300wsm

[Jack]

I'm quite curious about Fail Safe bullets 'failure to expand'.
Are people recovering fired Fail Safes from game that didn't expand? Or, are they looking at exit holes that are not large and saying the bullet didn't expand?
I have seen people remark that a bullet 'didn't expand' when the exit hole was not large- and when you open up the deer and start finding out what happened inside the animal, you find massive damage- the bullet having done its work inside the animal, like the bullet is supposed to.
Exit holes don't tell you much, and often what they tell you is misleading. Only tracking the bullet thru the animal will tell you what happened. And recovering the fired bullet.
I do suspect that a 180 30 caliber Fail Safe is too stiff a bullet for deer-I believe the Fail Safe is intended as a an elk/large game bullet.
For deer and similar sized game, a bullet in the 150/165 weight, and more conventional construction would be a better choice.
I'm not so sure the Fail-Safe 'failed to expand'. Maybe the shooter 'failed to use the right bullet?'