Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 338 WM /230 gr Fail Safe ??

I picked up a couple boxes of Win Fail Sake at local show a few yr ago. You know didn’t really need them but they were cheap. Anyone want to comment on this round in their hunting experience? Thanks

I have actually never used one on game, I have had two 338 wm and neither would group them good enough to go hunting with.

A good friend has taken a few CO elk with them and swears by them, so much so that he stocked up on them for hunting into the future..

I shot my first bear with that round and fail safe load back in 1997.

It worked just fine but I sold the rifle not long afterwards and didn't shoot anything else with it. Take that for what it is worth.

They make an impression on deer and elk. Picks deer up and slams them down, elk fall over.

If you can place your shot I doubt you will be
disappointed , I know I wasn't...I didn't recover
any 230FS even at 400 yds , just sailed through.

That said I recall one guide at SCI saying FS
were "too hard" in his experience , yet other
users lamented when Win. dropped them.

Should work great. I have used federal fusions on elk with no problems so the fail safes would be a step up. As long as they are accurate in your rifle I would not hesitate to use them.

Back when I was using them they always performed great. Rarely recovered one but the few I did all looked just like pictures. I’ve used many different bullets but none have done any better than these. IMO, they perform much like a Barnes TTSX.

Not much different than a Barnes TSX if your rifle shoots them well. Not many issues with any 200+ grain .338 WM on game, sort of like a 225 gr TBBC in a .35 Whelen. 😎

The biggest animal I took with the 230 .338 Fail Safe was a big Alaskan moose, quartering almost directly toward me at around 100 yards, with a .338 Winchester handload that got 2800+ fps at the muzzle.. The bull was standing on top of the 12-15 bank of a medium-sized river. Put the bullet just inside the left shoulder, and the bull stood up on its hind legs, then rolled down the bank --then got up and staggered into the river, whereupon my guide shouted, "Don't shoot it in the water!"

The bull flopped around for a few seconds and died in the deepest part of the pool, with only the top few inches of one antler above the water. I waded in and got a rope around the antler, and the guide used his jet-boat to tow the bull down to the shallows below the pool, where we spent the next five hours taking it apart, amongst clouds of mosquitoes. Found the bullet against the right side of the pelvis, missing one petal. The folks at Winchester said it was the first recovered 230 .338.

The bullet's performance was great, but moose often don't die quickly, even when the inside of their chest is wrecked--which was the case in that instance. I didn't find any fault in the bullet's performance, but anytime I read or hear that such-and-such bullet always "slams down" any kind of big game know whoever makes that statement either doesn't have much experience, or is FOS. In watching hundreds of big game animals die the ONLY times I've seen animals consistently "slammed down" is when the bullet breaks something in the central nervous system.

Truer words were never spoken.

Shoot at paper or throw in the garbage can where it belongs.

^^^Stupid comment.^^^

Your biggest problem, if your rifle likes them, is where will you get more?

I used this load in my 338WM. Three shots groups were in the 0.9" range.

Two bull moose and one bull elk. One moose was tracked 8KM before getting a chance at it. It soaked up the first broadside 80yd shot and turned away from me. I shot again and that shot broke the onside hip and ranged forward to be found in the opposite shoulder under the hide.

Very good bullet, but not very aerodynamic.

TTSX allows me to live with out it.

Right. Very stupid. They are so popular you can buy them on every corner. I’m sure it’s because they are so awesome. Been there, got the shirt. They belong in the garbage can where Winchester placed them many years ago.

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.

The first six Winchester Fail Safe factory rounds I put through my pre-64 Model 70 went into one ragged hole. No one could believe it was so tight. I have the target around here somewhere.
Why six? I figured the first three could be an anomaly, so I tried another and another and another. After six I figured why screw up a good thing in case I made a mistake, so I quit and called it good. As my friend observed at the time, "I think you've found your load."

That is the one Partition I will never use on game again. Well, maybe caribou. I've got a couple dozen for reloading that came with the rifle - I need to get rid of them.

Almost certainly a wildly atypical performance, but once burned......

I shot a 4 or 5 year old bull moose, broadside, at about 100 yards the first time I ever used it. Accuracy was acceptable, but not as good as with several other loads. The factory round blew up on the shoulder blade, completely shattering the bone, and sending bb's of bone and metal into the near side lung. Nothing penetrated to the far side lung. I never found the rear portion of the bullet- I believe it ricocheted back out the extensive entry wound. When I was 10 feet away, the bull lurched back to his feet. A second round pretty much up his nose finished it, aside from a bit of adrenaline shakes. I'm done with it!

I'll stick with 225 - 250 grain bullet weights. C&C do just fine, also. I've also gone to approaching from the side or back, insurance shots from a few yards out, and if I can get it, cns placement. I'm old - I don't need the excitement.

Another very tough (and accurate) bullet in my .338WM is the Trophy Bonded. The factory loaded 250 grain bullet at 140 yards just creased the front of the ham, quartering away, and exited the far side shoulder blade after passing through the paunch. Ick! Not a large exit wound either.

Shot 2 bulls with the fail safe ammo from a 338. Worked really well. Shot one going away in the left cheek. Found bullet in the heart. Pretty impressive really.

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.

I had a 270 grain .375" FailSafe also not exit on an average whitetail, as well as 260 partitions in both elk and a wolf.

I have no idea where I am going with this, but they all suck.

Corelok for the win!

The 300 grain .375 worked well on a Bison recently. Three steps and down. Put a finisher through the fore leg and heart but not needed. The Heart was almost cut in half.