Had an “experience” ca 1958 while camping out in Iowa with 2 other guys. At night in tents. Won’t go into details but to this day we don’t know...and never will...what made those sounds we heard. Only had 22 rifles.
Went hiking and camping with two of my neighbor’s friends many years ago in the Padres National forest. They turned out to be not ideal folks for long hikes - or much else - and they griped at my intermittent trout fishing along the way and most of all because I carried my .22 AR-7 for snakes and such (they were Air Force enlisted and didn’t like guns)
We were traveling up a long, narrow canyon when it got dark, so we pitched camp for the night. I was feeling a bit spiteful, so I told them “ this is canyon the Manson lawyer disappeared in”. They started whispering back and forth, so I knew they weren’t going to sleep well now.
Then we heard footsteps in the brush near us. It was absolutely pitch black, yet whoever was walking near us was moving easily. Now my fellow hikers were really scared - and so was I. I turned on my trusty 5-cell flashlight but though I could hear more heavy footsteps, nothing was visible.
I said “whoever is out there, identify yourself - I am armed”. Nothing.
Then I said “identify yourself or I will open fire”. Again nothing - so I fired one shot straight up in the air -
And a Black bear charged through our campsite and out the other side!
I called to my fellow hikers and said “did you see that?” This time they didn’t answer. When they saw the bear, the two of them took off down the canyon and it was well after midnight before I found them and got them back to their sleeping bags.
Needless to say, never had any contact with those two after we got back.