Odds are that 45cal rounds are going to bounce right off of a large Bear. That's not to say they won't scare him but don't expect them to have any significant stopping power at all whatsoever. I'm not going to judge your actions from the comfort of my perverbial armchair but I will tell you that IMHO positive target identification is a must before discharging a firearm. Ofcourse that's not to say you did not positively identify the sky before discharging yours. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> As far as the people that approached your camp on horseback. I would have to say that I would not believe even for a split second that (based on your story) they were in any way associated with the forest service. I would fully expect them to either be in clearly marked uniforms or present identification if that was the case and if they were in my camp for more than a minute I'd probably even ask them (politely) to present ID or move along.