Humans and bears - Wild encounters

[brotherbear]

Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears by Matthew P. Mayo:

Now within one hundred yards, the Mullattoe knelt, aimed his rifle, and touched off a shot that caught the brute in the left shoulder. The bear rose and spun in the air, gnashing its teeth and whipping its head side to side. It dove for the nearest cover, the willow thicket just behind.

"Let him go, let him go! He's a dangerous varmint," said the shooter, already reloading his rifle. But Russell knew they had dealt the beast a life-threatening blow, and it would surely meet a hard end if they didn't finish the gruesome task. Russell was also fairly new to encounters with the great, brawling beasts about whom he had heard so much.

Together the two men walked the outer edges of the willow copse, rifles cocked and at the ready. With each step they heard a heavy snuffling rising in intensity, as if the breather had run a great distance. Then the noise stopped. The men traded glances quickly. The Mullattoe nodded, and Russell poked his rifle barrel into the willows, rapping it lightly against a stout shoot.

A low, rumbling growl rose just in front of them, less than a man's-length into the shadowed thicket. They had taken barely a step backward when a massive, earth-colored blur exploded from the trees and launched at them. The bear's flashing jaws were wide and set for grappling, and its large eyes seemed to glow from within.

The men were overwhelmed and ran as fast as their moccasin-shod feet would carry them, each in opposite directions and each secretly hoping the bear would choose the other to follow. Russell chanced a quick glance over his shoulder and saw the bear break off its pursuit of him and instead turn back after his friend.

The Mullattoe heard the brush crashing behind him. Stopping, he spun where he stood, steadied himself, and released another shot. But he was hurried and the ball whistled too high. The bawling beast, startled by the sound, and still showing no sign of injury from the shot it took in the shoulder earlier, spun back around and resumed its attack on Russell. The lean young mountain man, who still hadn't fired a shot at the beast, found himself hemmed in on all sides, trees on three and a kill-crazy bear on the last. He stood, petrified, facing the rampaging beast.

Beyond the bear, Russell glimpsed his friend frantically reloading his long gun. Hurry your task, man! Was all Russell could think. He raised his rifle, more out of reflex than intention.

The bear, within ten paces of Russell, rose on its hind legs, taller than a man, and pawed the air, its mouth thrown wide as it bellowed loud raw oaths. From the short distance Russell could smell the beast's foul breath as it roared out its hate. and just before it once again dropped to all fours and charged at the man, Russell pulled the trigger. His rifle barked flame. Out of pure accident the ball found its true make, coring the grizzly's heart where it stood.

But still the bear surged forward, howling its pain and rage and confusion, covering half the distance between it and Russell before it dropped to the ground as if sledged, but a few paces from the shaking trapper.

The Mullattoe ran up beside the bear, rifle aimed at its chest, his own lungs working like bellows. Rising smoke and the smell of burnt hair from the close-fired shot filled the little clearing. Reply