I’m .338 there is one and only one damn bullet ever needed for any North American game. Get yourself some 210 gr Partition. Go forth and slay everything.
You missed my post where I cited a 210 Partition that didn't exit an average-sized whitetail buck. Its a good bullet, but not one I'd choose "for any North American big game."
The reason the Fail Safe was very popular for a while was the fact that it did the same things as the early Barnes X's when it hit big game--but shot more accurately. I know this due to using Fail Safes on a wide variety of big game, from deer to Cape buffalo, in a bunch or rifles for at least a dozen years before the TSX appeared. The Fail safes included the .270 140, 7mm 160, .30 180, .338 230 and .375 .300. ALL grouped into an inch or less at 100 yards--back when Barnes X accuracy was a real gamble.
But in the late 1990s Barnes solved most of the accuracy problems, and a few years later all of them with the TSX. Which cost a lot less than the Fail Safe.
But that's the only reason the Fail Safe disappeared. It wasn't a "piece of garbage." Instead it was one of the best bullets of its era--but like some other really good bullets it disappeared because technology always marches onward.
