Some basic observations here. I've had a fair bit of experience removing bears for a living from a large commercial tree farm in Wa. State. All Black bears. These comments are only and solely regarding Black bears.

Shooting snared Black bears was quite telling on the reactions they would have at impact. Generally a bear I would shoot with a .44 magnum revolver using a 310 grain Garrett cartridges hard cast bullet would make the bear bolt upon impact and not even show any reaction to being hit. He would slam to the ground when the cable slack went out on the foot snare. I would guess I did this 75-100 times with similar or even identical reactions.

Doing the same thing with a 240 grain Hornady XTP as fast as I could get them to go would fold the bear upon impact and quite often have them biting at the entry hole.

Speaking only for myself, If a was expecting or living in a location were I could be charged by a Black bear I would prefer the fold upon impact function of the 240 XTP over the 310 grain Hardhats bullet 100% of the time.

When a carefully placed shot is possible and you are certain you could break front leg bones or the skull, a solid hard cast bullet is perfect. However if you are not certain that bones or CNS can be hit, then zipping through the soft tissue is not a good option.

My experience doing this ranged on bears from 150-450 pounds, most averaged in the 250-300 range. Actually over half would have been this big. I did not usually do this test on a smaller then average bear that would provide no threat in real life.

When considering a Grizzly, or Brownie, which have about 3 times the body mass and three times the attitude I would certainly opt for a big heavy deeply penetrating bullet that could hopefully drill through the thick layer of fat in a fall bear and get into the good stuff.

At no point would I ever choose anything smaller then 10mm or .44 mag even for a black bear. No load used in a 357 mag provided even close to the decisive reaction to the .44 mag or 45 long colt. YMMV ........choose wisely.

www.huntingadventures.net
Are you living your life, or just paying bills until you die?
When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)