I live and hunt here in the east so our bear hunting is done with hounds, from my experiences from yaking 10 bears and seeing dozens of others taken, IMO a black bear cannot take a good hit as well as a deer. we take them with anything from 243's on up. my bears have been taken with 7mm/08, 7mm STW, 348 win, and 458 socom, and 1 with a 375 JDJ Handgun, it was the only bear I've ever shot that even twitched after the report. here is the story of that hunt, it is the only time that I can recall that I was ever scared during a hunting situation.
I got the nickname Ridge Runner back during the days when we bear hunted and used CB radios for communications, mainly because I was younger could get around in the mountains well and when the dogs took a track I stayed with them, in my mind then it was my way of keeping the dogs out of trouble, stay with them and make sure the bear knew I was there, they wouldn't bay up to fight as quick when a human was in the mix.
So one day we found where a bear had been in a waterhole just before dawn, it was a smokin hot track, we "dumped the tailgates" every dog we had was on the track, they were packed up good and tight making a lot of noise and had began to move north just under the top of the mountain, I was bringin up the tail of the pack coming around the side and the radio cracked the gang said they were circleing around the moutain and would prepare to intercept the bear at the Judge Rye Road, which was 7miles north of my position,
I told them that that was the sensible thing to do cause it seemed every bear that started north made that road and treed in the thicket just beyond.
Not this bear, the dogs caught him 2 miles out and he had no choice but to head straight downhill off the mountain. In the middle of a laurel thicket choked with greenbriars, he had all he could take and hit a tree. I got to the tree, checked things out it was a 180# male bear all the dogs were there so things were fine, I got on the radio advised the gang of the situation and requested they bring in a shooter.
Well they were at least a 30 min. drive, then a 4 mile walk from my position so I just sat down about 30 yards from the tree and kept an eye on the 14 dogs that were there and waited for the guys to bring some youngster in to shoot the bear.
An hour into the wait all hell broke loose, the dogs had gotten into a massive fight and I knew that this situation could get nasty in a hurry, when dogs get in that state, they'll all jump on the loser, when he's dead they'll pick another one to vent they're frustrations on, you can loose alot of good dogs in a dog fight.
I waded into the fracus, yelling kicking and grabbing, I couldn't tie them I didn't have enough leads, so just as I got the fight broke up I heard a "woof" looked up and the bear was coming down in the middle of the dogs, I ran under the tree yelled the bear looked down at me and hesitated, the crosshairs of the 2X loopy found the bears head, I placed the reticle just under his left eye and squeezed the trigger on the SSK Handcannon, the bear dropped at the shot, but was immediately on his feet with a dog in his mouth. THIS WAS GETTING BAD! the dog escaped the bears jaws, the pack started baying, the bear doing what bears do was doing his best to face the pack, I had reloaded and was easing closer, I knew I couldn't broadside the bear with the 375, it would over-penetrate and chances were to great of hitting a dog, then I saw an opening to bring this matter to a close, I was an arms length away from the bear the dogs sensed that I was close so they got even braver, lunging out in the bears face as the bear swatted at them, I quickly took a step, grabbed the bear by the scruff of the neck, placed my knee on his back, as I did this I slid the muzzle domn along my leg, when the muzzle stopped firmly against the bears back I jerked the trigger, the bear went limp in my hands. I sat down, got my wits about me, radio'd the gang to bring leads a drag and bring me a darned beer! I then checked the dogs out, alot of them were a bloody mess that from the looks of them I wouldn't give a nickel for they're odds. miraculously it was the bears blood, that 235 gr bullet had broke the upper and lower jaws on opposite sides so the bear couldn't bite the dogs, the only injuries were sustained from the dog fight.
RR
I didn't get a chance to ask my preacher about the story but i will and if he says the same thing maybe that's what happend . Oh well I can continue on thinking that my .45 auto is the big gun 
