ronlaughlin, that carpet and plywood doesn't even come close to the hide,thick fur, and heavy bone structure of a black bear. I would imagine it simulates whitetail quite well. Remember, the original poster specified both whitetail as well as bear and I am assuming he meant black bear. In my younger days when we still lived in Tennessee, I hunted black bear all over the smokey mountains and in both the Carolinas. Some in our family, not dad or me, loved bear meat and I loved hunting them. I can tell you with absolute certainty that a black bear is many times tougher than a whitetail. A big boar hit in the shoulder with anything other than a very strong bullet will not go down as easily as some seem to think. That heavy coat of fur has a cushioning effect and will absorb a lot of energy. Then you have some fairly massive shoulder hide and muscle and then you get to the bone. I've actually cut into a few boar bears that had somewhat of a shield not unlike that on a boar hog where they had been rubbing. I'm in now way saying they are bulletproof but anyone hunting them with a muzzleloader better damn well use a bullet they know will hold together and penetrate fully to anchor one. Anything else is just plain old foolery. I've foolishly taken a few with patched roundball using my harder cast bullets. Most I tucked in behind the shoulder and had excellent results. But there were a couple that I hit dead center shoulder and had a very upset bear to deal with.