Mountain Lions in D11

[lock3d]

I've been scouting D11 pretty heavily and found a promising little area with a lot of sign (deer + bear) but I'm also seeing a lot of mountain lion tracks / scat. It freaked me out a bit when I saw the lion tracks over my morning boot tracks on the way back out of the area that evening. I typically hunt alone and hike 3-5 miles during the wee hours of the morning to get to my spot before first light. If I don't overnight, I head back to my car after dark.

The conservative part of me says I should probably find a new area but I'm a new hunter and don't know if I'm being stupid. Is it stupid risky to continue hunting these areas? I haven't found a pile of bones but a mountain lion is known to range the area and I'm seeing fresh sign every time I go.

 

[Designed2Hunt]

The lions eat the deer, so if you are finding deer, lions are likely to be around also. To my knowledge, negative interactions between hunters and lions in D11 is low. However, you should take appropriate caution. Others may have input on what precautions they take for lions.

 

[lock3d]

The lions eat the deer, so if you are finding deer, lions are likely to be around also. To my knowledge, negative interactions between hunters and lions in D11 is low. However, you should take appropriate caution. Others may have input on what precautions they take for lions.

I have bear spray and I'm carrying a p365 with 9mm xtreme penetrators but it doesn't give me any sort of real confidence given that lions will stalk+attack. Outside of not hiking during the times I should be hiking as a hunter (late night to first light or late afternoon to early evening) or making a lot of noise (something else I shouldn't do as a hunter), I don't really know to do.

Would appreciate if others could give their input / opinion on lion precautions as well.

 

[LosPadre]

Have hunted in lion territory many years. Have seen plenty of tracks, only one lion. It's scream was the most God-awful wraith call you can imagine. Made the hair on my neck stand up. Recordings do not do it justice. Have gone in the woods in the dark, came out of the woods in the dark and have slept in the woods. Have always kept a .44 mag on my hip throughout all this for the over-achieving lion. Always have it handy. I do spin and watch my back trail when I see tracks or when I get in their hilly ambush country. But I am not overly concerned in general about lions. A man is too big of a risk for a lion; they do not want injury, they simply want a meal and we are not on the menu. A kid is a different story. So I do not think you are being stupid for hunting in lion country. Most of California is lion country. I also do not think lions are stupid and generally would not tangle with a regular sized man unless injured or weakened. But keep their presence in mind. Don't forget that with your firearms, you are the predator, the alpha, in the woods. Hands down.

 

[Designed2Hunt]

First, sharks live in the ocean and lions live in the forest and have for many years. You are more like to die on your drive to the spot or by getting struck by lightning than from a lion.
Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks

If you could hunt the lion, do you think you could kill it without hounds or even see it? If you see a lion, you will be in a club of a small group of ppl.
Get to know lion behavior just like you know deer behavior. Learn how they hunt.
"Hunt" the lion on your walk in and walk out. Make yourself the predator and it the prey.

Some of this may be overlill, but thats for you to decide.
Carry a weapon in hand, at the ready, and preferably attached to the hand so its not lost in an ambush. Carry with a round in the chamber just like if you were hunting it. It takes an untrained person over 2 seconds to draw from a holster and put rounds on target. They can cover about 50 yds in 2 sec.
If you are using a spray, make sure it has at least 40 ft range and 2% active ingredient. Based on nose geometry, I would bet the lions Don't have as sensitive smell as bears.
Have a knife immediately accessible.
Use the buddy system and watch each other's back.
Wear a backpack.
Don't crouch or bend over unnecessary.
....

 

[Designed2Hunt]

Let someone know where you're going to be, when you will be back, and when the call for help.
Carry a Garmin inReach or similar commication device.

 

[LosPadre]

First, sharks live in the ocean and lions live in the forest and have for many years. You are more like to die on your drive to the spot or by getting struck by lightning than from a lion.
Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks

If you could hunt the lion, do you think you could kill it without hounds or even see it? If you see a lion, you will be in a club of a small group of ppl.
Get to know lion behavior just like you know deer behavior. Learn how they hunt.
"Hunt" the lion on your walk in and walk out. Make yourself the predator and it the prey.

