Pt's a ritual of sorts. Whether you get into hunting camp by plane, boat or truck, after finding out where to stow your gear, your guide or professional hunter gets you to unpack your rifle and whisks you off to the range in the fading hours of that first day to check the zero of your rifle. Be wary of any outfitter that doesn't, because, odds are, he isn't worth his salt. Verifying that your rifle still shoots where you want it to after being subjected to the tender mercies of the average airline baggage handler or a change in elevation or temperature is just plain common-sense. But it's also an interview.

Whether you know it or not, while making casual, friendly conversation, your guide is trying to find out about you and your equipment. It's his job. There are three things he needs to know before going afield: First, whether your rifle has the mechanical accuracy needed to take game at the ranges you'll likely encounter. Second, how well you can shoot it, as that will determine how long a shot he feels comfortable letting you take. (I once inadvertently overheard a guide refer to a nice hunter, but hopeless marksman, in camp with me as a "25 yarder.") And third – and the reason for this article – whether the bullet you've selected is up to the job.

Your answer to that last question is a key part of the interview. On an elk trip to Idaho, I noticed a slight, almost imperceptible, frown crease my guide's face as the .30-'06 Winchester Model 70 came out of the case. He didn't say a word about the chambering (many consider the .30-'06 "light" for elk) but immediately asked, "What bullet are you using?"

"These 180-gr. Winchester Fail Safe's shoot into just under an inch-and-half at 100 yards, and I set my zero for 150," I replied as I racked in the first round. The almost-frown disappeared as the first shot impacted right where I said it would on the stapled-up paper plate 125 yards away. "That's a good bullet," he said. I had passed the test.

"Good bullet" is as high a praise as a guide or professional hunter can bestow on a design. And it's not just whether it's a good bullet overall, but it has to be a good bullet for the specific type of game you're hunting.

When a guide says "good bullet," he usually means a premium one. One that's accurate and tough, the latter meaning better terminal performance than a bullet of standard construction. Not that other bullets are bad-they're not-it's just that hunting professionals see first-hand the advantages of premium, deep-penetrating bullets, day-in and day-out. The bullets that usually make guides extra happy are in the class of the Barnes-X, Nosler Partition, Swift A-Frame, Trophy Bonded Bearclaw and Winchester Fail Safe. They are designed to have controlled expansion and to hold together for the deep penetration you sometimes need when you take a less-than-optimum shot. You may never need that extra margin, but it's nice to have it.

So if Winchester's Fail Safe is part of the "good bullet" group, why on Earth would Winchester look to add another design-the XP3-to its line? The answer lies in recent technological advances in bullets.

The Fail Safe is more than a decade old. In its day, it was on the cutting edge of bullet design – and it's still very, very good. But it's also expensive to produce – with more than 30 different steps required in its manufacture – and it uses a steel insert for a mechanical lock to control expansion. The insert above the core was added to prevent the core from blowing forward through the jacket material under impact. Bonding, whether by heat or chemical processes-produces similar controlled expansion. The XP3 combines elements of the Fail Safe and two bullets that are a product of Winchester's Combined Technology relationship with Nosler Bullets-the Ballistic Silvertip and the AccuBond – even though the XP3 was designed in-house by Winchester's engineers.

On the accuracy side, it has a boattail and a translucent red polymer tip. These give the bullet a higher ballistic coefficient than a standard bullet with a flat heel, and thus greater potential accuracy and in-flight ballistic performance. The tip provides a 15-percent higher BC than one without it. In shooting groups of 180-gr. XP3 Supreme Elites vs. 180-gr. Supreme Fail Safes at 100 yards out of the same .300 WSM New Ultra Light Arms Model 20, I found the XP3 averaged 0.91 inches vs. 1.31 inches for the Fail Safes for five consecutive five-shot groups fired off of sandbags. Now granted, this was one rifle, on one day, with only a few boxes of ammunition and is no way a definitive test. But it does provide a glimpse of the bullet's potential performance. Also, the copper jacket is coated with Lubalox, a black-oxide finish intended to reduce barrel friction.

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