I shot a wounded black bear once from less than 20’ as it ran towards me. In the chest with a 510gr WW SP from my 458. Bear rolled, changed direction and ran 50 or more yards before stopping dead, happened so fast I didn’t have time to shoot again. 6 1/2’ black bear.
A buddy shot a charging 7 foot grizzly in the center chest with a WW white box 240 SP out of a 6” 44 magnum from about 40-50 feet. He folded and died instantly, never twitched.
I shot another wounded black bear that was over 6 feet with a 150 Norma out of my 300 Savage, he rolled and never moved.
A good friend killed a 6 1/2’ grizzly that was trying to eat him once in the eye socket from 12 feet with his 2” 44 Special with 250gr Keith style bullet doing about 900fps. He too folded up and never twitched.
Watched a guy shoot a small, 4’ 4” black bear through the shoulders with a 45/70 and 325gr Hornady Leverevolution factory loads. It ran 40 or 50 yards at high speed before rolling and flopping around bawling for a while before dying, had a 3” exit hole through the scapula.
Watched a guy shoot a 5 foot bear through the chest with a 375 H&H with Federal premium 300gr Partition ammo. It died pretty quickly but the bullet was perfectly mushroomed and under the hide on the off side. 60 yard shot and didn’t even hit a rib.
Another guy shot a 7 foot grizzly repeatedly through the chest with a 20” 458Socom and Barnes 300ttsx bullets. It didn’t charge or run thankfully because it looked like it had been killed with a .458 diameter drill bit.
On other occasions even bigger black bears would fold right up with a well placed shot from a 100gr 243 or a 130 out of a 270. This plus many other examples I witnessed told me that the only thing that could be counted on to absolutely stop one now either coming or going was a spine or head shot. Everything else is hope and speculation
