fail safe bullets

bludaox

November 02, 2008 14:08

Has anyone reloaded the Nosler winchester Fail Safe bullets?I'm going on a an Orxy hunt here in NM.To get to thier heart you have to go thru thier shoulder.Nosler Accubond comes in 150 0r 180 grain bullets.I want to use a 165 grain bullet.The Fail Safe bullets that I bought,(165 grail) ,came without any loading data. The gunshop tells me to use the same data that I would use loading Barnes X bullets.Can anyone help me? I like imr4350 powder.

Psalm 109:8

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  bludaox

  November 02, 2008 14:08

  Would like to know why the Fail Safe ammo and bullets for re-loading are no longer available.

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  nononsense

  November 03, 2008 08:38

  bludaox,
  
  The Winchester Fail Safe bullet was perhaps the most technologically advanced bullet available at the time. This technology also came with a high price. The bullet had a front half that is solid copper-alloy with a small, deep, hollowpoint, not unlike the X-Bullet. The rear half had a lead core encapsulated in a steel sheath and end cap and covered in a jacket formed from the same homogeneous piece of metal used for the front. The two were separated by a thick belt of solid copper-alloy. In many ways, the Fail Safe is similar to the Partition or A-Frame design in the rear with an X-Bullet nose.
  
  The original design use a copper-alloy that was fairly hard so expansion could be a variable depending on the tissue/bone encountered and velocities used. Winchester attempted to soften the alloy in the nose area to correct this problem and ended up with premature expansion and a loss of the petals which resulted in a smaller frontal area and a lower retained weight.
  
  All-in-all, the perception of the shooting public was that it demonstrated inconsistent performance at a very high price, marking it for an early demise. It has since been replace by the Winchester XP3 bullet design.
  
  Best.

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