The problem from my research is the hollow points will mushroom against the skull and not penatrate. What stops penatration is two things. Weight loss and over expansion. Since a bullet shot into a bears skull cant loose weight is such a short trip though just the skin, then the weight loss factor is eleminated. Thus it must be over expansion that stops the bullets from penatrating. As for the newer Black Talons and all copper hollowpoints they may not expand to such large diameter that may penatrate. Time will tell. As stated I have never shot a bear with a 357. So I study the results of knowledgeable observers and hunters. The incedents I am refering to are, the gun writer Bob Milik shot a black bear in the head 6 times with soft point bullets from a 357 , all failed to penatrate and the guide had to kill the bear. Another failed example is the game warden named Kris? that had a small grizzly jump him while releasing it from a cage. The bear took 4 soft point 357's in the head at point blank range, all failed to penatrate. The killing shot was his last and it enterted in the mouth. Lastly in Handloader magazine, a few years back, an article was written by a very knowledgable Alaskan bear guide and ballistics experamentor, his research and multiply incidents left him with the conclusion that even a 357 can easily kill a big bear as long as the bullet is a heavy non expanding and the only way to stop a bear with a handgun is a brain or spine hit. While other shots and bullets will kill a bear they wont STOP it. In his personal collection he had a double handfull of recovered handgun bullets taken from bears.