St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-17
GUNS FOR GRIZZLIES.
interesting Account Of Big
Game Hunting in the Wild,
Wild West.
theodore Roosevelt Relates
Some Thrilling Stories OF
Bear Hunts.
The Killing Of a Nan Under
the Most Peculiar Cir
eumStanceS.
hunting the Grizzly With a
Pack Of Thoroughbred
Hounds.

The only really dangerous game of the
United States is the grizzly bear, says
Theodore Roosevelt in the Philadelphia
Inquirer. 1t is true that the cougar will,
nnder very exceptional circumstances,
aSSail the hunter, and so will the bull
moose, if his pursuer blunders too near
MIN; but with both of these animals the
element of danger is so small that il may
De practically diSregarded. With the
grizzly it is different. Any man who
makes practice of hunting this great
shaggy mountain king must make up
his mind that on certain occasions he
Will have TO show nerve and good shoot
Ing i'll order to bring down q charging
bear. Still.the danger has become much
exaggerated. The average grizzly has
but one idea when he sees a man. and
that is TO get away; it will run as quickly
as a rabbit. Even when wounded great
many bears absolutely refuse to fight,
seeking refuge only in flight. Neverthe-
less. there are plenty of grizzlies that
will fight when wounded and cornered,
and there are very few which will take
the offensive themselves without any
particular provOcation.
Personally, have never been charged
but once, and this was by a grizzly
which had once wounded and had ap-
preached to within forty yards, late one
evening when l had strOlled away from
camp, more with the hope of knocking
off the head of a grouse than with the
expectation of seeing any larger game.
The bear came at ME most reSOlutely,
although one of my shots nicked the
point of his Heart, and although one of
the four bullets which | put into him
would have ultimately proved mortal.
Al of the other bears | have killed
started to run. or fell at the first fire,
so that they had no chance of showing
fight. 1t is, however. very unsafe for a
man to generaliZe in any kind of shoot
ing. and particularly in bear shooting,
merely from his own experience. Thus,
l know one gentleman, an officer of the
United States army, who has killed six
grizzlies, three of them charging him
before they were wounded or even fired
ct. The incidents of the three charges
were curIOnsly alike; that is, he STUN
bled on the bear in each case at toler-
ably close quarters, at from ten 10
twenty yards away from him. and each
time the instant the animal saw him it
gallOped toward him like locomotive.
only TO be rolled over by a well-placed
Fife ball.
The grizzly is very tenacious of life,
ana so great are his vitality and pug
nacity that a fighting bear will coll
tinue charging when its body is fairly
riddled with bullets. a shot in the
brain or spine will of course bring one
down in its tracks, but even bullet
through the heart will not prevent an
enraged grizzly from making good its
charge at close quarters.
A man was once killed near my ranch
by a grizzly undar peculiar circum-
stances. He was one of a couple of
men who had been coming down the
Little Missouri on q raft in the
sime of the freshets. They stopped
= our ranch to get lunch.
Both of them were rather hard