not that hard to kill?

I think black bear ala vancouver Island and Alaska are a entirely different story than say a black bear in the lower 48 for the most part.....even most of canada.....and I think they just reclassified them as "coastal bears" because of this, when 7' 400-600lbs is common, I think I even have heard of 8' in Alaska ......

again I'd use any premium 150gr bullet, controlled expansion, or if you handload 160gr...

Everyone nowadays seems to make a premium controlled expansion bullet.