Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game The old TBBC bullet $ saved

Fellow shooters the newer Premier Core-Lokt Ultra Bonded Bullet(listed as a component) On Remingtons site,Sure appears to be the old TBBC bullet.
Have you compared them? Any opinion?
I got about 30 inches of penetration on a muley this last season out of mt 264 with the Premier. Front quartering shot that should have drt.
Buy a box and look close. Compare if you have some older TBBC bullets. I think it is the same bullet at one fourth the price.
You can't get 200 gr like my son loves in 300 win Mag biggest is 180 in 30 caliber. He has been shooting them in factory Federals for years. The economy has convinced him to let me load some 180s for this years elk hunt.
And for all you guys that gave me such a fit about him having to leave it out there all night and a bear ate most of it. There will be 5 of us to get it out. Remember two years ago the s--t it stired up. Wow some people don't know when to give it a rest.

I believe Speer bought the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw line of bullets, and I think ATK owns Speer and Remington. Could be wrong, as some of this ownership stuff shifts around fast enough to confuse a Philadelphia lawyer. Which I ain't .

It would not surprise me if the new Corelokt UltraBonded bullet was the same or similar to the TBBC and supplied to Remington by Speer.

Were it so, and were I the Remington marketeer -- you can bet I'd be bragging it up, though. Could sell some boxes of ammo with that label, I'm thinking.

Dennis

I bought 4 boxes for my sons 300winnie. I will load partitions for my 300WBY. More faith in it, in case that big mulie doesn't offer the favorite pose for a DRT.
They , the company may want to sell less at the higher price. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Da shadow do!

Just another bonded core bullet, not unlike the Norma Oryx.

Haven't shot an Oryx or one of the Remington's Ultras that didn't shoot well. Have yet to recover one from a critter but have only killed a few with them.

I'm thinking the may be a bit different. Didn't the TBBC have a solid shank?

Cut one in half and let us know...

Jimbob,

The photos I have seen of the two bullets show the Bear Claws with a copper shank, at least one-third of the bullet, while the Core-lokt Ultra is a tapered-jacket, bonded design without that copper shank.

I have used the Norma Oryx in Africa in the .308"/180 gr persuasion, and I expect that the Remington bullet will perform well, especially on a big mule deer or elk.

I think the way the business deal went was ATK bought the Bear Claw design and assigned it to their Speer business unit, where the folks redesigned it to improve manufacturability (alloy jacket vice pure copper and different lead specs in the core). SAme idea as the original TBBC, just not the same as the original. I don't know of any current bullet built like that one.

jim

I saw a story in AH or AR that the Bonded CL wasn't very accurate but held together well for deep penetration.

Here is what the TBBC bullet looks like, shamelessly lifted from the Speer website...



Now if someone would section a Bonded Core-Lokt we would know... . Though from my cruising the 'Net I have become convinced that the Remington Ultra Bonded Core-Lokt bullet is not the same bullet as Speer's TBBC. The RUBCL seems to be a good bullet, and the late Ian McMurchy's 2007 AR article showed outstanding accuracy with it. But it is not a TBBC, which is one of the great bullets out there.

FWIW...

Dennis

Definitely not the same bullet. I used the TBBC for years on stuff that didn't need a controlled expansion bullet. I was a kid who did not know any better. :p

The CL-Ultra definitely hits with a lot more 'whack' than the TBBC. Which is exactly what you'd expect from a simple bonded bullet when compared to a true controlled expansion bullet. Like the pic above shows the Bear Claw has a solid shank whereas the CLU is a tapered core.

I get the swat factor of a cup and core and more penetration than I need on deer and bear. It is a fine bullet. But it isn't the kind of bullet designed to shoot lengthwise thru a moose with a .243... that's just not what it was intended to do. But for what 'I' do it has turned out to be the perfect blend of hard hitting but not throwing away bullet integrity. My brother and I have switched entirely to the Ultra. It is all we hunt with now.

Hope this helps.
Will

i used the 140gr cl ultra to kill 8 or 9 doe deer a couple years back. i had read about the bullet so bought a box and decided to use them exclusively that particular year. it was very accurate in my 270 win. never found a bullet and all deer died but since i shoot behind the shoulder, most ran 30-50 yards before they expired. no real complaints with the bullet but have gone back to 130gr partitions for that particular rifle. my son in law in montana used 165gr tbbc exclusively in his 30-06 and never has a problem with either deer or elk. great bullet those!

Google images was kind enough to find this image from one of the online gun "rags", and you can clearly see the difference between this bullet and the TBBC above.

Now the current TBBC is not the same bullet, as the jacket and core material specifications have been "improved" from Jack Carters' original design as shown in the image.

jim

Cool...thanks. I couldn't find that image when I went searching. The TBBC image I showed is the current, Speer-made bullet -- just to be clear. I lifted it from the Speer website.

Dennis

it seems the ultra cl and the federal fusion have a lot in common.

You guys do know that Speer is no longer offering the Trophy Bonded as a component, right?

I wrote them and they confirmed it. Federal will continue to use some in their premium ammo, but as a handloader you're SOL.

I got very good accuracy out of the rclbonded out of my 264 win mag m 700 with 61 gr 4831sc 140 gr bullet less than moa. It just held together too well for what I am accustomed to. The old Hornady 140 performed better on deer. Probably better on elk. Next time on deer I will aim for bone(SHOULDER)or double lung.

My 30 cal and 264 cal RUBCL bullets do not have the cannelure as the googled picture. Wish I had a working belt sander or band saw that I could use to cut the bullet to see for myself.
When I worked in a lab at a steel mill years ago I would often disect a bullet just to give me an idea what jacket thickness it had. About the only way back then for me to try to predict what performance it provided. Amazing how different the thickness was between different manufacturers. I could check the hardness of the lead and jacket both. It often made my choice in bullets. Accuracy was the proof of the quality. The old lathe/hand turned Nosler was so well built it was hard to believe they were not higher priced than they were. Still can't go wrong with it. Got to love the instant expansion and the weight retention to keep on digging.

Got a flat file?

Which really bites because I'd have liked to tried out the new tipped ones....

Closest bullet in cross section, and possibly performance IMHO is North Fork.

http://www.northforkbullets.com/magento/faq/