Mineral site for Whitetail

[Dreaded Archer24]

Hey guys does anyone have advice on attracting Whitetail. I planned on putting some trace mineral salt down but I didn’t know if there was anything y’all use that helps bring them to your site.


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[vandeman17]

trace mineral salt works well. Spread it around, bury it, dump it in rotten stumps etc

[Jpmiller]

I used to put it out about two weeks before season started and it seemed to work well, then I started putting it out beginning of summer and it seemed to work better. I think the more regular you have it there and the longer the better.

[vandeman17]

I used to put it out about two weeks before season started and it seemed to work well, then I started putting it out beginning of summer and it seemed to work better. I think the more regular you have it there and the longer the better.

From my experience and some research, they will be drawn to salt from late spring until around August or so. What I have always done is run salt until August and then transition to a food source

[huntnnw]

Antler and milk production and tons of green leafy food which is loaded with water depletes them of sodium. As antlers finish and does wean fawns with correlation of food sources drying up the huge draw to salt diminishes

[vandeman17]

Antler and milk production and tons of green leafy food which is loaded with water depletes them of sodium. As antlers finish and does wean fawns with correlation of food sources drying up the huge draw to salt diminishes

 

[Jpmiller]

I used to put it out about two weeks before season started and it seemed to work well, then I started putting it out beginning of summer and it seemed to work better. I think the more regular you have it there and the longer the better.

From my experience and some research, they will be drawn to salt from late spring until around August or so. What I have always done is run salt until August and then transition to a food source

I was archery hunting early season near salt so that very well could be the case. They were hitting it early September (usually still in velvet) and I stopped replacing it for the year after I stopped hunting.

[nwwanderer]

Salt and selenium is a good start, add some protein, fatty acids and vit/min mix and maintain it year around at one site.  Whitetail live in a pretty small area, such a site will become part of their normal rounds. Salt levels can control consumption, pretty easy to put something together that they eat a few ounces per day. 

[hunter399]

There's a lot of good YouTube on the mineral site setups.
I'd search there if your looking for information.
I can say ,not all mineral sites are created equal.
I've seen deer/elk hit one site ten times more than another that are basically in the same 1 mile radius.
For a number of reasons ,cover,water,what mix is being used .
All kinds of reasons.
With all that said.

Deer will hit mineral sites year round. Don't let these guys discourage ya . Saying they won't work for hunting.
I've got tons of pictures on trail cams during the fall of bucks and doe hitting mineral sites.
Of course when fall seasons approach,deer/elk are gonna change there routine. As habitat changes throughout the seasons,hunting pressure,and breeding times. They will hit mineral sites just not as much in the fall.

Try searching YouTube,tons of videos on the subject.

An example would be....
Decent buck all summer mineral site.
Hunting season rolls up,he may switch to nite visit.
Or weeks between visits.
So you would setup early mourning, evening try catch him on his way out or in.
Or if he disappears, he'll show with a hot doe at some point.
Those are just examples.

[hunter399]

I'll hit ya with another one here.

Mineral sites/trail cam is just to take inventory of deer or elk in the area. That's the way I look at it.
You may be able to hunt over a mineral site early archery.
Later fall hunts,I wouldn't hunt over minerals.
You know what's in the area from your inventory,so your looking for track,sign,cover ,that holds that old buck.
If that old buck disappears come fall,start grid searching out away from your mineral site.
I never see a lot of big bucks killed of minerals in the fall.
I've seen a lot killed within a quarter mile,to half mile of a mineral site.

That's all I got ,goodluck .
These guys are not gonna tell ya this stuff.

[huntnnw]

Been running hundreds of licks for last 30 years . There’s a huge drop off in usage with deer and elk come fall. Will they randomly hit them ? Yup but nothing like May and June. If your going to setup up on salt in September there are way better things to use such has feed or apples .

[Dreaded Archer24]

I used to put it out about two weeks before season started and it seemed to work well, then I started putting it out beginning of summer and it seemed to work better. I think the more regular you have it there and the longer the better.

From my experience and some research, they will be drawn to salt from late spring until around August or so. What I have always done is run salt until August and then transition to a food source

I was archery hunting early season near salt so that very well could be the case. They were hitting it early September (usually still in velvet) and I stopped replacing it for the year after I stopped hunting.

I planned on archery hunting this year so around late August put some corn out instead of salt ?


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[Dreaded Archer24]

I'll hit ya with another one here.

Mineral sites/trail cam is just to take inventory of deer or elk in the area. That's the way I look at it.
You may be able to hunt over a mineral site early archery.
Later fall hunts,I wouldn't hunt over minerals.
You know what's in the area from your inventory,so your looking for track,sign,cover ,that holds that old buck.
If that old buck disappears come fall,start grid searching out away from your mineral site.
I never see a lot of big bucks killed of minerals in the fall.
I've seen a lot killed within a quarter mile,to half mile of a mineral site.

That's all I got ,goodluck .
These guys are not gonna tell ya this stuff.

That’s some great information thank you I planned on going archery hunting this year so that’s good to know thank you


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[Jpmiller]

I used to put it out about two weeks before season started and it seemed to work well, then I started putting it out beginning of summer and it seemed to work better. I think the more regular you have it there and the longer the better.

From my experience and some research, they will be drawn to salt from late spring until around August or so. What I have always done is run salt until August and then transition to a food source

I was archery hunting early season near salt so that very well could be the case. They were hitting it early September (usually still in velvet) and I stopped replacing it for the year after I stopped hunting.

I planned on archery hunting this year so around late August put some corn out instead of salt ?


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In my anecdotal experience, I usually went out over Labor Day weekend and shot the first legal deer that came to the site. They were still using the salt then. Not sure how long they hit it after that but if it’s early archery I wouldn’t bother changing it up. Plus salt is a lot easier to replenish than feed. I’m not close to an expert, my hunting the last fifteen years was mostly squeezed around family time taking the kids to visit my folks but we had enough success that I never changed up the system.

[Jpmiller]

@Bango skank  taught me a lot of what I was doing but I almost never see him on here.

In case you see this I got a new phone number and lost a bit of my contacts or I’d have checked in with you my friend. Hope you’re doing well.