Done it a couple times. Not an ideal situation but can be done if you are very attentive. There are guys with WAY more bear experience than me, but my biggest pieces of advice:
- Be VERY cautious if calling (I only called in relatively open areas where I was able to see and never in dense cover).
- Be VERY cautious sneaking into a herd of vocal elk (a bear might also be hunting that herd)
- Be VERY VERY cautious while breaking down the animal and watch your back constantly.
- Get the meat hung away from the carcass as soon as possible.
- Hang the meat in an area where you can see it from a safe distance on your return trips.
- Don't pack meat in the dark.
- Watch your back when packing meat.
I pack spray AND sidearm (spray doesn't do much good from inside a tent or in a strong wind).
I have been lucky and haven't had any grizz issues so far. Had one scare a couple years ago when I got back to my bivy camp and found my cache of food not in the tree any more. Thought for sure a grizz had knocked it down somehow. I approached with spray in left hand and .44 mag in right hand, but found out another tree had fallen on it and knocked it down.
Had an issue once when a black bear pressed his nose against the side of my bivy tent about a foot from my head in the middle of the night (hard to fall asleep after that - LOL)
I will be in grizz country again this fall but will be helping my son on his rifle hunt and there will be 2 or 3 of us so much safer!!