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Forest and Stream Letters 
TWO BEARS IN A DEN 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
T HE season opened here on Oct. 15th 
and the hunting has been good. We 
have had good tracking snow most of 
the time and of course that has helped 
us a lot. Up to date we have killed 
eight elk and three bear, and hope to 
get a few more before the season closes. 
There seems to be a lot of bear 
around this fall, and we ran across bear 
tracks quite often while following an 
elk trail; so one morning when we ran 
onto the trail of two bear in the new 
snow, I told my hunting partner that a 
couple of bear looked good to me, so we 
started trailing them. 
After following the trail for a couple 
of hours, we decided that a merry-go- 
round had nothing on a bear when it 
came to doing circles. We followed 
them for about ten miles and were 
never more than three-fourths of a mile 
from our starting point. We became 
well acquainted with all of the rock 
slides and rough ground in that partic- 
ular section of the woods and were be- 
ginning to wonder what was coming 
next in this little game of “Follow the 
Leader,” as we had done about every- 
thing on the list except climb trees, 
when we came to a point of rock about 
thirty feet high, the same in width, and 
running out from the main ridge about 
one hundred feet. The trail split here, 
so Al took one track while I took the 
other, and when we met at the top we 
did a war dance that would make a Co- 
manche Indian sit up and take notice, 
for right at our feet was the door to 
friend bruin’s apartment. 
A council of war was held while eat- 
ing lunch. We had two bear in a hole, 
but what were we going to do with 
them? After some discussion we de- 
cided that Dan Boone’s method of going 
in the hole after them with his hunting 
knife was rather out of date, for in 
those days bear skins were not worth 
very much and Dan didn’t mind if he 
cut one to pieces; but now a good bear- 
skin was worth quite a little tin, and we 
Page 25 
could not afford to take chances on 
ruining it. Smoking them out seemed 
to be the only thing to do, and it would 
be a difficult job to smoke them out 
from the top of the house, so while Al 
did sentry duty with a cocked fusee I 
scouted around and found a small hole 
in the side of the rock point that I 
thought might connect with bruin’s 
sleeping-quarters. So I gathered some 
dry limbs from some nearby trees and 
started a fire. As soon as the dry wood 
was burning well, I threw some green 
juniper brush on the fire and Al yelled 
“She’s coming through.” Then I threw 
on more brush, picked up my cannon 
and climbed up to join the entertain- 
ment committee at the front door, and 
in a little while the reception was over. 
We took some pictures on the rock 
slide below the point where the bear 
quit rolling, then rolled them the rest 
of the way down the mountain to the 
trail along the creek bottom. After 
getting our saddle horses from where 
we had left them that morning, we 
tried to pack in both bear, but one of 
the horses objected and the bear was 
too heavy for the two of us to lift, so 
we called it a day and hit the trail for 
camp. 
ERNEST MILLER, 
Salesville, Mont. 

A FRIENDLY GUN CHAT 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
F there is such an arm as an all- 
around gun the writer does not want 
one, any more than he wants an all- 
around rod or an all-around knife to 
whittle, eat and shave with. No doubt 
the combination of medium gauge and 
moderate weight makes the 16-gauge 
useful and desirable. I have had two, 
one a 26-in. gun of 63% lbs., bored cyl- 
inder and modified, which I used for 
quail and snipe, and another of 67% lbs. 
having 30-in. full choke barrels, built 
expressly for trap shooting. 
Many sportsmen prefer to have their 
guns as perfectly adapted to their re- 
spective duties as possible, because they 
handle better and do their work more 
easily and effectively. Weight, balance, 
length of barrels and pattern suitable 
to the use to which the gun is to be 
put are the main esentials. Veloci- 
ties, pressures, striking energies, foot 
pounds, etc., do not appeal strongly to 
the average man, nor make a lasting 
impression. Of course high velocity 
loads are necessary to use on fast cross- 
flying birds, and loads should be used 
which do not develop unduly high gas 
pressures to increase recoil, ball the 
shot and be an element of danger. 
Somehow the personal equation en- 
ters into the case. We shoot for re- 
creation and pleasure, so why not have 
ai ca ii Nt in at 
ERNEST MILLER WITH TWO SPECIMENS OF BRUIN 
