264 THE BEAR FAMILY 



or " knock down and stay down " power of the large 

 balls and the small balls thrown with high velocity. 

 Mr. James H. Kidder well says that sportsmen are at 

 times apt to draw rather hasty conclusions, both for 

 and against the small bore. If we go on a trip of one 

 month, which means our whole year's vacation, and 

 get just one chance at a grizzly and knock him over 

 with a .30-40, are we not inclined to return home feel- 

 ing that the gun is all right? Again, if we do not 

 knock him down to stay down, are we not inclined to 

 think that the gun is all wrong ? 



Mr. Kidder says he formerly used the .50-100-450 

 rifle with excellent results, and with this he killed 

 grizzlies. From the first he appreciated its great kill- 

 ing power, and, for this reason, had great confidence 

 in it. In an out-of-the-way place, he says, he could not 

 get the .50-calibre cartridges, and was forced to buy a 

 .30-40 Winchester, and with this rifle the improvement 

 in his shooting was most marked ; so much was this the 

 case that when he made a seven months' shooting-trip 

 in western Alaska, he determined to use the .30-40 

 even upon the large bears of the Kadiak Islands and 

 the Alaskan Peninsula. His friend, Mr. Robert P. 

 Blake, who made the journey with Mr. Kidder, used a 

 .45-70 with 405 grain, soft-nosed bullets ; his native 

 hunter always carried Mr. Kidder's old rifle, the .50- 

 100-450, with which he had killed his first grizzlies, as 

 above stated, so that there was a fair chance to see the 

 effect of the shots from these different weapons on 

 bears. 



Mr. Kidder, with the .30-40, killed his first Kadiak 

 bear with three shots. The first bullet passed through 



