Yes, Mike's bear was a real Gorilla! Both bears in the pictures had been gutted out so they would have looked even bigger otherwise. Odd thing on my bear shot with a 610 pure lead ball, I grazed the rear of the left front shoulder and ball took off on a rear path to the right hip. Buggered up some good sausage meat and his inside cavity was full of blood. He didn't go far but I had never had that happen before.
Black bears, being mostly a dull colour in the shade, are very difficult to see if they are angled. A similar shot was made by my buddy on a bear I'd shot first. If was hard to see, but it had turned slightly at the impact of my shot & his shot did exactly like yours, just barely behind the on-side (left) shoulder and out the right hip. He thought the bear was still sideways, but i was slightly ahead of him and could see the angle.
This is possibly what happened to your bear. Balls shot from a rifle usually travel dead straight through the animal. I suspect it is possible a ball from a smoothbore might deviate, however I do not know that for a fact.
Those bears have a good distance between the ears - good indicator for a decent bear. Bears that look like Mickey Mouse, we call 2 footers.
