At the risk of sounding like a corn-fed flatlander, what's a "Bad Bear Tag"...? Is that something stuck on a "problem bear" (as the bunny-huggers seem to prefer) after which it's re-located?
As with confronting a violent, dangerous felon, I'm sure that confronting a violent, dangerous bear will always make you wish you had a bigger gun. Breaking it down into terms that I can relate to (at least in comparing really dangerous bears to really dangerous people), I hope for my first hit to slow up and briefly distract the target, for a split second, buying me time to level up the sight picture for better-aimed follow-up hits. It has to be split-second fast because an oncoming human attacker doesn't allow you much leeway for time...and, from what I've read here, an oncoming bear will allow you even less.
Most any bullet impact is more "effective" when the target isn't expecting to get shot...but again that underscores the difference between hunting a bear (say, over bait from a tree stand) and trying to get it to break off an attack it's commited itself to. Did your initial .30-30 impact(s) cause the bear to focus on its injuries instead of you, IntrepidWizard? I'm assuming you placed the shot(s) well.
In any event, thanks for responding. I have co-workers who have "hunted" black bear quite successfully with a .30-30, and one friend who convincingly flattened a black bear with a .30-30 that was stalking him and his young son during a deep-woods outing. But...those weren't grizzly or browns and they weren't in an all-out attack mode.
