I had an encounter with a black bear once while on a float trip on the Buffalo River in Arkansas a few years back. It was my fault, I left some stuff out that attracted him. I heard something at night, I thought it was a raccoon, opened the flap and looked out. Sucker was about 15 feet away. Fired a shot with the .357 in the dirt next to it and lined up for a shot on the animal, but he moved out of there faster than I thought a bear could move. Couldn't get back to sleep after that.