Tejano,
Yep, there are better bullets out there now. I used the Fail Safes for a number of years, because they typically shot more accurately than the Barnes X's of the era, and provided the same performance on game.
But around 2000, give or take a little, Barnes X's started shooting much better in most rifles, apparently because Randy Brooks got a handle on obtaining consistent copper, and making consistent bullets. They still copper-fouled bores, but not as badly as the first X's, and the blue-coated XLC's didn't foul much at all.
But the TSX solved the fouling problem, and plastic-tipped monolithic bullets of various brands solved the occassional problem of a hollow-point being battered closed in the magazine box during recoil. This was probably the major reason for occasional hollow-pointed bullets like the X and Fail Safe not expanding. The tips also increased ballistic coefficient, which wasn't great with the hollow-points.
