Bears are notorious for leaving faint bloodtrails. There fur is like a sponge and their fat plugs the hole many times.
+1
+2
+3 Especially Fall bears with lots of fat.
Also, IME many black bears drop at the shot -- no matter how trivial the bullet damage -- and then get up. One that my friend shot with a .270 had a small graze along his foot. The bear dropped, then jumped up and ran off, but succumbed to a second shot through the lungs.
Why not, + 4.
Possible marginal hit, no expando mono bullet b/c of minimal resistance, bear sponge effect = run away bear. Not sure how far you searched, but f he dn't drop blood and ran a good distance before stopping, he obviously would be hard to track. I'm sorry to hear you didn't recover him. I always like to put at least a couple holes in them, especially in an area w/thick brush.
Partner did the same with his .338 and a wolf looking almost straight on at him. That guy did have a faint blood trail that we followed 1/4 - 1/2 mile in fairly open country. Sucked, especially when he thought he pounded him good! In retrospect, we think the bullet went in just inside the shoulder (from the chest) and exited between the shoulder and the ribs.
That said, I'm not sure I'd change bullets based on a smoke size of one, especially when I think you'll get numerous endorsements for the Barnes bullets.
YMMV,
Bob
