Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Mineral blocks for deer

We have used trace mineral blocks.

They use them. Probably helps with any deficiency they may ha e and can't hurt antler growth.

Not sure with the CWD going around these parts I want to have multiple deer using them anymore.

It is legal where I live and If I put them out now they will be gone by hunting season. I do put a couple close to my stands but put some out just beside the.woods trails to make some available to deer on all of the.property we hunt.

Well that's good
FWIW every place I've hunted in this state
on every compass point had issues with
either theft or trespassing/poaching or both.
Some more so than others. The majority of
those I hunted with west and southwest
would swear up and down that there wasn't
any problems at all, but I always had to remind
them that you most likely aren't noticing
anything different when you only show up
3 times in a year if that. Usually one of the
neighbors/neighbor's kids, or one of the
oil gaugers.
There's really nothing to be done if you're not
on the property full time.
I've hunted/fished in the adjacent states, and
they're not any different. Some notice it.
Some don't

In places that don’t have a salt source, like ranchers salt blocks or natural licks, a salt block and game camera in the late spring to late summer will tell you exactly what lives there. It becomes the hub of game movement. Moose will live on it, or next to it. Come fall the animals dissipate and hunting over it is useless, nevermind illegal in some spots. It’s incredible how they smell it out within a few days of it being there.

The places I have hunted my whole life wildlife comes to the salt so I assume they need it. My dad always poured rock salt on or in stumps. Deer will dig a stump out of the ground here in a few years.

It's legal here. We use Southern States Corn-A-Plenty blocks. It's not a salt block per se, it's more like mashed together corn, soy, minerals, salt, molasses, and other good schit. They don't lick it, they chew on it. I've seen deer that might just walk up to it and take a nibble and continue on. A block might last a couple of months in the early season when there's a lot for them to eat. But once the fields are cut and the leaves come off the trees, they tend to go through them quicker. If we get snow cover, a block might only last a week or two. They're the size of a salt block, but they only weigh 25 lbs. It'll fit in my back pack and I can just carry them out to where I need them. It always helps the throw some corn around when I go hunting to keep them digging around.

https://rockbridgefarmerscoop.com/c...es-rainshed-corn-a-plenty-wildlife-block

I use to put out granular mineral salt mixed with some calcium for deer on old stumps along well used deer trails….they loved it! I would put out maybe 10 or so sites along the perimeter of our 500 acre hunting ground. They would chew up the woody part of the stump and lick up the dirt around these stumps. I’d refresh these sites yearly. However, I quit this practice a couple of years ago because of the prevalence of CWD in our county. I have a CWD scientist friend who advised me to stop the practice…..something to consider. He also told me that they have tested the soil around some mineral sites and the prion(cwd) was present in the soil in enough quantity to infect the deer. Furthermore, he stated that they have even found traces of the prion in plants that grow at these sites. CWD is a nightmare disease for our deer! My friend said as well that in areas where cwd is prevalent that the deer population will remain young….meaning that most deer will succumb to the disease before they reach their 3 yr. I have found this to be true on our ground as I only see young bucks anymore where in the past we used to annually kill mature bucks……sad, very sad.

I might further add that a lot of deer killed in hunting season in our county are tested for CWD and the test returns “positive” and the deer appeared outwardly healthy. Deer can be infected with the prion responsible for CWD and not show clinical signs of the disease! However, when they do, onset of death is rapid. My CWD buddy also admitted that after all these years of studying this disease in the U.S. and Europe, they don’t know a whole lot about it.

It’s been awhile but I’ve had good luck with them. It’s what the farmer was getting in bulk shipment for his cattle on the farm I hunted back in the day so we just chipped in on the shipment and used them. We’d put them on an old dead elm stump and after a few rains they’d start chewing the stump down to a hole in the ground over time. Can’t say if they’re any better than regular salt blocks just that it’s what I used and the deer liked them.

As others mentioned the trace mineral blocks get hit hard in spring through summer. Logically since this coincides with antler growth for bucks and pregnancy through nursing for does I’d say there’s something there deer need. Read the label on various livestock mineral supplements and they contain quite a bit more minerals than the blocks. Deer will eat a waterhole in the ground where these are dumped.

To illustrate the cloven hoofed love for salt I’ll go into Way-Back to my deer hunting start as a teenager. A place our gang hunted was the site of an old old homestead long since gone, except for the obvious outline of a smokehouse. An almost perfect outline 8” to a foot deep where generations of deer had come for the salt that dropped off the meat, onto and through the floor, and leached into the soil beneath.

Find a nice big oak stump or log and set a trace mineral block on it and pour a bag of cattle mineral over the block. The deer will gnaw and eat the wood after the salt and mineral leak into it.

I would mix rock salt, brown sugar and a packet of strawberry jello. Pour it into a shallow trench and cover it with dirt. Definitely got action.
Funny story.
Dad thought it was more internet bs so I put some out in a field and drew an arrow in the dirt to where I put it. Next morning sure enough deer were all over the tip of that arrow. We saw one doe fending off others from it. I handed him binoculars to look and asked if he saw the arrow on the ground. He gave his look of surprise I was hoping for. He asked what my mix was made of (because I was dramatic about hiding the ingredients). I said I call it "internet bullsh*t" and wouldn't tell him for a while- we both got a laugh out of it. Damn I miss that kind of stuff.

Bringing deer together where they would frequent that salt etc. gives more of a chance e for CWD to become prevalent.So putting it out may be doing more harm than good.

I use Trophy Rocks as well.... I don't know how much they do for antler growth but I do know the deer can't seem to go more than a few hours without licking them....

Here too.
Baiting has always been illegal, but you could “feed” wild animals as long as all traces were gone 30 days before you hunted the area.

With CWD, they have made feeding totally illegal.
Trying to keep deer from congregating in one small spot to feed.
And every damn feed store, gun store, Walmart, and tractor supply still sells all kind of deer miracle bai..treats!

I use the red mineral blocks here and at camp. They have to get pulled prior to season, but I see a lot of use by does in the spring. I believe it really helps with their health, and their fawns' health.

I put two of the 40 lb mineral blocks out each year.
Get them from the Agway.
Last 2 cost about 25.00.
They last a year.
Always have cameras on them.
If you change where you put the block.
The deer will still visit the old spot and actually dig a hole in the ground where the block used to be.
Tried one of the fancy blocks from sportsman's wearhouse.
Coons ate it up in a week.
dave

That is why I don't put the mineral blocks out anymore.

CWD is too close to home for me.

Where did CWD come from??

At least in Mo some claim from the elk farms in Northern Missouri. Who knows where it started before those.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease