Mineral Licks! It’s almost that time.

[TradBrewSC]

I feel that this thread has been blown way out of proportion and just like our country as a whole, a person can not state anything without "offending" someone.

Tom was simply showing his results of a perfectly legal and effective tool for his state that he uses in the preseason for deer nutrition, as well as a way to survey deer during the growing season. He is not stating that he hunts over these sites because lets be honest, deer for the most part don't use mineral licks much after September.

Everyone has their own opinions about bating and to each their own. That was not his point. The point is that mineral licks are proven to help in antler growth and deer nutrition, period. For those that are effected by CWD this may be an avenue to aid in the spreading of the disease the same way small watering holes do in low rain time, but that is not the point. Leave the legality up to your local DNR, as it is their job and they will govern this as they see fit for the population.

I too use mineral licks to great results! The deer use the heck out of them during the summer months because the terrain is lacking these resources. If they could get this helpful supplement free range I'm sure they would. I live in a state where CWD hasn't been hit yet, thank the lord, but is also a state that you can bait as much as you want. You would be hard pressed to find a square mile in SC that doesn't have a corn pile somewhere during the season and it is the hunters propagative to hunt over it if he pleases. It's legal so why get your panties in a wad if people want to do so? For most of us hunting is for pleasure. We hunt with a stick bow because that is what we choose to do. I could honestly give two s#@!s what everyone else does as long as they are within the legal parameters.

Let's stay positive here folks. Lets hear of more great results from this practice, and not negative opinions as the thread was intended.

[Buckeye1977]

I feel that this thread has been blown way out of proportion and just like our country as a whole, a person can not state anything without "offending" someone.

Tom was simply showing his results of a perfectly legal and effective tool for his state that he uses in the preseason for deer nutrition, as well as a way to survey deer during the growing season. He is not stating that he hunts over these sites because lets be honest, deer for the most part don't use mineral licks much after September.

Everyone has their own opinions about bating and to each their own. That was not his point. The point is that mineral licks are proven to help in antler growth and deer nutrition, period. For those that are effected by CWD this may be an avenue to aid in the spreading of the disease the same way small watering holes do in low rain time, but that is not the point. Leave the legality up to your local DNR, as it is their job and they will govern this as they see fit for the population.

I too use mineral licks to great results! The deer use the heck out of them during the summer months because the terrain is lacking these resources. If they could get this helpful supplement free range I'm sure they would. I live in a state where CWD hasn't been hit yet, thank the lord, but is also a state that you can bait as much as you want. You would be hard pressed to find a square mile in SC that doesn't have a corn pile somewhere during the season and it is the hunters propagative to hunt over it if he pleases. It's legal so why get your panties in a wad if people want to do so? For most of us hunting is for pleasure. We hunt with a stick bow because that is what we choose to do. I could honestly give two s#@!s what everyone else does as long as they are within the legal parameters.

Let's stay positive here folks. Lets hear of more great results from this practice, and not negative opinions as the thread was intended.

Exactly! Tom if you don't mind can you take a pic of what you're using cause I've been thinking about starting a few where I hunt?

[KentuckyTJ]

Will do Nick. I’ll text them to you when I go pick them up. Probably be another week or two.

[Don Stokes]

My final thought: We need an emoji of an ostrich with its head in the sand.

[kadbow]

Colorado has confirmed it in deer multiple times. A study last year for an area with mandatory testing showed cwd in 15% of bucks and as high as 30% in localized areas within the study area. Cwd has been confirmed in Colorado since 1967. Cwd is not fake news here. That said there has never been any confirmed case of transfer to humans and even though our CO deer herd is not doing great I have never seen cwd proposed as the reason. Mineral licks are put out all over the state for cattle and sheep but cwd is still only found in certain regions.

[pavan]

In Iowa, the counties that proved positive for CWD get a late rifle season, where one is allowed a number of deer and testing is offered.  These also happen to be the most deer congested areas as well.  We don't have it in this corner, the drought years with the blue tongue  in the stock ponds is our biggest deer killer besides cars.

[Buckeye1977]

Will do Nick. I’ll text them to you when I go pick them up. Probably be another week or two.

Thanks Tom!

[23feetupandhappy]

Will do Nick. I’ll text them to you when I go pick them up. Probably be another week or two.

Tom, if you don't mind id love to have that list as well.
I currently use Trophy Rock and the deer love it but just wonder what benefits it has compared to what you use.
Ill PM you my number.

[23feetupandhappy]

Not only does it help the bucks but gets these little guys off to a great start pulse helps Mama!!!





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[Orion]

Hmmmmm. I wonder how many folks would be putting out minerals "to help the deer nutritionally," which there's no evidence they need, if the minerals didn't make the racks bigger. I don't understand this human need to improve upon nature.  When examined impartially, the true beneficiary doesn't appear to be nature as much as it is the human attempting to improve upon it. OK, I'll get off why soap box now.   

[23feetupandhappy]

Hmmmmm. I wonder how many folks would be putting out minerals "to help the deer nutritionally," which there's no evidence they need, if the minerals didn't make the racks bigger. I don't understand this human need to improve upon nature.

I suppose you would have a significant drop in usage but there are some of us that like caring for all animals that inhabit the grounds we hunt on and or own.

I for one love improving the habitat for all the critters on our farm weather I hunt them or not.

But you have a point

[Wudstix]

Do you have many hogs in KY?  I could see that as an attractant for both species.

[gregg dudley]

Not only does it help the bucks but gets these little guys off to a great start pulse helps Mama!!!





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Primos should pay you for that second picture.

[23feetupandhappy]

Hey Greg,They posed quit nice for the picture didn’t they?

[PistolPete]

Hmmmmm. I wonder how many folks would be putting out minerals "to help the deer nutritionally," which there's no evidence they need, if the minerals didn't make the racks bigger. I don't understand this human need to improve upon nature.  When examined impartially, the true beneficiary doesn't appear to be nature as much as it is the human attempting to improve upon it. OK, I'll get off why soap box now.   

See, that’s the thing: the minerals DO NOT make racks bigger. It’s been studied many times. Guys “believe” in them, and theoretically they *should* make racks bigger. But they don’t.

I’m not saying don’t do it, but I am saying to have realistic expectations.

[Orion]

PP:  Don't know if Ik buy that.  See the OP's initial post. 

[John Cholin]

I have a little place in PA.  PA considers mineral licks as "bait" and it is illegal to hunt within 100 yards of a site that has had bait in the past 30 days.  I have  spot where I drop one of the WIMA 30-06 mineral supplement blocks in early spring.  By mid August it is totally gone.  The rain washes some of it into the ground and the critters get the rest.  I then leave that spot alone until the next spring.

Pennsylvania has been funding a bunch of research on the CWD.  There is a post on this site that will take you to the link.  What the PA folks are saying makes a lot of sense, based upon what I learned in college while I was in biochemistry and molecular biology classes.  I don't have the time or space to go into it in a lot of detail but there are some basic inconsistencies in all the hype about CWD.  Yes, prions are mis-folded proteins, BUT when a cell makes a protein it is folded into shape as it is built by specific enzymes.  Proteins are not free to fold-up any way they want.  The idea that prions might exist was first advanced by a mathematician that was using molecular energy states as an example in a probability problem.  The idea that a prion serves as a template for the cell making more is inconsistent with cellular metabolism, as I understand it.  Perhaps I am wrong.

So I supplement a little.  Just when it is legal and when it can do the deer some good.  I think it makes up for some of the damage humans do in other ways.

Best Regards,

JMC

[PistolPete]

PP:  Don't know if Ik buy that.  See the OP's initial post.

That’s an observation, which could be related to any number of factors, but is most likely due to random chance. That is far from scientific. Here is just one example of a scientific study where researchers kept captive bucks and fed them different levels of Phosphorus (thought to be limiting in antler growth): https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C47&q=white-tailed+deer+minerals&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DVThcoYWi7OwJ , and here’s the key: “These results suggest that P limitation for antler growth is unlikely for adult browsing cervids...” There are many studies just like this, with similar results, and none which show otherwise.

These kinds of discussions bring to mind one of my favorite phrases: “If I hadn’t believed it, I never would have seen it.”

[PistolPete]

Here’s a massive study from Louisiana, using captive deer fed minerals and compared with those not supplemented, as well as multiple sites of free range deer supplemented with minerals vs not supplemented. To boil it all down, minerals made no difference in weight gain or antler growth. The key comment (on page 107!) is here:

The practice of supplying
mineral supplement mixtures for deer in south-central Louisiana, and perhaps elsewhere, for the purpose of enhancing deer body growth or
antler development appears unjustified from a practical standpoint. Attracting deer to an area by supplying NaCl in block or granulated
form appears to be a more cost-effective method than supplying mineral mixtures, for the NaCl in mineral mixtures functions as the
attractant.

(https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=6094&context=gradschool_disstheses)

[pavan]

One thing I wish the the Iowa DnR would change, the fields that are leased for crops have corn or beans.  That which is not leased is switch grass.  There are alfalfa clover mix fields on private land near by.  Even though that gets multiple cuttings every year.  It really pulls in the deer after the snow comes, even though it is sparse short regrowth.   I also read that corn can actually be bad for deer during harsh winters, as it is basically starch and sugar and hypes a deer's metabolism.  A farmer friend saw that deer on his land were suffering one winter, so he plants an alfalfa clover mix apron around his switch grass.  He does one cutting and then leaves it.  The other day there were six deer pawing through the snow and munching on that along side his corn barrens 10 acre habitat  plot with grass and bushes.