One solution was to “place a loaded gun, and stretch a line, connected with the trigger, across the field, so that the bear in his walk, by pressing against the line, may draw the trigger, and kill himself.” Though clever, the brutal downside of such booby traps became quickly obvious. “People not apprised of the design may,” a contemporary wrote, “in passing through a field, kill or wound themselves, and in fact this mode of setting guns has, in some instances, proved fatal.”
