I realize this is an older thread, but I want to share a tale I heard from a man in Colorado while bear hunting.
The guy told me he was elk hunting one year in the same area we were in that day and as he was slipping down a trail one afternoon, he came face to face with a black bear. The bear charged instantly and so fast, he didn't have time to even think about raising his rifle (a modern repeater). Down he went with the bear biting and clawing him.
He managed to break free and immediately tried to climb a tree. The bear was right on his tail, and about 20 feet up, the bear latched onto the man's calf. Clinging desperately to the tree, the man started kicking the bear in the face with his other foot. Finally the bear lost its grip on the tree and crashed to ground, ripping out a large section of the man's calf in the process.
The man watched the bear run off into the brush with part of his calf dangling from the man's leg.
Starting to get dizzy, the man climbed down the tree and managed to crawl to where his rifle lay. It was starting to get too late to crawl back down the trail to his truck, so the man crawled back to his tent, and wrapped up his torn leg, the best he could.
He propped himself up and prepared himself for a long night. Sure enough, about midnight or so the bear tried to rip through the tent to get to the man. The man fired one shot at where he thought the bear was, and then fired off a couple more rounds.
At first light the man, started crawling down the trial (it was all downhill, following a creek). By about 10 in the morning, the man was just about done in, but had gotten low enough on the trail, that an elderly woman, sitting on her prorch drinking her morning coffee, was able to see him. She got some ranch hands and they managed to load the guy up and take him to the nearest hospital.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (at the time), showed up a few hours later with some hounds. They started up the trail, and the dogs took up a hot track within less than 100 yards from where the man was found by the ranch hands. The bear had trailed the wounded man down the trail for over two miles, ready to finish him off!
The DOW managed to locate and kill the bear.
The injured man spent over a month in the hospital and spent many more months in physical therapy. Once he was halfway well, he moved east, and although he had grown up in that area and hunted that it for over 30 years, he was afraid to go back and hunt.
After almost 15 years had past, he finally move back and resumed hunting. Here are the hunting rules he lives by after his experience and as he told me that day:
One NEVER HUNT ALONE.
Two ALWAYS CARRY A HEAVY CALIBER PISTOL WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES.
Three ALWAYS KEEP THE PISTOL STRAPPED TO YOU SECURELY.
His logic was that at close counters a bear will be on you so fast that you won't have time to get off a shot, and the rifle will probably go flying though the air.
Have the pistol securely strapped on you, so that you can get to it, after the bear has finished his initial charge and has started mauling you. Pulling it out before the charge and you will probably lose it when the bear hits you.
Having a hunting partner, increases your chances of getting out alive, after being mauled.
This is serious stuff, and the man showed me his ruined calf, and I remembered reading about the story in the paper years ago.
As for me, I like to hunt alone, but I figure two out of three ain't bad!
BuffKiller