Big Country,
Thanks for sharing the story. What a great adventure for your friend to be able to tell for the rest of his life. What an adrenalin rush that must have been! I bet he takes the memory of that one with him to bed every night. May have made an " Elmer Keith" fan out of him on the spot.

It seems likely the bear in your story was mortally wounded. Sure enough all number of cartridges will " kill them" and of course " dead is dead" ---- the part that conveniently gets left out of that little train of thought is.....

What happens to YOU -- BEFORE they die?
A hunter reduced to three parts shredded meat/bone and one part steaming bear poop is a sobering thing.

That same hunter, had he not had that experience, could have been lecturing here on the forum, extolling the virtues of his favorite deer rifle and citing the long list of animals taken with it and warning about the evils of magnums, flinching, recoil shyness, and the silliness of being " overgunned."

Personal Safety Above All,
Never Go Undergunned,
EKM