Some of this may be overlill, but thats for you to decide.
Carry a weapon in hand, at the ready, and preferably attached to the hand so its not lost in an ambush. Carry with a round in the chamber just like if you were hunting it. It takes an untrained person over 2 seconds to draw from a holster and put rounds on target. They can cover about 50 yds in 2 sec.
If you are using a spray, make sure it has at least 40 ft range and 2% active ingredient. Based on nose geometry, I would bet the lions Don't have as sensitive smell as bears.
Have a knife immediately accessible.
Use the buddy system and watch each other's back.
Wear a backpack.
Don't crouch or bend over unnecessary.
....

Lots of good pointers there. Personally I would never use spray. Here's why: 1.) What if you are down wind of the direction you are spraying? What do you have then? You have a writhing, blind and helpless human flopping about and ready to get killed by the predator you tried to spray. 2.) If you have a rifle and a powerful handgun as a backup, why would you need spray? If a bear or lion comes at me, it's dead. Plain and simple. If it's over there, it lives. Over here, it dies. 3.) I am not on this planet to condition bears or lions or teach them lessons. If we had sanity in Sacramento and rational, responsible people making proper game management laws, there would not be a lion problem or a bear problem. So Sacramento's failures do not constitute that I take on an animal management role. I get approached by a bear or lion, that animal dies. I know of active law enforcement officers who had the same philosophy and have in fact opened and closed non existent season on lions just for chasing deer, not to mention attacking a human. They understand the insanity of California's official policies. They did not use bear spray.

 

[#1Predator]

If we have hunted in the woods at all, we have hunted among mountain lions. In three decades of being on the job, I investigated just one report of a lion attacking a hunter. I took the report as follows:
During the archery season, a hunter was putting a stalk on a buck running with some does. He was dressed from head to toe in camo. He wasn't in range, but was getting close, arrow nocked, but not drawn. The next thing he knows, he is face down in the dirt, having been knocked to the ground from behind. He got to his knees, wiped the dirt from his eyes, picked up his bow and came to full draw as he saw the back end of a lion chasing the deer, well out of range. The lion had hit him from behind, claws out. His shirt had been ripped and his right arm had four claw cuts across his tricep. The cuts were shallow but were seeping blood, with blood running down his arm and blood on his shirt. His right shoulder showed signs of bruising.

Lions wander all over this area. Deer are their main prey. I don't have any idea what the lion was thinking or why it acted in this manner. The only thing predictable about wildlife, for the most part, is that they are unpredictable. So, you might ask, did the hunter give up hunting? Nope. As a matter of fact, he went hunting in the same area the following week. I signed off his deer tag.

 

[nickman123]

Years ago, my dad and I Hunted a wilderness unlimited property in Tehachapi for pigs. Didn't see any pigs, but saw mountain lions twice during the same day. Not sure if two different lions or the same one twice. Then driving out at dusk, we passed a cattle pond near the road and the headlights picked up 2 green eyeballs staring at us. There was a huge mountain lion laying behind the waterhole just looking at us. Stopped the truck, got out and watched it from about 50 yards for at least 5 minutes. It never moved or seemed the slightest bit concerned. We finally drove away. It was really spooky. Only time in my life I've ever seen one in full daylight and the only time I've seen one that didn't immediately run away.

 

[markt800]

There's no lions in D11...

 

[ChrisAMX]

Lions In Angeles National Forest (D11, A31)

 

[#1Predator]

Years ago, my dad and I Hunted a wilderness unlimited property in Tehachapi for pigs. Didn't see any pigs, but saw mountain lions twice during the same day. Not sure if two different lions or the same one twice. Then driving out at dusk, we passed a cattle pond near the road and the headlights picked up 2 green eyeballs staring at us. There was a huge mountain lion laying behind the waterhole just looking at us. Stopped the truck, got out and watched it from about 50 yards for at least 5 minutes. It never moved or seemed the slightest bit concerned. We finally drove away. It was really spooky. Only time in my life I've ever seen one in full daylight and the only time I've seen one that didn't immediately run away.

I know that area well. The 270,000 acre Tejon Ranch is just south of that area. In the mid-80s, before the passage of Proposition 117, we collared & tagged seven lions on the ranch. Another ten were shot that same year under depredation permits.

 

[lock3d]

There's no lions in D11...

There are 100 percent mountain lions in D11. I've seen the one that lives in the same valley area as Desert Marksmen. I've also seen tracks in the San Gabriel Wilderness.

