The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-12-13

think the woods were full of them, and,
backing silently into one of the small
ravines, l worked down the hill toward
the big fellow, AMI as [ got better
view of him l knew what had made
those tracks. | Lad thought nothing
about the size of the FIRST bear | had
been disappointed so often that my
thing went. Bu: now that | had set NY
eyes on this big ons 1 thought him en-
t'tled to precedence.
yet I wanted borr. and / thought l
saw my way to getting them The first
bear seemed to have struck a bonanza
berry patch and was moving slowly.
The big fellow on the other hand, was
down where the bushes were pretty we'll
stripped and seemed to be workinS up
hill fairly fast. l therefore dropped out
of sight, wormed my way downhill a
bit farther, waited till the two bears
were about a hundred yards apart and
then crept to the top Of a slight ridge
and found myself 40 yards from the big
one and 80 from the other l figured on
killing the large bear at the first shot
and then turning on the other before he
had time to take in the situation, and
l relied on the second bear standing up
to take look before making for the
canyon, and thereby giving me the lew
seconds that I would need.
81 was shooting a singie-shot 45-1OO
that weighed u pounds / had selected
this gun because l could always depend
on it. l used the full charge of pow
der, and swage slugs that would weigh
GOO grains of soft lead. One of these
placed in the center of a grizzly's Shout
der never failed to decide matters
II took sitting position that afforded
me a right-hand quartering shot at the
big fellow and left-hand quartering shot
at the other, and that would enable me
to act very quickly after the first shot.
For the first l intended TO take my time
and to trust to luck and rapid work for
the second. l felt that with one cart
ridge in my rifle, three others on the
ground, and two more between the mn
gers of my right hand, the old single
shot could be depended upon.
when all these things were arranged
tony liking l waited for a side shot al
the large bear l did not have long to
wait, and | never looked through sights
more carefully than whom drawing that
bead. There was only two square inches
of bear visible when l pulled the trig-
ger. but that was the spot | wanted,
and once the shot was delivered vast
ed no time In ascsrtainins the result,
but at once turned 70 the other bear.
He acted exactly as | hal expected. He
turned side-on to me to see what bed
lam had broken loose. ! caught him
souarely In the shoulder and ne vilted in
his tracks as the other had done. Not
a yard did either of them move after be-
ing shot
while examining my prizes | heard a
clawing and the rolling Of gravel In the
next ravine CHANGING about to see what
caused this racket 70 my Intense sur
prise l faced mother bear and two
half-grown cubs, their retreat TO the
canyon having been cut Off, making for
the top of the divide as fast as they
could 60 dropped back to my sit
ting position, with my elbows on my
knees, and took a flying shot at the old
bear. She was not more than Is wards
away and must have )sen quite rear
me. In the next ravins, when The hring
began. My bullet caught her with a
ouartering rake forwarf end rolled her
back into the gully, and as this. OF
course, stopped the cubs. they Tell to
the next two shots.
IT was soaked to the skin from the
wet brush and plastered from head ID
foot with mud and dirt. But thar, and
the endless waiting md watching by
the clunp of frs, and all the aisappoint-
ments that had gone before, We're paid
for now Five grizzlies down to as many
shots, in as many minutes, cancel maay
debts This was the greatest bag Oh
grizzlies that l ever made single-nano-
ed"