It’s extremely important to zero your scope or the sights on your rifle before going hunting. If your sights are not properly adjusted, the gun will not put the bullet where you are aiming and, trust me, that’s a bad thing.
Bonded bullets can be made to penetrate deeper because they retain their weight better, and they can be made to expand wider because they hold together. Hornady’s InterBond, introduced in 2003, is a bonded bullet that does a little of one and a lot of the other.
In hunting there are the rifles you choose to make sure you take an animal humanely; and then, there are the rifles you choose to make sure the animal doesn’t take you. A choice for a black bear rifle lends itself to the latter.