While looking at the Bell Books last night I find my memory conflated two of his comments into one by saying "He also referenced the bending and also the strange "perfect shot" with the 256 but the elephant not dropping to it problem that eroded his full confidence in it."
The actual quote about perfect shots not working as expected were comparing his beloved 275 and the 318 rifles. Basically he said that he never really figured it out but when switching to the 318 and its 250 grain parallel sided solids, the problem went away. The problem was oblique shots to the brain through the neck. Amazing really that he expected it to always work and that he was surprised when it sometimes did not.
Best regards,
F01