A good friend of mine was heading out to his cabin on a friday evening a few years ago with his pregnant wife and 2 kids in his boat when he saw what looked like a beaver swimming across the lake. He turned the boat and drove over to it. It was a black bear so he started yelling at it to get and it changed swimming directions and headed up the lake. (it was headed directly towards their cabin) They got in the cabin and he loaded his coach gun with 2 slugs just in case. They didn't see or hear anything that day and kind of forgot about the bear. On Sat evening, they were taking a nap and something actually made the cabin move. The bear had pushed hard against the side and shook it. My buddy woke up and told his wife to get in the back room with the kids and close the door. He grabbed the coach gun and opened the door. The bear was STANDING on his back legs in the doorway (on the other side of the screen door) It pushed the screen in and my friend let both slugs go into his chest. It flipped him over and he took off running. He died about 30 yards from the cabin. He needed a few hours to calm down, but it was dark and he didn't want to go home.
He got the family up at 7am and when they opened up the door, and looked down at the boat, there was a bear next to it about 50 yards from the cabin. He didn't have any slugs left, and had 2 rounds of #8 birdshot, so he fired over the bears head, it ran off into the bushes and he got his family the hell out of there. But let me tell you, he's glad he had the coach gun with him. He had to bring the wildlife officers out there to show them the bear. Completely self defence they told him and they took the carcass, and said for him to watch out in the future.