 

[americanmade91]

Yea here is one in D11 on my trail cam

 

[cjack]

Unfortunately for us bow hunters we are not allowed to carry firearms during archery only seasons. I always keep mountain lions in the back of my mind when I head out in the early morning hours as well as returning after dark. I feel that a full grown man with a pack carrying a bow can be intimidating to a cat and I'm not too concerned but always stay alert. I too have trail cam pictures of mountain lions in D11, they like to frequent guzzlers and big game drinker box's, not only for the water but to stalk the other wildlife they attract. Just always be aware of your surroundings which kinda goes with the territory when hunting anyways.

 

[cjack]

This one is sitting on top of a drinker box in D11

 

[#1Predator]

Decades ago, I called coyotes with mouth calls before those fancy electronic calls were made. I used Circe calls, Tally-Ho, and Crit'R calls. On occasion, I would have a bear or lion respond to the call. Bears would come in with their noses in the air, using their noses to pick up a scent. Lions would sneak in using their eyes to look for an easy meal. Well, a .223 Hornady 52 grain BTHP Match bullet (legal in CA at the time) wouldn't have impressed either of these critters and probably would have resulted in one less coyote hunter if I had been detected. After the third or fourth such encounter, I started carrying handloaded180 gr., Elmer Keith style hardcast semi-wadcutter, flat nose ammo in a .357. This round kills on one end and maims on the other. Definitely not practice rounds. This is similar to Buffalo Bore's 180 gr. round, which wasn't available then.
I have since graduated to the electronic crowd, with the caller set about 35-50 yards away. I still use mouth calls at times (I think they give a better sound) and I still carry my .357. I haven't had a bear or lion come in to the call for over a decade, which is just fine with me.

 

[LosPadre]

Back in the 90s I had reason to know a former military person who had been part of team that worked directly for the President and did stuff you heard of if you're old enough to know what the words 'Iran - Contra' mean. I took him coyote calling on public land. Stayed on the call a long time and eventually a bobcat came in, but no coyotes. He had so much fun that the next weekend he wanted to go out again but I had other obligations so he went by himself back to public land to a rocky area we had gone to. He was all cammoed up. He stayed on his call a long time. Did not see any coyotes. But then he got a surprise... he was positioned on a rock shelf overlooking a valley, with other rocks behind him. All of a sudden he heard the low growling of a mountain lion...three inches behind his right ear. He said, "It was so close, my rifle became a club." That is, his rifle was useless because the lion was so close he would have had no time to use it, he could only hope to beat it with his rifle stock. Then the elite warrior continued, "And I was so scared I peed my pants." He laughed unashamedly when he told me that, as he was just happy to have survived. So what happened when the lion was danger close? My friend braced himself for the attack that was sure to come and had a quick defensive strategy worked out, but he dared not move lest his own movement be the trigger for the lion's predatory attack. So he stayed statue-still, frozen and yet redline amped to respond at the same time. When 45 horrible seconds elapsed with still no attack he could no longer fight the urge to look and slowly, sloooowly started turning his head to the right to check the status of the lion. When he finally could see to his right rear, he saw nothing. The lion had left as quietly as it had arrived. And THIS is why I always, since my friend's experience, carry a .44 magnum as a backup any time I am hunting anything in lion country (which is the entire state of California.) Footnote: after 911 this friend was incensed and rejoined the military. One day he found himself on the ground in Fallujah and mountain lions were not what was danger close. His weapon that day was a .50 Cal and it did not need to be used as a club. Instead it was The Reaper.

 

[ksberry209]

Well if you are archery hunting and worried about cats get a pig tag too. You can carry a sidearm. Grey area I know but a ranger told me this during deer season. Get a beer tag too and you can carry a sidearm while archery hunting. I’m not giving legal advice but no matter what animal I am hunting archery or not I always carry a side arm. People kill lions every year with 22’s so I don’t think they are hard to take down.

I would bet CA has more cats then most states just because they cannot be hunted and we will probably never know the actual numbers because F&G (and hippies) don’t want people to know how many are really out there.

It sort of pisses me off that I have never seen a cat with my own eyes. I’ve seen plenty of tracks including on top of mine when I was walking back. Made me a bit more observant but not concerned. If the lion wants you they will get you and you will not hear it coming. But that’s probably 0.000001% chance of happening. They don’t want anything to do with you.

Only real concern I would ever have is leaving part of a carcus overnight if I was hiking out and maybe finding a lion who claimed it. F that I’ll take a picture and give it up.

In CA I’m not concerned about mountain animals I’m more worried about 2 legged critters. If I was in grizzled country that’s another story