Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Why so much hate for Corelokts?

I don't reload and have no interest in doing so. That being said, all my rifles run Corelokts. Why all the hate?

Have never lost a deer, using them. Most were DRT.
Ruger 77 in .270 (i know it's way too gay)
Model 7 in 7mm08 (youth model now on it's second youth)
Model 700 in 7mm mag.

Flame suit on!!


Clyde

I've never seen the need to worry about a "premium" bullet when hunting whitetails. I've killed them with some premiums and a lot more Corelokt bullets. The whitetails never seemed to appreciate the differences in bullet construction when hit in the boiler room. With that said, I wouldn't go chase elk with Corelokts.

Fine for whitetails sized stuff and smaller critters. I've shot 2 elk with them and they came apart, 7-08. Thought the 1st was a fluke but not. Barnes TXS now for all.

I never had any trouble killing deer with Core Lokts. For that matter I've killed bear and Moose with them too.

No hate here....

No hate here either...didn't know they made another bullet until I was 25.

I called in a 56" bull moose and shot it square in the chest at about 30 yds. He turned to run and hit I him in the lungs and he fell over. I was shooting a 7mm mag and 175gr factory core-lokts.

Makes it easier to justify reloading. Just like hating Tikka's, 270's, etc....

A Tikka in 270 shooting Corlokts will cause blindness....

who hates em?

It's fashionable on the internet. In reality with most C&C bullets they are designed to work best at speeds up to probably 2800fps or so unless its designed for a 30-30 etc. For most non magnum rounds that shoot bullets of 120 to 200 gr bullets that covers most of their effective range. I'm willing to bet most of the blowups are out of magnum rounds shooting fairly light for caliber bullets at high speed and at relatively short ranges if you got the whole story.

I have had one C&C bullet blowup in 40 yrs of hunting. It was a early nosler ballistic tip 150 gr 30 cal shot out of my 30-06 loaded hot. A deer showed it self at probably 30 yds and boom a ugly saucer sized hole on his shoulder and a lot of blood shot meat into his chest cavity. Nothing by bits and pieces of bullet found.

The CL is one of my main hunting bullets as I would buy them bulk and reload them. Never had anything but fine performance with them.

Corlokts are one of the best deer bullets to grace a factory load

The next time a Corelokt fails for me in any way at all, will be the first time.

Have used them in a 308, 35 Remington, a 7-08 and a 243 and they all killed stuff quickly. They were also accurate.

All of us rifle loonys would like to make life a lot more complicated, and so the Corelokt seems old timey. Well it is, but it is also one helluva hunting bullet.

Steve

Never knew there was a trend for hate toward Remington Core-Lokt. I seem to recall reading some statistic not too long ago which estimated that more North American game animals had been hunted and killed using Remington Core-Lokts than by all other factory loads combined. Unless they threw the baby out with the bath water, and the current 30-06 180 Core-Lokt is in name only, I'd think it still would put a hole through most any North American game animal. If meat did not make it to the freezer, I doubt it would be the fault of Remington Core-Lokt.

I basically replicate them with most of my handloads.

Remington can't spell them "corelocked" because they'd be expected to act that way.

They don't cost enough for people who hunt with $1000+ rifles and $500+ scopes, and want to brag about it.

I just got home from a 10 day PG hunt in the Eastern Cape of RSA Wednesday

There was a cop from Georgia hunting with a .308 running factory Remington 150 CL's

After 3 lost $1200 animals he borrowed a rifle shooting NAB's and started killing

Animals are built a bit different over there though

The only reason I started buying Hornady bullets is they're cheaper. I still load CoreLokts in my 7-08 & 243.

Dozens of deer and aoudad have fallen to my son't 7-08 and 140 CL's. No problems.

I've seen 3 not make it past the shoulder, that's enough for me.

Besides, bullets is the least expensive part of hunting, and the most important part once the trigger is pulled.

Got to agree with Jimdcg,"didn't know there was another bullet til I was 25" bout sums it up. Silvertips in my lever and corelokts in everything else did just fine for most of my hunting life. Til I got "enlightened" I guess. Still got a few green boxes around here somewhere...

My guess would be that if he'd shot 180gr bullet's he'd have been a lot better off.

because its cool to buy them fancy silver shells with the black bullets.

I'll pass

Dirty brass handloads with a top quality bullet every time for me

I've probably literally killed truckloads of feral hogs with them out of my .243, .708, and .308. And nearly as many Whitetails. Never lost an animal with a Corelocts and most have been DRT. If I buy factory ammo, I always try to buy Corelocks as they are very accurate in all my hunting rifles.

