water in the hole.

My best ones hold a bit of water. I refresh the licks with a bag once a year. I have several the deer have dug out two feet deep and 6 feet wide. There is usually a bit of water in the hole after a few years. I just just dump it right in the water.

Keeps the deer coming year round for the price of one or two bags of corn. This year I paid $10 for a 50lb bag of fine mixing salt and about $16 per bag of trace mineral from the local co-op.

Mule deer and WT like the reddish brown trace mineral blocks, elk too.
Cheap at the feed store.
They are a little better than straight salt for the wildlife they say.

I leave the red mineral blocks out for our goat herd. I've got them near water sources in multiple pastures that we rotate stock through. I often see deer at them. Occasionally I've seen them circled around it with 3 or 4 does/young ones working on it at the same time.

We put out trace mineral red brown blocks. The deer where we hunt come to them often in spring and summer. The deer will dig a hole down into the rocks when the block melts into the ground. It seems like the antler growth is a little better when they have minerals. It might be my imagination though.

Illegal here in Colorado.

I usually use the red trace mineral blocks, but I have used the white ones or occasionally bags of pool salt.

I sometimes have to put a bucket of clay in the resulting hole to keep it from turning into a tank trap.

I set Mineral salt blocks and sulfur salt blocks side by side. The deer eat the dirt where the rain melts them. They create a hole next to them, and in late spring the doe will stand and drink the water a lot. Yes, i have camera's on them. miles

I keep one out in the backyard through the winter and early spring. They. seem to prefer the ones with a higher molasses content with some corn mixed in. The first time I put one out, I put my trail camera on the back porch and had a ten point on that block within two hours. I tried a Purina block with ground up corn in it and they didn’t like that one at all.

I had a place way back when on Int. Paper land.
If it's the same, I hope things have improved since
I was around there. Didn't matter if things were
bolted down or chained up. If the pinheads
wanted something, it disappeared. Always the
neighborhood people. If they couldn't get it
they'd vandalize it. And the fence hoppers waiting
until you leave to take advantage of your work
and hunt your stands and shooting lanes.
Hopefully it'll be way better for you though.

Some guys at our lease, put mineral blocks near their feeder, black bears carried them off.

Hunting over bait is illegal here in Wyoming too so we put them out before and after season and do not hunt the sites. They are to supplement the herds not hunt over.
Had the biologists recc. we put out minerals for the deer and bighorn sheep as long as we didn't actively hunt right over them.
Been supplementing with mineral for about 25+ years now. All species seem to use the blocks.

We've done the trophy rock and salt blocks. Did them over a period of years. While they were utilized by the deer, I can not say if we saw any difference in the quality of deer it created. Antler wise.

The old saying "you can't out exercise a bad diet" seems to apply "you can't out mineral bad genetics"

We have been on that place 4 years. I got on 2020, hunted, 2121, off 2022, back on 2023. No theft yet, cellular game cameras everywhere. That may help.

Illegal here if you plan to shoot/hunt the deer