I shot a nice sized black bear with my 30-06 last spring. I too shot him in the neck, dropping him instantly. The bear started to move a little as he lay there, so I followed up my first shot with one to the shoulder. He did move a little more and I kept another shot ready to fire for several minutes, but he died shortly after that. I have no way of knowing if the neck shot would have been enough. I don't think that neck shots are necessarily bad ones. However, if the bear continues to move, his spinal cord is still somewhat intact, thus making a second shot likely necessary.

It's tough losing a good bear, but it happens... it doesn't take much for a bigger bear to escape sometimes. They are VERY tough animals. I guided several black bear hunters for my uncle's oufitting business this spring. Just this past week a 328 bear travelled around 100 yds or so after having an arrow blow right through his heart and pass completely through. He lost a significant amount of blood and kept going. Tough animals for sure.