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Not all DG situations are charges. I'm sure you are aware that many times being able to pick out a small patch of brown, a wiggle of an ear or a twitch of a tail in thick bush is equally important.

The first Lion I shot was with a 303. It had been wounded by a villager with a homemade Muzzleloader and the local Missionary asked me to go with him to try and sort it out. Not being as aware as I am now about DG I took the 303 SMLE that he handed me and he grabbed his 404 and off we went in his old Peugot.

The Lion was supposed to have retreated into some high grass, about 4 feet, so Paul was driving throught the grass and I was standing on the seat and through the sun roof with the 303 next to the local 'hunter'. We stopped and I started to glass ahead of us and spotted it at the edge of the brush with the binos. Paul could not pick it out with his eyes and neither could the villager. I could just make out half of it's head even though it was less than 40 yards.

Paul told me to go ahead and shoot if I could and he would stand ready if it charged. The 303 had an old scope of some type with dirt inside and I lined up on what I where I thought the brain should be and shot. I drilled it fair and it did not even twitch.

We waited for about 3 days, or so it seemed, but really about 15 minutes and then drove over. It was indeed dead, shot right below the eye. It had a 2" piece of curtain rod stuck into it's side about 4" from the muzzleloader..

In Alaska a scope on your Bear Rifle is mandatory for the same exact reason. If you have a wounded Bear in the Alders it is much easier to kill it from 50 yards with a scope sighted rifle. You can take shots that you can't even see with your naked eyes.

That's why you may want a scope on a DG rifle. A 1x something or a fixed 2 power can be very handy. You also want to be able to take it off.