The best blood trails, IMO and E, are those which leak from the nose or mouth. Generally that means a good stir of the lungs. One of Barnes' positive attributes is the fact that they don't ruin lots of meat. Hence they don't create the trauma pockets as large as some other bullet designs typically do. And they don't expand as well and as reliably as some people believe or claim. (That applies anyway, to the TSX; the TTSX is hopefully a significant improvement.)
I really think you'd probably have been better off with a 210 Partition, or even something like a similar weight TTSX. As you probably are aware, 50 yards can be a incredibly long run when the undergrowth is thick. A bear, especially after it recovers from an initial 'knock-out', can be an incredibly tough prospect to put down. Consequently, it would not surprise me to learn that a 'dead bear' put some serious distance on during his last efforts.
