The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1945-11-01
Kill Charging
Grizzly Bear

I
The hunting season has about
reached the halfway mark in Lin
coin county and SO far but little
good tracking snow has favored
the hunters. Several light falls that
melted quickly, have proved of
valuable assistance to those who
were fortunate enough to get out
and improve their opportunities.
Opening day saw but few bucks
coming into Libby. An out of coun-
ty sportsman from ST Ignatius, was
fortunate the first morning in Sc
curing good sized black bear The
lucky hunter estimated his bear
at 400-lbs., but it takes a black
bear that really is a BEAR to
way the bear from the Wolf Creek
country was a mighty nice looking
animal and will make the ST. Ig-
natius sportsman beautiful tro-
ply.
Several Libby men have been
elk hunting, but the only local elk
hunter whom the News scribe
knows to have brought home an
elk, is L. W. Doxtater, who took
advantage of the early season in
the Flathead,, and brought home a
bull.
| The outdoors editor has attemp-
ted to run down the facts concern
ing the killing of large "600-lb."
grizzly bear on Stillwell Creek by
Ferd Boothman, but SO far, the de-
tails are sketchy and uncertain al
though all agree that Mr. Booth
man received real thrill while
bringing down "Old Ephrams
The story goes that Ferd encount-
cred three grizzlies together and
opened fire on the largest. The
bear objected to being shot, and
after the second bullet, staged a
savage charge. 1t is said that Booth
man had only shells in the rifle
and when the third and next to the
last shot stopped the beast il was
| a mere 20 feet (some say less) from
the hunter. Companions finished
off the two remaining grizzlies
while Boothman was killing the
large one.
Reports regarding deer hunting
in the county vary, some stating 1t
was easy for them to bag their
buck, while others insist that bucks
are hard to find. There seems to
have been a large number of deer
lxegged, but most of the bucks are
small. The old "Granddaddies
are keeping pretty well back in
higher country quite distance
from the cars. The latter part OF
the season when the snow comes,
is said to be Lincoln counfy's ideal
time for hunting, and then is when
most of the bucks are reported
kill in ordinary seasons.
The writer has only hunted one
day and small fragments of two
others. So far, he has been too poor
Woodsman to get even shot, but
much to his regret he did find the
bodies Of three does. Two had been
partially butchered out and the
back quarters taken, while the third
lay where she fell 1t is useless to
make much comment on such poor
craftsmanship. In the first place,
one should ALWAYS see horns
before shooting. In case of mis-
take in sex, the crime is only made
greater by allowing the victim Of
too much haste and too little care to
lie on the ground and rot or become
coyote food
And just in case the warm
weather-and flies should re-
turn. In Colorado where warm
weather is the rules during the
season on 'buckskin', the hunters
always carry a small sized can of
ordinary table pepper, which plen-
tifully applied to all exposed flesh
and bloody surfaces, proves good
insurance against fly blows Try
it some time!