My son-in-law is a professional guide / tracker. He hires out to recover wounded bear. He has some pretty amazing tales of tracking and recovering wounded bear. Much of what I know about bear I learned from him. I agree with you on large bore rifles and now have a .450 Marlin. With a lot of time on my hands I do a lot of research and field study on bear. My research is almost exclusively on mature boars. They are unique and are in ways a completely different animal in my opinion. They are too often the bears that end up wounded and never recovered. If you know a butcher who cuts up bear (many don't) ask him about old wounds he has seen on bear. Many mature male Black Bear take what should be fatal wounds and recover. It is my opinion that given sufficient nutrition and adequate fat reserves, a mature boar may recover from otherwise fatal wounds during "hibernation". 4 To 6 months of hibernation where they are inactive in a state that we don't completely understand yet seems to give them this ability to heal. During this period Black Bear loose the rough skin on their pads and emerge in the Spring with fresh soft skin on their pads. Black Bear meat is extremely high in cholesterol and I imagine this has something to do with them not waking to eat for months and in some cases recovered from the previous years injuries. God made an amazing animal in the bear.
