"I just heard a twig snap," said hunting guide Jim Boyce. "And when I wheeled around, I saw a thousand pounds of brown bear on the way,"

He pulled his .458 Winchester Magnum to his shoulder.

Illustration by Jonathan Milo

"When I looked through the scope, all I could see was four canines and two flapping lips."

The 500-grain bullet knocked the bear down, but to finish it off took three more shots.

The bear died exactly eight feet from where Boyce and I were standing.

Our buddy Scott Newman -- another crackerjack bear guide -- wasn't so lucky.

Just before dark on the last day of his Alaska hunt, one of Newman's clients wounded a huge brown bear, having shot it in the leg. So Scott went into the thick old-growth forest in pursuit.

He too heard a twig snap. And when he turned, the huge old bear was in full charge. At 10 yards, Scott hit him square in the chest with a 400-grain pill from his .416 Remington Magnum.

That shot killed the bear -- but not before it spent its last minute of life chewing Scott's legs and arms to shreds.

He was in the hospital for a month. Thankfully, he has fully recovered.

NOT ONLY GRIZZLIES
But it's not just grizzlies and brown bears doing the damage these days. More and more people are moving into wilderness-type areas in the Western states, even while many of those states continue to severely restrict seasons and hunting methods. That means black bears are taking a toll, too.

Most of these bear-versus-human conflicts do not involve hunters.