Going back to the OP: I really like the 180 gr. Partition Gold as an all around woods carry round for the .357. I'd have lots of confidence that it would reliably expand in soft targets and penetrate adequately on tougher targets. I've also chosen to carry handloads using 180 gr. WFNGC bullets and liberal amounts of W296 in my 4" GP 100 while woods walking.

Just an observation: It seems to me that most of the aggressive (black) bear stories I've read feature smallish bears. Are they younger bears still trying to figure out where they are in the pecking order? The incidents are of course more frequent among populations of critters which have become habituated to human contact and (especially) food. I suspect the really big black bears get that way by carefully avoiding human contact. I'd be curious to hear from biologists "in the know" on this subject.

Even adult black bears can vary a great deal in size/weight. I have a good friend who took an 18 year old boar (black bear) several years ago that went nearly 600 lbs. The bear is mounted standing and is hugely impressive. On the other hand, the only bear I've taken was a two year old sow that field dressed just over 100 lbs. These two bears were harvested in the same county.

PC