Hell, in my old ugly ass Ruger Scout in .308, they will shoot 5 bullets into one ragged hole at 100 yards with both the 150 gr and 180 grain. Shoots em like a friggin $3K Bench Rest Rifle.

Made by Remington and they come apart.

They are simply the worst bullet I have run over the Juenke machine. Out of 1,500 bullets in the last batch I ran for a friend there was not a single bullet as good as the average SMK. My little bit of testing shows that extremes on the Juenke match real world accuracy pretty well.

Atop that they do terrible things if they hit meat. Loss due to bloodshot is seriously excessive.

As several have noted they do not penetrate well at all.

No deer will refuse to die hit in the right spot with almost anything, but the CoreLokt is about as far down as you can go in selecting bullets. For anything tougher than deer I consider them a mistake...

Quite a few bear in AK have fallen to the Remington Express 270 grain 375 H&H. The 30-06 version has accounted for quite a number in its own right. You could probably shoot a deer near lengthwise with the H&H version and eat up to the bullet hole. Don't think pushing a Core-Lokt like a Barnes, using smaller chamberings, with light end bullets, shooting high velocities, on large African sized game and such is a good recipe. But standard chamberings, standard velocities, and good bullet weights, you could cleanly kill just about anything you'd need to hunt in NA with a well placed shot using a factory loaded Core-Lokt bullet.

Most guys are probably shooting more deer than elk, moose, or large bear. Most should probably be shooting several hundred rounds or more through their hunting rifle, each and every year, to vet the darn thing and to stay in good practice. So for many, a case or two of factory Core-Lokts each and every year at nearly half the cost of a high-end premium makes much sense. If it is accurate, keeps game in the freezer, and is much less trouble and no more expensive than reloading, why not. Probably why most stats I've seen show the stuff highly popular in sales. And even for something the size of elk, I thought one of the RMEF polls taken sometime this decade from elk hunters, showed a 180 grain Core-Lokt out of a 30-06 as being the most popular combination, so it must work for some.

That could be, but most don't think of the .308 as having enough hp to stress a 150 grain C&C bullet. With a .300 WM/.300 RUM, sure. A .308? Not so much.

Just my $.02. For the record, I've never had a CoreLokt fail on game.

FC

With Core-Lokts if you go heavy for caliber they penetrate like crazy.

Don't have any here, kilt a lot chit' with one shot....

Hate? No hate here. It's a good honest hard working hunting bullet.

Like the good ole 06, it's boring as heck and thoroughly UNloony!

7-08 and 140 CL. I guess he just happened to get the penetrating CL's last November.

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They are likely a good bullet if it's a mile before a critter can get into any sort of timber.

Like this?

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Damn! That timber is at least a foot higher than a deer. Lots of rain too I'll bet.

Another kid and a non penetrating 7-08 140 CL:

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Yet another 7-08/140 CL

[img:left][/img]

How far can you see into it? We had about 8" of rain that year.

I have shot a number of deer,bear & moose with corlocs.
I found them to be very accurate & not a single failure.
I do however tend to run heavier bullets per caliber, & no magnums.
It has been a sorry day now that I can't find any more bulk packs of corelocs!
On the other hand Horn SP flat base have proven to be a very good alternative.

No doubt, rough country. The power lines prove that.

Who said rough? You said "miles from timber" which is BS. When you kill one as big as these 12 yr old kids did send me a pic.

One 180gr Core-Lokt (.30-06), DRT at 200+ yards. (the M94 was for "just in case")



One 140gr Core-Lokt (.260Rem - bad cellphone pic), DRT.



Of course, they ain't deer.

I have had Hornady, speer and sierra bullets fail on various types of game but never a corelokt. That being said I handload more Nosler bullets than any other kind. Honestly, in the last couple of years, I have used what I can find or backorder.

Those are only there so the illegals have something to follow.



Travis

A buddy of mine runs 180gr corelokts in his 30-06, he does not reload either, he has not lost an Elk with that bullet.

ive used them for elk in the old 30-40.my grandfather killed ALOT of elk wth them in the 30-40,you just gotta hit them in the right place.problem s folks dont want to have to work to get a good shot anymore so they take shots the corlokt wasnt designed to do like a flank shot.corelokts work great if you know how to pick your shots.

In our family, over 20 elk and dozens of deer have fallen from core-locks. Shot out of a 30-30 or a 300 win mag and calibers in between.

No failures, just meat in the freezer...

I reload, not with core-locks, but I do have a box of them as back-ups.

