I agree , if your looking at bears, big ones at that(brown, grizzly)
I would NOT go lighter than a 30-06 and even there I would be very elective on what bullets I would be using
and quite honestly, I think I would want bigger caliber than a 30/06 if they were a animal I was going after
I would say a good .338 or larger would be my gun of choice for them, its NOT that smaller calibers cannot kill they, they can, but its just, having extra HP is never a bad thing on dangerous game animals!
recoil can be controlled better by using better stocks, muzzle breaks, and or better recoil pads, and or selective loads
NOT all caliber rifles have the same recoil just based on caliber
weight of gun, type of stock, and of course load being used matters a LOT
so there are ways to help tame a larger caliber if you wanted, so food for thought to maybe look into before ruling out a larger caliber for bears at least!