I know, I carry a .40 about 85% of the time, .357 sig about 10%, and a 9 when I want something small and light, but a bear, man I don’t know.
With normal loads I agree with you. These hard cast flat nose are designed to penetrate and break bones. The .40 cal is the smallest caliber I have ever seen them in commercial loadings from Double Tap. The 44 mags are supposed to be good for penetration of 4-ft of bison. I figure these 40 cal should be good for 3-ft of bear. The recoil is way up there, but I have fired several boxes with no failure to function. Even with the recoil I have been able to shoot adequate groups. I have to wear a bicycling glove when shooting these because a couple mags equals web between thumb and 1st finger bleeding. I do not shoot these for normal practice, but shoot old ammo at times and it always works so far.
Here is the link for the loads I carry. I see that they are now available in .357 mag too.
http://www.doubletapammo.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=607