All my bears have been fall bears.
I find getting the hide and most of the fat and getting the meat cooling as fast as you can gives best tablefare.
The meat will NOT cool with the hide on even in a freezer for several days.
Drop it,clean it,get it out,get it hung and skun,hang in cooler,trim fat...go home,come back in the morning and trim more fat (comes of easier cool)
Last fall bear was shot at 6:18pm we weren't finished til 0349am but first time doing a hide for a mount and there may have been some cold ones involved.
We didn't get it out of the woods til 9Pm and home by 9:30,to work about 10:30.
It didn't get taken to the cooler til the next day around suppertime but...it was very cool in the night and not bad thru the day inside a shed.
As a result it isn't the best meat I have had but it is definately good....alot like beef depending on what it is gorging itself on.
In the fall around here there is plenty of berries and crops mostly corn and apples.
In the spring you don't have this,I suspect given the amount a bear will consume in the run of a fall day this would have an effect on the meat.
Bearhunter...cooking the meat up on a rack so it isn't cooking in the fat that is marbled in the meat helps.
(Roasts or broiling your steaks/chops in oven)
BBQ is definately the best way to have it done IMO.
Never have it pink but no need to have it crispy either.
I love my bearhuntin....