Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-06-27
HARD TO KILL A GRIZZLY,
Tic Can DO Plenty Of Damage When He
Is "NominaiIy Dead"

Personally | have more respect for
His Majesty, the Grizzly Bear, than for
any other animal / eyer trailed. the
tiger not excepted. writes W. T. HON
aday in an article on the bears of North
America ia 81. Nichoi1s. II is quite
true that many an a~b!e-bodied Grizzly
is caught mapping and killed dead
easy" as the baseball language SAYS.
but SO are big tigers also, for that mat
ter. In fact, | know of one large tiger
weighing within five pounds Of FIVE
hundred, who was promptly laid low
by two bullets from n mere pop-gun OF
a rifle, and there was no fuss about it.,
either.
II is easy enough to kill a Grizzly nj
n good safe distance Of a hundred yards
or so, which allows the hunter to fire
from three 10 ak shots by the tSne the
teeth and claws get dangerously near.
But TO attack a fully grown and wide
awake UrSus horrtJiitS in brushy ground
at twenty or thirty yards distance is no
ehild's plGy. As an old hunter once
quantity expressed it TO me, "A Grizzly
Bar II git mp an come at We with blood
in his eye after he's nominally d,d,"
The point of ii is, this bear is so big,
and so enveloped in long. shaggy hair,
his head is-so wedge-like. his strength
and tenacity of life so great, and his
rage when wounded so furious that at
that short range he is hard to Kill
quickly, and kill so dead that he cannot
get a blow at the hunter.
The strength in a Grizzly's arm is
tremendous, and when the blow comes
accompanied with claws five or six
inches long, like so many hooks of steel
on IA sledge-hammer. il tears 10 shreds
what ii fails to crush. There are many
authentic instances on record of hunters
and trappers who have been killed by
Grizzly Bears. and ! believe it could be
proved that this animal has killed more
men than all the other wild animals in
North America combined, excepting
the skunks and their rabies.
In the days Of the early pioneers, the
only rifles used were the muzzle-load-
ing. hair-trigger squirrel-rifles of small
caliber, and they were 40 match for the
burly Grizzly, either in speed or
strength. As a result, Bruin had the
best OF it, and in time brought about a
ptTltcl TtIgu OF tcTTOE among the
frontiersmen who trespassed upon his
domain. For my part, | certainly
would not want to attack a big Grizzly
at short range with my fathers old
Kentucky rifle. of 32 caliber. unless I
had my will made. and all my earthly
affairs in shape to be left for a long Pc
Rod. But with the rise of the brcech-
loader the tables turned; and, like all
other dangerous animals, the Grizzly
coon foMnd that the odds We're agninst
hunter now mud vheu, SounSSitusSSv oil
awful stroke of his paw, and sometime
by biting his victim 10 death. But h,
has almost ceased to attack men viii
fully and without cause, as he once did
Unless he is wounded or cornered, OF
thinks he is cornered and about to Ia
attacked. he will generally run when,
ever he discovers a man. But when he
is attacked, and especially if wounded,
he gets mad clean through. Then he
will fight anything, eve a circular
saw, so it is said, and give ii five turns
] sha etnVf