Vitals on bears are back farther than ungulates! If you are hitting shoulder your missing the vitals and asking for a nightmare. I worked for an outfitter in the 90s that preached "taking out the shoulder cause bears are so hard to kill" Nothing could be farther from the truth. My archery...
Bought a dozen off Amazon $12.99/six and have shot several hundred times and all have worked great, still bright after couple months of shooting 4-5 days a week.
South Cox with Stalker Stick bows has the best footage I've ever seen with 5ft bull...then he did it again the next year! Both have been entries on Full Draw Tour so I got to see it on a big screen to boot. Just unreal footage and top end quality!
Had numerous encounters under 5 yards, but haven't closed the deal. Most were years ago before I knew frontal shots were even a thing. Hunting solo with that close of encounter can get tricky, or I'm just terrible in the moment! lol.
Last one was a 6x at four yards and needed two more steps to...
"My experience with a cabin raiding bear is they like gasoline and motor oil......"
Outfitter I worked for had one bite into a can of expanding foam. That would have been great footage.
Any caliber works, just aim farther back than you would for an ungulate. We kill a lot of bears and had lost a few and started doing some homework and saw that bears thoracic cavity sits back farther than deer and elk. Haven't had one go more than 30 yards since adjusting where we aim...