I think maybe he was referring to the Foggy Mountain Guide service in Maine. They have a few handgun hunting articles on their website, and one of the guides that has been doing it for many years used to use a 357 but failed to stop a bear, then switched to the 41 and hasn't looked back.
you can read the story on their website.

Just my guess

"If you are going to go through all the trouble to put a hole in something, why not make it a big one?"