When my guide hoisted up a new bait earlier that evening (beaver carcasses purchased from local trappers), I made sure the bottom of the bait was more than seven feet off the ground. If a bear stood up and came close to his nose reaching the bait, I'd know I had a really good bear. Also at each bait site was a 55-gallon drum filled with honey-laced oats. Not only do bears love the stuff, the barrel provides another indicator of body size.

The battery unit that powers the illuminated reticles on Swarovski's LPV2-series scopes is contained in the slightly larger-than-normal elevation turret cap. It can be removed and replaced with the standard cap if the illuminated feature is not required.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the smaller of these two bears kept looking up at me like he knew I was there or that something wasn't right. When his curiosity got the best of him, he sauntered over to my ladder and started up.

I didn't want to scare away the larger one, so I did the same thing I did so many years ago: I waited until he got to the top step and literally poked him in the face with the muzzle of my 798. He dropped off the ladder, shook a couple of times, then started up a tree that was about three feet to my left.

When he got to where he was close enough, I poked him in the face again, harder, and he backed down the tree. During the next hour he never looked up at me again and never attempted to climb the ladder. It was like I never existed.

Meanwhile, the big bear couldn't have cared less about the commotion that went on as close as 50 feet away. When he finally went over to the oat drum and I had a good look at his size compared to it, I decided he was good enough to shoot.

The author's bear measured seven feet, two inches--a good one but only the third largest taken that week.

Good thing I did; he measured seven feet, two inches, which is a darn good bear, but it was only the third-best taken that week. The other two measured seven feet, three inches and seven feet, five inches. The five of us harvested 10 bears and together had seen more than 50. I didn't hunt the last three days, and only one of us hunted all six days.

During the 2005 season, 24 W&L hunters saw 267 bears (a lot were surely second and third sightings of the same bears), but you get the idea: There are so many bears in this area, it's hard to believe.

As for the 798, what can I say that you don't already know? It was chambered for one of the greatest cartridges ever devised (the .30-06) pushing one of the best bullets ever devised, premium or otherwise (the Core-Lokt), so when you've got that combination going for you and you hit 'em in the right place, the outcome is rarely in doubt.