This last fall while hunting in AK., one of our pilots had been mauled by a griz. and told us the story. It goes something like this: He was working as a "bear guard" for a survey crew at the time, in AK. He was carrying a 12 guage loaded with 000 shot and also had spray. One of the survey crew noticed some disturbed earth in the area and asked him to go check it and clear it for danger. As he approached the area, he could see that there was indeed a den, this was spring time! At first he thought he was looking at a wolf den, but as he got closer, he could see the size of the hole and noticed that the tracks were actually cub tracks and not wolf tracks. His radio squeelched at about this time and he new that was not good as he was only about 10 yards from the hole. At this point, he saw the head of a bear come out of the hole so he started backing away slowly, then his radio squeelched again! He said faster than lightening, the bear was out of her hole and charging, he got 1 shot off before she was on him. He fell face down in the snow. He said it felt like a chain saw going up and down his back. Anyways, long story shortened, he had a back pack on and his snow shoes had folded over the back of his legs. He lived to tell about it, and the bear was found dead the next day. His one shot was lethal, and for what ever reason the bear didn't kill him. It didn't even bite him above the shoulders!! He got a bunch of stitches, and that was about it!!
Moral of his story, if you have pepper spray and a gun loaded for bear, your first reaction is going to be shoot the gun!! He said he wished he'd had the spray "drawn" and ready, but things happened so quick, that his gun was his first thought, and he only got one shot off!!