I' m not certain that a .243 is legal in all states where bears are hunted, you might check that out.

Most .243' s I' ve seen don' t handle very fat bullets well, but I don' t see any reason you need to try to feed it overly fat bullets anyway, just get a good controlled expansion bullet, maybe a partition or PG, and make sure you know where it' s hitting, then limit yourself to about 100-125yrds, I' d say 150, but it' d have to be on smaller bruins. It' ll do fine as long as you keep in mind that you are using a slightly " underpowered" arm, it' s not going to knock them in the dirt if you just put the x-hairs on them, you' ve got to put that little bullet in a little area, and you should probably expect to send a friend in after it.

For bruins, you really won' t have to worry about them hunting you, they' re more like coyotes, they' ll do as much as they can to avoid you if they know you' re there, so unless you sneek up WAY TOO CLOSE on one and surprise it, you probably don' t have to worry about it hunting back.

My advice truly would be to go ahead and get another rifle, but then again, I' m always looking for another excuse to get a new one!