Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rem Corelokt for big game?

Specifically the 180gn in .308 (either RN or PSP) for animals of say 600lbs to upwards of 1500lbs (vermin control on donkeys, camels, maybe even feral bulls)?

Ranges from 50 to 200 yards.

Or should I be looking at other bullets in that calibre and weight such as the Nosler Partition or Barnes MRX available from Federal?

(Factory ammo only, I can get my choice supplied, plus I don't reload)

Thanks.

I love corelokts.
Used in my 06, (180 gr)I have taken moose, caribou, elk and sheep.
In my 270 (150 grain), I've taken elk,sheep,deer and black and grizzly bears.

Green and yellow box ammo is probably the single most common and ordinary ammo in rural villages in Alaska where people keep guns on their porches and carry them on a very regular basis. The Core-lokt ammo they are loaded with does work. Are there better bullets? Sure, but "good enough" is hard to improve upon until you get into those unusual "what-ifs". As for SP or RN, I suspect if you stick with the less popular RN stuff, you'll be surprised at how "premium" they work considering what they are, and they'll be fine at the distances you suggest.

I'm with Klik, I believe you will be fine. If I read correctly, you will be shooting a .308 WCF? I'd say all three of the animals you mention are in serious trouble.

They have been working for close to 100years and will continue to work.Probbaly not the best bullet to pick i nthe +3000 fps velocity range though

I believe the round nose, if still available, is the original Corelockt configuration where the spire point is the new version with a thinner jacket with less of the multiple tapers of the original. Haven't sectioned any recently so this is conjecture only.

I would go for the round nose especially for range bulls if limited to Remington.

Thank you for the replies gentlemen.

Klikitarik and Tejano, you both mention using the RN in preference to the SP at these ranges, what is the advantage in this? Obviously the better BC of the SP is not a factor under 200 yards.

CrimsonTide, yes I will be using the 308 Win as that is the easiest calibre to get ammo for up here.

The round nose has a thicker jacket with the old compound taper.

Slightly thicker at the nose then thin for about a third of of the length and thick about halfway forming a sort of belt then thinning to the heal to help hold in the jacket. This forms the "inner belt" taken from the old Peterson belted bullets. Had a collection of recovered Corelokts (since lost) and all looked like they were right out of an advertisement.

These were some of the earliest commercial controlled expansion bullets and are quite good within their respective weight and game class limitations.

Like a number of good designs in an effort to reduce production costs the tapers and thickness of the jacket were reduced so the current spire points are more like conventional cup and core bullets. Good just not as good as the original.

Scrub bulls will be pushing the limits of any 308-180 grain bullet so any advantage should be utilized. (Haven't shot any but been around enough excited cattle not to underestimate them). I would be happier with a Barnes TSX or Woodleigh for that use, and much more comfortable with a 375. The Corelokt in either configuration will work well for the rest.

Corelok's work!

Corelocks are good bullets, especially if used at sane velocities. They were the best of the factory loads for decades. My father and grandfather used them on whitetail, mulies, black bear, moose and elk without a quarrel. They are not the pill for a .257 Roy, but in your .308 they will do the job. No worries.

Actually, the Core-Lokt never did have a jacket that was thicker in the middle of the bullet than at the rear. This is what Remington implied in its advertising, but apparently bullet-making tachnology wasn't quite up to that job until Federal introduced the short-lived Deep-Shok bullets in 1999.

Instead the Core-Lokt's jacket simply had heavier "sidewalls" than some other cup-and-core bullets, the cannelure being the only real method of semi-locking the core in place. The heavy jacket was the main feature.

All Core-Lokts used to have the heavy sidewalls, but the pointed soft-point CL was changed in rhe late 1980's to a thinner jacket to facilitate manufacture. As a matter of fact some of the "Core-Lokts" loaded in Remington ammo were for a time actually Hornady Interlocks. I don't know if that is still the case.

I also don't know if the round-nose Core-Lokt still has the heavy jacket. I last sectioned some about 3-4 years ago and they did then, but you never know when things might change. Remington never did make any sort of announcement about the change in the PSP Core-Lokt jackets, they just appeared. I might have to go buy a new box of .30-06 RN Core-Lokt ammo and pull and section one just to see.

I got some 170 grain RNCL's a couple years ago and they still had the thicker jacket from the cannelure to the base and they worked very well in my 308 and 30-06 pushed as fast as 2500 fps. The pointed versions, at least the 150 and 165 grain weights in 30 caliber are pretty soft and will over expand. If I thought I might need a 180 grain bullet I generally used the Speer Hotcor or the Partition so I don't know how tough the 180 gr. PSPCL is.

What is "sane" velocity? Where doess "insane" velocity start?

Better terminal performance and the RN form tends to shoot accurately due to the long bearing surface.

Stupid question. Let it be known that the unarmed, self-annointed know-it-all jwpwhatever doesn't know the difference between insane and sane. Figures.

Why don't you enlighten me or can you?

I like heavy-for-caliber RN mostly because they tend to open quickly and retain a nice big mushroom. Rem RNCL open at very low velocity, even compared to other soft points, and I like that. But that's just me.

Still waiting for you to enlighten me as to where velocity is sane, and where it becomes insane. What/where is the deciding factor

Thanks DigitalDan!

I should know this being in Australia, but does anyone know if Woodleigh bullets are currently loaded in any factory ammo? I thought Federal did, but there is no mention of them on the Federal website that I can find.

Federal Loaded the Woodleigh's for a while. I don't think Federal loads them at this time