The slugs were stuck between the hide and the rib cage. They never exited the chest cavity because they never entered the chest cavity. I didn’t do a full forensic autopsy because I had a sizeable buck to dress, but I don’t remember seeing any wound channels, just .45 slugs kind of lodged in a rib cage.
I will say that I was 30-40 yards away when I shot, so maybe the slugs were petering out?
Of course, a .45 CAN kill a bear. I found several examples of bears being taken with .22 caliber. The 1953 world record grizzly was killed with a single shot .22 long wielded by a 5 foot Indian woman.
I carry a .45 ACP just about everywhere I go and I think it is the best caliber to drop a person, but if I go into bear country, I won’t be protected by a .22 long or a .45 ACP. I will be taking something with a better penetration, like a .357, .44 or more.
A possibility is, because the buck was facing you, the bullets hit to the inside of the shoulder blade, traveled between the shoulder and the rib cage, and came to rest between the skin and the rib cage, behind the shoulder.
I have seen that happen. It does not indicate bullet failure, the bullet penetrated a lot of flesh. Deer are pretty narrow from the front.
A bullet might have hit the meat on the outside of the shoulder blade, and traveled under the skin for some distance as well. Shoot enough, and you see some pretty weird things happen.
At 40 yards, a .45 230 grain ball load has lost 4% of its muzzle velocity and 8% of its energy. It is not a large difference. It has dropped from 830 fps to 796 fps.
It is about the difference between being fired from a 5 inch barrel or a 4 inch barrel.