And in the .01% chance I ever actually had to use it
I live in Bear country in central Alaska, in all but the winter months I can pretty much bet on a daily basis that I'm going to see either a black or a grizz. Most of the time they're minding their own business as am I.
I would hope my adrenaline would be sufficient to limp away afterwards.
Hope is proven to be an unsuccessful strategy.
I'd rather be messed up from pepper spray than dead, any day. But that's just me--I'm weird like that....
I'd rather not be dead, rather than messed up by spray and then dead.
Well I, nor anyone else I know, have ever gone around spraying bear spray wildly on the ground around our campsite. Good grief.
However if you use spray you will get some on yourself, bears like it for 5 days. Other people do use it in this way, can you guarantee that anyone with you while out in bear country won't do that, and if they do can you guarantee that you'll know about it?
And how many people can successfully stop a bear charge with a handgun in 6 seconds? Not a large percentage. I'm under no delusions that I could turn a corner on a mother grizzly with cubs, calmly pull a handgun out, and fire 6 hits in 6 seconds. And as far as long guns, not feasible when hiking or camping, unless you're terrified of bears (which a lot of people on here seem to be) or an ironman triathlon runner who likes to carry 8 extra pounds at 6000 ft.
As I said, I live in bear country and always have an 870, a 338 Win Mag, or a 30-06 at hand, and I'm always carrying my 40S&W (no it won't likely kill the bear , but it'll give it a really bad day with hardpoints). Yes I've had to use them, yes, I hit, yes I can still talk to you about it and didn't lose any body parts, and no the ADF&G didn't run me off to jail for shooting the bear, I just needed to hand over the skin, claws and skull.
I'm not especially scared of bears, since as I mentioned earlier most of the time they mind their own business, and so do I, and I chose to live here, so I think it's my responsibility to give them an even break. But just like a mugger if they want a piece of me, then they're going to have to take it.
YMMV