His Vitality 251 



I did not shoot from distances much exceeding fifty yards, 

 and when it was possible to get that close to the game, 

 I could place the slugs just where I wished them, and this 

 was in the centre of the shoulder. The ball rarely passed 

 out on the opposite side, but, unless it was a very large 

 bear, both shoulders were broken and, of course, under 

 such conditions, the animal could not run half a mile and 

 then maul the hunter to death. I could, without doubt, 

 have killed many more grizzlies, but I was averse to 

 wounding game and have it get away and suffer torture, 

 and for this reason I seldom took any chances at long- 

 distance shots. And, again, I took great pride in disprov- 

 ing the theory that a grizzly could not be killed at one 

 shot. 



Later, for a time, I took up the .30-30 and found that, 

 while it did good execution, it was hardly the arm for 

 good, clean killing. I have never lost but two wounded 

 grizzlies, and these were both shot with the .30-30. If I 

 were to hunt grizzlies again I would take the .35, which I 

 consider the best rifle for large game at the present time. 

 It has an ideal bullet that mushrooms nicely, and the ve- 

 locity is great enough to produce a tremendous shock. 



Compare such weapons as these with those that 

 Adams used in the early fifties. His rifles were two; 

 one, an old Kentucky arm, carried thirty balls to the pound, 

 which would make the weight of the bullets two hundred 

 and fifty-six grains. The other was a Tennessee rifle 

 that shot bullets sixty to the pound, the bullets weighing 

 one hundred and twenty-eight grains. The amount of 

 powder used we can only guess at as, most likely, Adams 

 did. These were not very heavy weapons, one would 



