I have 2 mineral licks I have had started for about 5 years there about a mile apart as the crow flies. There both by water. I do occasionally get the same deer on camera at both places but rarely. One spot there is a hole you put a 4 wheeler in. The other one they don't seem to hardly mess with. Only difference is that one is beside a pine stump. Reckon the stump or the type of ground plays into it. or any other ideas as to why they don't fool with it?

Normally, they will hit a clay site hard and ignore more loamy or sandy soils. Red clay is the best, yellow clay less desirable for to them. Hope this helps.

This ^^^^....... The deer like to lick the mineral out of the ground.......It's the same thing happening that we talk about with food plots.....Sand doesnt have any holding capacity for nutrients......Nothing for the mineral to bond to in the soil.....So therefore it mostly just leaches through......Clay on the other has a lot of holding capacity and the minerals "stick" in the soil......The best places I have found is on red clay that stays moist....The reason people often put mineral licks over old stumps and have success too is because of the nutrient holding capacity of the decomposed organic matter.