Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Remington Corelokts vs more expensive bullets?

Not meaning to pick on anyone but I hear this reasoning for using premiums all the time. In my opinion this is the strongest sales pitch that is used to sell premiums today. It used to be "because standard cup&core bullets cant handle magnum velocities". Now "its cheap insurance". I have killed and seen lots of game killed from deer, sheep, goats, caribou, elk, and moose. Most of them killed with standards. I've wounded game with standards and premiums. There is no insurance for a bad shot, so I really dont buy into that logic. I agree about using a bullet designed to do what you want and finding one that works in your rifle.

I'd be impressed if there were some proof of that. Of course every gun writer I've ever read says any bullet will deflect.......

I believe that is true. The RN 180's in 30 caliber and the 150's in .270 are anything but fragile but at the same time they expand quickly enough to knock the stuffing out of a coyote. A few years ago an old hunter turned me on to them and I have been using them ever since.

Could you please expond on this? Are you talking about Texas heart shots? I have no experience with those but have seen each and every Cor-Lokt that I have experience with seeing broken shoulders and devestated heart/lung damage. That includes a half a dozen black bears taken out of our 2008 camp. Cor-Lokt's were the stated choice of the outfitter and the results that I saw were impressive and proved why the outfitter advised his hunters to use them. On that hunt I used 180 Speer Mag Tip. I missed the shoulder and hit the bear right behind the shoulder with a high double lung shot. Complete pass thru with one rib broken on entrance and three broken ribs on exit. Not bad results as far as I'm concerned. As I said, deer can be easily taken with great results from cup and core bullets, assuming good shot placement. When it comes to less than ideal shots, I have no experience so I cannot comment. I did have a friend hit a big whitetal right in the hind quarter with an arrow. The deer took a few steps, looked around, started to weave and dropped dead. Severed artery killed the buck. I have also used Nosler Partitions with great success and have great respect for them.

Depends on the bullet. The Federal/Speer Throphy Bonded bullets have most of their weight in the nose. That's why in LEO tests, they stay on course when passing through window glass. The Sierra Matchking, on the other hand, has most of it's weight in the butt. And that's why they deflect easily.
From what I've seen, Nosler Partitions deflect all right, but since they stay together, they have more left to kill with when they get to the target. I've made two such kills. One was a 175 gr. NP that hit the target where aimed already expanded. Blew right through the heart for a rapid kill. The other was a 300 yd. shot with a 140 gr. NP. Deflected off course and missed the shoulder. But did penetrate the near thigh and open up the femoral artery. Buck was bleeding profusely and struggling on three legs when finished with another shot. E

I don't see what role a corelokt would play in my hunting. Sure it would "work", but so much better is out there. If I want to fling a cup and core, it's going to be a high BC bullet that will absolutely bughole out of my rifle.

My wife and I have a safari hunt planned in sept. this year. We will be going to Namibia on a plains game hunt with Kudu, Gemsbuck, Red Hartebeest, wildebeest and several smaller animals on the list. In order to eliminate a lot of hassle and worry, we picked an outfitter that provided guns and ammo. I was concerned that my wife who is rather small framed would not be able to handle the gun choices she would have there but Jan said that he had several calibers with different weight bullets. His reccomendation was his 270 with 150 Rem. Core Loks. If they are good enough for him and the animals he shoots on a regular basis, then I think they are fine for anything here other than maybe bear.

Calm down everyone. Corelokts work fine and are accurate, provided the shooter is up to it and barrel is capable. There's a good reason they've endured this long. Are they a Nosler Partition? Of course not, but you're not paying Partition. For the money they're a terrific value.

Jason

I shot a whitetail at about 30 yards with a 308 w/150 Corelokt behind the shoulder, classic shot. It then went thru the deer then thru the side of an oak tree and kept going. I've shot deer at that distance many times with other bullets with no pass thru. My buddy shot thru a small pine tree in Maine with a 180 corelokt, 06, and dropped a huge whitetail, at 15 yards. Tuff bullet in our limited experience of 42 years, yikes. Naturally your results may vary.

Core-Lokt on the left, NPT on the right. same weight when launched, same cartridge, and same species.

i'll pay the extra $$

Couldn't agree more. Though I have dabbled with premiums Core Lokt's are excellent bullets for their intended use. If I were a subsistence hunter, I'd choose Core Lokt's over any other.

Your picture proved nothing; you qualified nothing. In fact, a bullet resembling the Corelokt may equate to a success more often than not. I have hunted for over 20 years and have had great success with the bullet. Again, it's a great value. Would I shoot a brown bear in the shoulder at 50 yards with one? Of course not. Would I use it for my annual venison supply at reasonable shooting range, with a bullet correctly placed? Of course I would, and most experienced hunters would concur. Nothing substitutes for sound bullet placement and careful stalking within range.

Now go peddle your silly pictures somewhere else.

Jayman...

You're an idiot.

I just got in from the shop cutting a 30 cal 180gr pointed CL and a 30 cal 180 gr round nose CL. The round nose has a thicker jacket. These were pulled from two boxes 30-06.

How did you get that species to hold still long enough to recover that core lokt that failed? That picture doesn't tell the size of the species, where each bullet hit, distance of the shot, etc. etc. etc. Jayman, you are not an idiot. An idiot would take for gospel everything they read and see on an internet forum. You have been found guilty of being a bit doubtful of one picture on the internet. That's it. That's all. That does not make you an idiot.

He never said it failed. He did say which he preferred and I think he was using the picture to show why he prefers what he does.

Geee......

I doubt Toad intended it to be the last word on bullet performance but it certainly illustrates(for those who might not have experience with both bullets)that a CC bullet will sometimes slip core and jacket in tough going(no secret).....and a Nosler Partition will expand back to the partition wall, where expansion will stop.......(also no secret)...

All this may not have any effect on whether the animal dies......but then again, it might....someday....somewhere...on something....

If I were hard pressed and needed factory ammo for a hunt(unlikely),I'd grab factory fodder with CoreLokts and Talley Ho!

And would be twice as happy with a box of Corelokt Ultra's in the same weight.....

I always figured jackets and cores were meant to sorta stay more or less together....otherwise, the makers would have sold them to me in seperate boxes....

But if stuffing hulls for a hunt across the continent,the Corelokt just would not make the short list....like Calvin says,they just don't fit into the game plan.

Toad thanks for your efforts in posting the picture.

I have alot of experience with the CoreLokt 200 gr. in .35Rem and have grown to like that bullet on deer.

We were shooting so many pigs off of farm land years ago, that I got a little lazy about reloading and tried to save me some time, So I bought some Corelokt 165's in 30-06 and 120's in 25-06.

Fragmentation was a problem, especially with the 120's. Piggies ran alot.

Got off my duff and went back to loading Partiions and once again, they quit running as much or as far. We had to remove all these pigs from the fields and alot of this was done at night, so taking time to find a runner sucked and you would have to move to another location after tracking him and dragging the pig out.

I'm sure the corelockt would have worked fine on deer, just never used them for that.

JM

From what I've seen with core lokt's the heavy for caliber ones work very well.

The round nose works really well.