[Jeff Higgins]

Thanks, Jim. I think... (smart ass).

I only wish I had gotten a total weight on him, Charles. Hanging weight (no head, hide, or feet) at the butcher was about 330, head and hide at the taxidermist was about 120. Figure about 1/4 to 1/3 of an animal's weight winds up as a gut pile, and we wind up with one big bruin. I kinda quit looking after this guy. The next one (if there ever is one) will have to be bigger or I won't bother.

I've taken a number of other, much smaller bears up here. 200 pound-ish guys. They don't die so easy, either. Piss one off, and even a "little" one will have you crying for your mother. Pretty scary stuff, how fast one can move when properly motivated. This big old boar scampered like a gazelle on the first hit, with a broken shoulder. After the second, he took his anger out on the shrubbery, tearing up mountain juniper bushes the size of Volkswagens and tossing them around like ragdolls. That with two broken shoulders...

Anyone who thinks he can center one in the noggin that is coming after him has never seen one "properly motivated". You would be lucky to make a "center of mass" hit on this snarling collection of teeth, claws, and fur. It's damn frightening how fast they can move. That, and there is such a slope to their foreheads, that if he's facing you just about anything you hit him with will just skip off. He would have to be close enough so you could be shooting down on him, and by then he's too close. He'll win.

It always cracks me up hearing guys talk about sidearms as "protection" in bear country. They are kidding themselves. Oh, I wear one religiously when out in the hills, but it's meant as a different kind of protection - the predators I'm armed against walk on two legs. Either that or it will feed me if I get lost or stuck out there for some reason. That, and big cats, but they are nervous little bastards compared to bears, and are far more easily killed.