Before I started reloading, 43 years ago I bought a bunch of cheap Remington Corelokts to get some brass but during this phase I killed plenty of deer and a few big feral hogs using the 150 gr. 30-30 load and the 100 gr. in a 6MM Remington. When I started making my own rounds I was hoping to match the performance of these factory rounds. I have bought thousands of bulk corelokts to shoot for practice and still use the 165gr. in my 308 for some hunting. This said bullets like the Nosler Partition are worth the extra cost if you are pushing them faster than 2800 fps and Elk are your target. Failures not exactly but I have recovered many over expanded corelokts and I did not shoot at shoulders either. The last deer I shot with a corelokt was a 150gr. from my 30-06 which did not exit but dropped the deer.

The only "problem" with the Corelokt is that they are designed to perform best at "standard" velosity of 2500-2900 fps. Magnum rifles can get out of the comfort window easily at close range.

When I was younger and did not reload, I used 150 grain Corelokts exclusively in my .30-06. Performance and penetration was great. Then I took up reloading.

I was young and dumb and sort of "pushed" things a bit (actually pushed things a LOT). I'll not list the loads (out of fear that my computor would explode), but I was pushing 150 grain bullets out the muzzle at 3100+ fps in a .30-06. That's when the "problem" with Corelokts appeared.

Most of my shots were at under 100 yards and suddenly the bullets were failing to hold together and penetrate like I was used to. Instead of backing off on my loads (like I should have), I went to a heavier 165 grain bullet and everything settled down.

It wasn't the heavier bullet that did the trick, but rather that I could "only" push them to about 3000 fps as opposed to the 3100+ with the lighter slug. This put the Corelokt right in the "sweet spot" as far as velosity is concerned at 100 yards or so. This is true of most cup-and-core bullets. They simply weren't designed to perform best at 3000+ fps striking velosities.

I have since gained a bit of experience and knowlege and now load those 165 grain bullets to a more "reasonable" 2900 fps and couldn't ask for better performance except against the heaviest of game. Nothing "wrong" with the Corelokt......just miss used by some with Magnum rifles.

Having actually seen the CoreLokt bullet in the 375 in use on bigger stuff I can absolutely guarantee several things: they do not penetrate worth a damn, The notion of "eating right up to the bullet hole" is ridiculous, and they are prone to weird and unusual behaviors as a result of separations at even modest velocity.

I used CoreLokts for quite some time before getting to smell the coffee... I believed the advertising and thought that was how all bullets worked.

Popular as a function of price does not equate to quality...

Mass market American beer is a testament to that.

And lots of other stuff now that you mention it...

CL's are OK in the M1. If Remington would polish them a little more I'd use them at the range too.

No hate for the Core-Lokts but I don't use them, either.

I'll agree with what Sitka said. I had the opportunity a few years ago to take a nice bull moose at about 20 yds with a 225 corelokt in my 338. I never found the bullet to confirm, but I highly suspect it came apart near the surface. I did find the bull, it took me more than a month though. That was the last corelokt that will exit one of my rifles in the field. YMMV of course.

I have more than a few hundred of them but I only use them for squib loads to get newbies comfortable with shooting in field positions...

I did kill a bunch of deer with them in a previous life...and they did alright out of the -06 on whitetails.

Certainly no hate here. I spent a lot of my first 20 years of whitetail hunting lobbing 180 grain spcl at whitetail. If you like how they perform at 100 yards, you should see them at 10. Yikes.

I bought 500 bulk 150 grain PSPCL's back in 2006 for my son's deer rifles. In those days Mooseboy was shooting a Garand. Since then the kids have taken 1 or two deer each without a hitch. I've been mostly using Hornady Interlock SP in 150 and 165 grain. My plan was to eventually convert everything to the 150 grain PSPCL, but the Obama Presidency has caused me to alter my plans. I cannot find the bulk Remmies and when I can the Hornadys are cheaper.

The perception of bullet failure and the use of premium bullets has always fascinated me. I can remember my first reloading project in the early 80's, done with my long-dead best friend. Jerry and I went to the store. We looked over the selection of bullets.

"These here, " he said, pointing to Noslers, " Are what you'd use if you were going someplace special, like Alaska or something. They have a partition in them so they hold together better."

"Why don't we use those?" I asked.

"Because the ones here in the red box are cheaper and they get the job done." he replied, reaching for the Hornady.

I had grown up reading Outdoor Life, and although I was not hunting until I was an adult, I can remember a time when Remington Core-Lokt WAS a premium bullet. I can also remember that back in my formative years in the barber shop, most of the writing was about hunting out West, up North and in Africa. What I never could understand was why the stuff around me could be shot with . . . well, whatever, but west of the Mississippi, above the 45th parallel and across the ocean regular bullets failed to make an impression on game.

