Has anyone had any experience with Winchester Fail Safe in a .375 H & H?

The gunsmith who is building my rifle is recommending them, but I was thinking of going with Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. I have shot Fail Safes in a .270 wsm and was not impressed with their accuracy.

Are you building a target rifle or a hunting rifle?

Gilt-edged accuracy in a hunting rifle of .375" bore and up is nice to have, but not critical. It is far important that it feed reliably and place its first bullet where the you're aiming.

I use Swift A-Frames in my .375H&H, and it shoots very well, but even 2" groups at 100yds. would be good enough for say, a Cape buffalo hunt.

George

I get very good accuracy with them in my Winchester M-70 375 H&H. A couple of years ago I used that bullet to make a one shot kill on a cape buffalo in Mozambique. The shot was about 70 yards through the top of the heart and the bull ran about 40 yards. The same trip I killed a huge hippo with a brain shot. It is a very good bullet in the 375.

Perry

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:
Has anyone had any experience with Winchester Fail Safe in a .375 H & H?

The gunsmith who is building my rifle is recommending them, but I was thinking of going with Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. I have shot Fail Safes in a .270 wsm and was not impressed with their accuracy.

The Faisafe is a great hunting bullet. If you don't like them but still want Failsafe peformance then try the TXS near identical performance and great accuracy in every rifle that I have shot them in

In my Rem 700 375 H&H, the Federal w/ 260 AccuBond shot under one inch and performed great in Namibia on 13 animals. The Winchester with FS shot about 1.5". I did take 270 Fail-Safes to try on eland, but never got the opportunity on one I wanted. Left them at the ranch for the PH's, but have never heard if they used any. Now I would lean towards the TSX from all the glowing reports I've read.

Thanks for the input guys. My experience with Fail Safes in my .270 wsm is similar to that of Blank's in his .375, but, as George pointed out, this is a hunting rifle and not a target rifle. I'm going to give them a try and will let you know the results.

My .375 is supposed to be ready this Friday, but, due to a hectic schedule over the next few weeks, I don't think I will get to try it out until September 10th.

Well I tried the 270gr FS in my Sako Safari and I was utterly disappointed, all over the place.
Tried different powder, different COL, my best group was approx. 10†then I gave up and threw the rest of the bullet in the bin.
I use Hornady bullets 225gr (practise) 300gr RN (Moose & deer) , Barnes X 250gr and 300gr (African game) and non of the loads I have tried have produces groups larger than 1,5â€

Fail Safe is an over engineered piece of crap, use a different bullet.

I would worry more about bullet performance than gilt edged accuracy over the distances you are looking at.

The would not shoot well in my two .375 H&Hs. About twice the group size of the Nosler Partition and Swift A-Frame.

The Trophy Bonded Bear Claw was similar to the FailSafe, but the TB Sledgehammer solid shot like the NP and A-Frame.

As usual YMMV.

I would like to try the 270 grain FailSafe.

jim

Hello Lhook7

I used Winchester 270gr FailSafe's in my Winchester M70 Stainless to kill 2 moose up to now. My rifle was stock at the time without a scope. I used the factory open sights on both moose. I shot the first moose a little high at around 80 yards. The bullet broke his back in half. I immediately shot another shot in the vitals and that was the end of it. The second moose was shot in the heart on a broadside shot at 60 yards. He walked maybe 5 feet and layed down.

I will be using some factory loaded Federal Partitions this year. I can't comment about the accuracy of the failsafe's since I was shooting open sights but it did the trick for me.

Best of luck

Enigma

Thanks again guys. I'll try both the 270 and 300 grain bullets and let you all know about the performance at the range.

I've had extensive experience with the 300 grain bullets in my .375 Whitworth. Good accuracy and excellent performance on several dozen head of game from buffalo to grysbok.

During two trips to Africa (Namibia), my partners and I each shot .375's. First trip we used 300 grain Nosler Partitions and shot about 15 critters between us. Second trip 300-grain Winchester F-S's were used and about 20 critters were taken. The Winchester Fail Safes performed better (more drop-in-their-tracks kills).

I've since gone on to shoot another 15+ critters with the Fail-Safes. My non-scientific observation is the Fail Safe bullets don't shed their front end as completely as the Noslers thus retaining more weight. IMHO, Nosler Partitions are fine on stuff under 500 pounds, but Winchester Fail Safes are an improvement and it becomes relevant on the bigger stuff.

I used the 270 grain factory rounds when I was in Namibia, they failed miserably and almost got me killed with a lion. The pedals would break off and some went straight through without opening....Do yourself a favor and find another bullet.

Winchester's 270 gr. factory load shoots really well out of my 375 H&H, and I've killed black bear with that load, as well as grizzly.

The grizzly episode was something else. We stalked this bear for over a mile, then called him in with an elk calf call. He came in fast, but because of a slight depression we were in, I couldn't shoot until he was right on top of us, at point-blank range. But when he showed some chest, I shot him right under the chin, and instantly worked the bolt for a reload. The bear nearly collapsed at the shot, but then he quickly turned around, so I gave him another one up the tail-pipe, which finished him.

Both bullets went clear through, penetrating end-to-end and exiting, and I found only a single pedal from one of the bullets along his spine. This was a very big and ancient silvertip mountain grizzly, and once again, I came away totally impressed with the ability of the Fail-Safe to get inside, expand, raise heck with the clockwork, and keep on going.

I wasn't suprised at this performance at all, because I'd used 180 gr. Fail-Safe 300 Win. Mag. ammo before on a great many animals prior to that grizzly hunt, especially in Africa, including everthing from Kirk's dik dik to Patterson's eland, plus (in a pinch) a brace of Cape buffalo, lion, and leopard. Nearly everything, including the buffalo and lion, dropped right away, and out of over sixty animals killed with these bullets, I've only recovered three, and two of those came out of the spines of those buffalo. After watching me use them for an entire safari, PH Mark Sullivan, who is EXTREMELY astute when it come to rifles and bullets, called them "expanding solids", which desribes them perfectly.

If your rifle will shoot Fail-Safes, there's no reason to go with anything else, especially if you want a load that'll do it all, including break bone, penetrate from any angle, and keep on going. They even work just fine on straight lung shots.

Ross Seyfried stated that he feels the Fail-Safe is the best all-around bullet available for the 375 H&H, and I surely wouldn't argue with him on that point.

In all honesty, the 270 gr. Fail-Safe load penetrates as well or better than most conventional 300 gr. loads, and I'd only choose the 300 gr. Fail-Safe load if you intend to hunt buffalo as well as plainsgame with the same rifle and ammo on the same safari...........

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