Not what I wanted to see

[Buckwheat893]

Put the cameras back up after the rifle hunts ended in the area Im going to hunt during archery season, and havent gotten a single picture of a deer in about 2 weeks (8 cameras, pretty small area) and today I found out why. I had the cams up June - October and didnt get a single pic of a lion but tons of deer pics. Im wondering if this lion has recently moved into this area and pushed the deer around. Looks like a pretty good sized cat. Anyone have something similar like this happen? Im 8 days out from bow season and havent relocated a single one of my target bucks.

[CouesPursuit]

In 8 days the lion will be out and the deer will move right back in.

[AZbowhntr]

In one of the southern units I was glassing one year and picked up a lion lounging on a boulder at about 700 yds. And about 100 yds below it was a doe and fawn feeding. The lion sat there watching them for a few minutes (while I frantically tried to get set up for a shot) before climbing off and going the opposite direction and out of the bowl I was glassing without a care in the world. So I don't think a lion is going to push everything out of an area.

[Tac]

had a nice area that had 8-10 deer in it last year we watched it for a couple days and notice it looked like every thing was leaving and then we saw a lion. It seemed that the deer all moved out of the area not sure if it was temporary or not.

[GreyGhost85]

It could be more so that the deer arent in that area this time of year, than a lion showing up. I have never seen that big of an impact on deer traffic when a lion shows up on camera

[ThomC]

Get a lion tag and a predator caller.

[brian390]

I had a mule deer hot spot during archery deer in august for seven years straight. On that seventh year we were on an elk hunt in my deer hot spot and had a lion sitting 10 yards away just sitting there staring at us. Another guy that we know was in the same area and saw a lion with two cubs cross the road in front of him. While antler hunting that area that same spring I did walk into some bones with fur kind of scattered in a small section. Ever since seeing those lions that winter the deer were gone the next summer and have been for the last 11 years.

[mattys281]

It could be more so that the deer arent in that area this time of year, than a lion showing up. I have never seen that big of an impact on deer traffic when a lion shows up on camera

 

Exactly my thought too. I've gotten dozens of cats on cam and never seen an area shut down because of it. I've had lions on cam over night, then had deer on the same cam a few hours later, but every spot I have is variable based on the time of year. My summer spots aren't worth poop during the rut & some of my rut spots seem pretty desolate during the august hunt.

[azowl]

I had a cam on the same water hole almost continuously for nearly two years. Saw lions more than once even 3 at one time (2 3/4 grown cubs and a female) but also kept seeing deer. Lions have such a large home territory, at least in the desert, I think it'd be rare for them to push deer out of an area except maybe temporarily.

[oz31p]

Aside from the 8 cameras what have you found while scouting?

[Buckwheat893]

Aside from the 8 cameras what have you found while scouting?

A few pretty nice bucks. No idea where they are now but Ill find out Friday I guess!