U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- I suspect much of the mythology about the difficulty of penetrating bear skulls with bullets is based on the position of a bear's brain inside of those skulls. The volume of a large bear's brain is a little more or less than a pint (473 ml). The volume of a large bear's head is about 2 1/2 gallons (9.46 l) or more. The brain, to many, is unexpectedly low and narrow. It is easy to shoot a bear in the head and miss the brain. It is easy to shoot a bear in the eye and miss the brain. It is easy to shoot a bear between the eyes and miss the brain if you are a little bit above the mark.
There is quite a bit of fur, skin, muscle, and fat surrounding a bear's skull.
Some detailed pictures of a carved polar bear skull from Nunavut have been posted on facebook. The pictures make it relatively easy to show where a polar bear's brain lies, and how to aim to hit it.
In this photograph of the skull, taken from above, you can see how narrow the brain case is. It lies entirely in back of the eye sockets. It is narrow enough, that viewed from above, you can see it does not extend to the area directly behind each eye socket.
From the front, if the bear is looking directly at you, if you shoot it in the eye, or above or below the eye, you will miss the brain. Notice the bone of the brain case is not especially thick. The bone