Not going to argue with all the black bear experience on here,and especially Young.

I have not killed a lot of them myself but been around enough dead ones in our bear camps in northern Maine. We used everything from the 257 Roberts to the 375 H&H. We noticed the 30/06 with 165 Partitions were very good and mostly exited on any shot.

The two that gave the toughest time and longest trails were both hit too far back with a 257 Roberts,115 partition, and a 340 Weatherby with 210 NPT.

Of my last two,one was shoulder shot at maybe 20-30 feet with a 270 and 130 NPT;it collapsed and bullet exited. The other was hit through ribs and lungs with a 140 Bitterroot from a 280 Remington. He collapsed at the shot,squirmed a little and died.i am told it's hard to get a bear to die on the spot with lung hits. That one wasn't.

How tough are they? I dunno. They never seemed too tough to me.But if you hit them wrong they can be I guess.



The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.