Salt Licks

[Spirithawk]

Here in Missouri baiting is illegal. However we can put out mineral blocks, as long as no real food source is mixed in. A neat trick I learned from an old hunting guide works great. I take the leg of an old nylon stocking and fill it with salt. I simply use two containers of table salt per nylon. Then you hang the nylons high enough that a deer can't reach them. Then clear a circle of ground directly underneath. Every time it rains the salt leeches out and drips onto the ground. The salt will harden to a block inside the nylon once wet and will last a very long time. Easily all season long and then some. With regular salt blocks deer eat their fill and it may be a long time before they come back again wanting more. With the nylon rig deer get their salt fix but can never get enough at one time to get their fill. Thus they return more frequently wanting more. It's legal most everywhere and very effective. Deer will dig huge holes underneath the nylons looking for more salt. They work good hung over an old stump too. I've got three out now and it only took deer a week to start hitting them. When I hang one I get it started by carrying a spray bottle of water and giving each a good soaking. Give it a try. It's easy,inexspensive, legal and very effective. Just don't get caught using your wife's good nylons or the hole that gets dug might be for you!

[hillbill]

thats a really good idea. as where i hunt sometimes we have cows in there. they will eat up a salt block quick.im thinking of busting up a salt block and hangin it in a burlap sack.that ought to last awhile.

[jhm]

     I have bn using the red Mineral salt blocks that we haqve bn using on the farm for the cattle for yrs. they worked then so I just continue to keep them out by all the feeders.   Jim

[rockbilly]

Years ago we went to using the red trace mineral blocks for cattle, the salt along with the minerals sure helped.  I noticed the deer and hogs came to the mineral blocks more readily than to the old white salt blocks, the minerals also help in anther development and help produce a better fawn.

Anything we can do to improve a herd and attract them is a plus!

[jhm]

Rock that is exactly why I have been using them, I keep them in the same location all year and every year, besides they are TAX deductable off the farm expense acct.   Jim

[okieshooter]

here is a good lick.

[okieshooter]

Sorry. double post

[hillbill]

two days ago put out two of these salt liks.i took one white salt block and broke it up with a axe, put half in each sack and hung it off a tree in two diff places.scattered some of the finer broken stuff under the bags. we got a nice 1 inch rain that night. they have alredy hit one place i put it and scraped the grass off.but mind yu this is close to a established salt lik. i havent put anything in there since last fall tho.im thinkin these bag liks will last maybe till spring.happy huntin guys!

[Mule]

Somebody was stealing our salt blocks.  Now we just dump rock salt and minerals into established spots.  Theiving problems ended.

[mechanic]

It's illegal here in Ga. during shooting season.  Like bait, has to be removed 10 days prior.  

Excellent idea for deployment however!

[Land_Owner]

I don't have any nylon stockings!  

AND

It doesn't work in my area because the name of the adjacent creek says it all - "Salt Creek".  The deer just do not need my salt supplement at all as they can get their fill in MANY places naturally.

SO

I go the other way and give them MOLASSES licks.  They tear 'em UP.  Do you think SUGAR would act the same as salt in the bottom of the nylons?  Hmmmmmm....might have to give that a test run!!!

Now, where do I get nylon stockings?

[tangob5]

Years ago we went to using the red trace mineral blocks for cattle, the salt along with the minerals sure helped.  I noticed the deer and hogs came to the mineral blocks more readily than to the old white salt blocks, the minerals also help in anther development and help produce a better fawn.

Anything we can do to improve a herd and attract them is a plus!

All of the studies I've read say there is no proof that mineral or salt blocks actually enhance their antlers (only manufacturers claims).   It has been found that mineral blocks containing selenium do help reduce fawn mortality in areas where the deer had low selenium levels and those containing sulfur are detrimental to the deer interfering with the selenium function. 

[Siskiyou]

Many years ago the local game warden would get salt blocks paid for with County fine money as a result of F&G.  Coming out of winter the coats of the deer would look real rough and they were heavily invested with ticks.  To make the fine money go a ways he would buy the white salt blocks.  There were a few key locations the blocks would go.  One was at a high elevation fire lookout.  Normally I was the first guy into the area in the spring knocking down remaining snow drifts.

Below the lookout was the place the salt blocks had been placed for many years.  In the spring visible evidence of a block was gone but the deer had the area dug up.  A few days after I had the tower opened for the season the lookout arrived.  The Lookout/fire watch had over fifty years of experience at this and other lookouts.  One of the first things she told me was to buy a block of Yellow Sulpher Salt when in town.  She said the deer recovered from the winter faster and it knocks the ticks.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/livestock/livestock-salts-minerals-milk/livestock-salt/block-sulfur-salt-2516528

The tower was a great place to observe deer behavior.  At the time the area had a very high deer population because of the rapid regeneration after a forest fire a few years before.  Within week of placement of the salt blocks the deer were looking better.  The yellow block was placed about 15 feet from the white block.  The deer would push and crowd the yellow block and it quickly went down.  The white block would get attention when a deer could not get to the other. 

There were a number of range allotments in my unit.  The ranchers would put out salt blocks where they brought their cattle out on the range.  Normally they would put out white salt blocks, but I would occasionally see mineral and sulfur blocks.  I felt the Sulpher blocks were hit harder by deer, or I might have been prejudice from my observations at the lookout, and the testimony of a fine lookout who had observed deer on salt for many years.  Months later when the hunting season open the salt block was removed.

(Bless Orva; she passed away in her lookout in her later seventies.  The lookout was torn down a few years later, a victim of dry rot, and termites.)

P.S.  using a salt like to bait or attach deer in many states is illegal including California. Diseases that infect deer herds are often passed from one animal to the other from slobber on a salt lick or food source.