[Jeff Higgins]

You should check out some of Shoemaker's stuff; he is pretty darn knowledgable and entertaining to boot. Lots and lots of hair raising, funny, sad, disturbing, and whatever else kind of stories.

He prefers big bore lever guns for up close and personal alder thicket type work. He recounts one tale of a big old sow standing up in front of him as he was negotiating a driftwood pile on a river sand bar. He had just left an alder thicket, looking for another bear he had been tracking. The old girl stood up so close he actually had to step back to have room to raise the rifle barrel. It was an old '86 Winchester rechambered for the .375 Scovill (darn near .375 H&H thump in a lever gun). He says the first piece of brass was still in the air as he was pulling the trigger on his third shot. He got a little excited... Try that with a bolt gun someday.