VI 

 MY FIRST GRIZZLY 



HUNTING grizzlies requires more quiet, more skill, 

 and more patience than any other kind of hunting, 

 and at the best there will be more disappointments than 

 killings. It took me several years to learn this. I started 

 out with deep-rooted but mistaken notions, and these had 

 to be knocked out of my head by failures, and new ones 

 hammered in by experience, before I understood the 

 grizzly well enough to even occasionally get the best of 

 him. 



The best way to hunt them is to study their habits, 

 familiarize yourself with their range, and lie in wait for 

 them near their feeding grounds. Trailing them is more 

 than uncertain. It is, to be sure, a supreme test of wood- 

 craft and endurance, but it must be a good hunter indeed 

 that can take up the trail of an old grizzly and hope to 

 get a shot at him. 



I am often asked what is the best gun for grizzlies ? 

 My answer is that the best gun is the one the hunter is 

 most used to and hence has the most confidence in; any 

 of the high-power guns are all right and will, if the bullet 

 be well placed, end matters at the first shot. My own first 

 hunting rifle was an old .44 Winchester that I brought 

 from the East. It had already done good service for deer 



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