salt licks, which works best

[HandGunner]

thinking bout puttin out a salt lick out and wondering which ones you guys think is best. I seen the deer cane (suposily previously called deercocaine) and this apple lick one... Just wondering wich flavors they would more prefer, I hunt southeast MN big farming area all corn and valleys, I kno baiting is illegal but I was told if the salt lick is out for a good month and is gone by the time Im hunting its legal and thats my plan, to put it out now and by the time I go out it should be gone

[hockeybc69]

Just use white salt or trace mineral blocks.

Dont waste your money on name brand stuff.

PS - You could put a pile of a hundred salt blocks under your stand and its completely legal.

[Jameson]

...baiting is illegal but I was told if the salt lick is out for a good month and is gone by the time Im hunting its legal and thats my plan, to put it out now and by the time I go out it should be gone

<Jameson shakes head in disbelief for so many reasons>

Look up the DNR's definition of baiting in the regs. Unless you are in the CWD area salt blocks are legal year round.

My best, longest lasting, most used salt block was one of those white cubes found at most grocery stores with the bags of salt for the water softeners.

[Archerysniper]

Go to the local feed mill they will have the big blocks used for deer or cattle, that's all you need.

[Mopad]

I buy the cheapest water softner salt at L & M fleet. It comes in a blue bag. I put it on a old half rotten stump and the animals go nuts on it. It helps even more once the site has been established, like in the spring.

[walleyehunter80]

deer tend to stop hitting the salt at the end of august. Plain white salt blocks are best. The deer go nuts for them from April-August. Dig a hole about 6 inches deep and 4 feet round. Throw your salt blocks in the hole and watch out after each rain. Once the hole fills with water you will see 3 times the deer traffic. They will hit it morning day and night!!!

[Ufatz]

So Handgunner, even though you know baiting is illegal you have no ethical aversion to baiting waaaayyyy ahead of time, right?

Does anybody just go into the woods deer stalking anymore or is it all cameras, bait,deer decoys and massed skirmish lines of guys trying 500 yard shots with their 20 round clip AR's?

An owl woke me up very early this morning and am still growling and stomping around in my (old) man cave.

You guys gotta forgive me but I'd feel a little guilty and sorta dirty if I put a salt block out, built it up into a lick and then killed some little ol' deer who came to it. Sorta like how would you like it if next time you sat down to a big steak I slithered up and zapped you in the buttinsky with a cattle prod!!

[Jameson]

...Does anybody just go into the woods deer stalking anymore...

I have a lot of public land hunts scheduled this year. Very little advanced scouting, pretty much limited to driving the roads and walking the horse trails looking for deer sign. No decoys, no bait, no food plots. It is the hunting that I seem to enjoy the most every Fall.

Their is something that I enjoy about improving land so that more wildlife use it, too. When I hunt on that land and am successful (rare in recent years) than their is a different sense of accomplishment.

So, to answer one of your questions, yes some of us do just go into the woods hunting sometimes these days.

[reinhard1]

plain white salt blocks for me for years. i'ts become more of a tradition rather than thinking about it as any "bait" site. i think deer use the salt more in the spring and summmer than in the winter. i've been thinking about bringing up plain rock salt in bags or pellets of salt next spring as long as it's plain salt. good luck.

[Gissert]

As others have said, the deer pretty much cease the use of mineral sites in mid to late August. It is not what I would call bait or an attractant once hunting season rolls around. I suppose if it along a regular trail, you could shoot a deer at a mineral site, but its unlikely that the deer would be seeking the minerals at that time of year. I have less than 10 photos of deer hitting minerals in September going back to 2005, and I don't think I have any photos in the month of October.

Mineral sites are good in the respect it gives deer needed nutrients when lactating and developing antlers. From spring thaw to mid-late July, they use them frequently. After that, the use tapers off. The DNR knows this, and thus mineral stations are allowed.

I don't use blocks, and prefer the simple loose dairy supplements and plain white salt mix that Hockeybc69 has posted in the past.

It is NOT baiting, and no need to feel dirty. The DNR is very strict on baiting, and I am glad for that.

Now if the mineral block contains other things such as grain or corn, THAT is illegal.

As far as hunting methods, clips or choice of fire arms, I am not sure how that is related to this thread.

[skee0025]

I have less than 10 photos of deer hitting minerals in September going back to 2005, and I don't think I have any photos in the month of October.

Really...I put out a homemade mineral lick and have hundreds of photos and videos just from this month.

[Bear55]

As others have said, the deer pretty much cease the use of mineral sites in mid to late August.

I don't know that I would go this far, I have witnessed many deer hit my salt licks in Spet, Oct, and Nov. It clearly isn't an attractant and it doesn't happen a lot but I wouldn't call it a rare event. Deer like salt and if it is in the area they will stop by and have a lick or two.

[leech~~]

I have noticed that they seem to stop using mine once it gets pretty cold out. I had heard that since they don't need to retain water in the cold as much as they do when it's hot out they don't seek it out as much? Sounds plausible to me.

[hockeybc69]

I have pics of deer stuffing their heads through snow to get at mineral licks.

By no means the frequency of summer usage, but they do come to them year round.

I had 950 pics on a camera that I checked last week that was on a salt block. That was from labor day to Oct 11th.

Camera is set to 1 minute delay, 2 pics per event.

obviously many pictures of the same deer over a several minute period, but the point being they come to my mineral licks a ton every year.

[Gissert]

Once the velvet comes off, they pretty much cease all use of my minerals. They walk by them, but they just don't dig and paw at them anymore. About the same time the crops start coming off and their patterns change with that as well.

Once the nearby lakes freeze, they abandon the woods I hunt and move about a mile south or a mile northeast. I wont see a track in there until spring thaw, and then they hit the minerals like crazy.

[Musky Buck]

I agree usage goes down, but if it's located along a main route they travel they'll still hit it some, albeit at night in the dark. They are still coming to mine in the dark to lick some but it's more like they are just traveling by and not that it's why they are there, in Ottertail county. Mine get destroyed in March and primarily by fawns and then the thaw and then again once summer kicks in. Haven't really seen very good numbers of deer this fall, but lots of corn up yet.

[MUSKY18]

I have had a salt lick by my rifle stand for about 4 years now. Just buy a big farm block for cattle, take it out and break it into pieces and put it in the lick. When I started it, the lick was just a little depression in the ground, now the hole is about 3 feet deep. It is on a main trail, and I have watched does and fawns come into it during rifle season and still stop and have a lick. Some lick a little longer than others, some just for a second, but they do still stop there. I have never shot or seen a buck hit it tho, just does and fawns. Two years ago, three does came in and were licking the salt. I shot the biggest doe, and the other two didn't even flinch, just kept licking while the other doe ran about 40 yards and piled up. Craziest thing, like she wasn't even there!