I HAVE come to understand one process of bullet failure, however. You see, the first thing any hunter learns is that any time the game does not keel over dead at the first shot, something is to blame. Shot placement is never the first thing to be considered. If the game is not recovered, it is the fault of the bullet. If the primer does not pop, it is the fault of the rifle, not the reloader. As a result, my shelves are filled with half-boxes of bullets left over from trying to fix bullet-failure issues and some of my best deer rifles have stayed in "Time-Out" in the back of the safe for years while they pondered their sins.

Back in 2009, I explored this concept:

In the shamanic Reloading Cave

The point of "Plausible Reliability Dead" as it relates to this discussion is that I believe that the CoreLokt has achieved such a high PRD-Index rating that hunters just started to believe it.

I can vouch for the fact that .30-06 150's will come apart on the shoulder of a Bull moose (friends rifle, I was trying to kill a Moose with a 30-30 but it was out of range. Ended up killing it in a charge with the 30-30) but the 220 will punch clean through a Cow Moose. I still had to wait for the Moose to die when I got up to it. I shot a very large Bull with the 350 grain Interlock out of a .450 Marlin and he was dead by the time I could get to him. That's the only time I ever seen a Moose die that quick.

I think forum members just like saying 'coreloss' , I believe them to shine their best when started at or slightly under 2800 fps.

I like them, but AFAIK are no longer available in Canada except old stock that's left over.

Probably have better results with a 180.


Slow death is typical with moose. I once shot a small bull twice with a 375Mag. Both perfect lung shots broadside. He just stood there with no reaction to the hits and started to walk off. Another shot downed him. This same experience was repeated on another moose 4yrs later, but I just waited w/o shooting again. It to died slow. The only moose I have killed on the spot was another bull that caught a 35cal Speer 250gr behind the ear at 25yds. Tossed him to the ground. No walking away, no twitching.

hum.....good! I thot it was something else.

Cub,

If I would have known my buddy was using 150 Core-Lokts in his '06 I wouldn't have asked him to hand it to me. I was trying to get a Bull under 100 yards with my .30-30 and 170 Silvertips but the bull was 150 yards with no way to get closer. When We foud him he ended up coming for us but the topography put me above him and I was able to spine him with the .30-30.

I would have done the same.

Hope you guys are not going the way of commiefornia with their lead free condor bullspit!

This whole thread sounds more like bad shooting than bad bullets. Someone has got something against everything shooting related. "Accubombs" "TSUX" and so on.

I can never think of a time I would turn down a gun to shoot something with it because it was loaded with a particular bullet. Every one of these critters died good with 150 Corelokts...

That's it, bad shooting caused the bullets to not make it past the shoulder.

Boring but effective bullet at reasonable ranges. I bought 2 boxes of them in .308 last summer because they were literally the ONLY box of shells to be found in my city at the time. 3" accurate at 100 yards. Load quality was lacking, at least half of each box had the bullets seated at different depths which could be seen simply by looking at the cannelure. Used the brass to load up some 165 Sierra HPBT pushed by CFE-223 which made a nice sub-MOA load. Shot a deer at 460 with it, would never have tried that shot with a Corelokt in the chamber.

Wouldn't want to mention any names of factory ammo and such, but we pulled 20 Core-Lokts from their cases in a single box of unnamed factory rounds one day and found no less than 3 different kinds of powder �..

Nope ... Lots of lead here, just no Corelokts. Speer C&C bullets are in short supply as well.

They are doing you a favour...

I do not recall losing any animals to CoreLokts... but if one added up all the wasted bloodshot meat it would equal more than a few...

That's scary! But who else but Remington factory loads Core-Lokts?

I use to get CL free. it would take a wheat truck to hull the victims.

10-4 thats good, then the always fail safe Partition will be there to handle any game situation.

I never saw more bloodshot at normal speeds than Hornadys.

I have... but all C&Cs have a basic position way behind the good stuff...

Hint: This is the era of diversity.

Killed a scimitar oryx, addax, some hogs and probably a couple other critters shooting the spare CL's I had sitting around for my 30-06. For a long time, I just used whatever ammo was available cheaply to me and had no problems killing stuff.

Nowadays, I would opt for a premium bullet, but if a cheap box of corelokts was all I had available, it wouldn't stop me from hunting (and killing stuff).

I never killed a moose or elk but I never had a deer or big boar get up and walk away after shooting them with one.

There was a time when a lot of the Core-Lokt bullets were tougher than they are today. The PSP versions are not what they once were. Their jackets used to be a good bit thicker in the shank section.

I remember when Osborne computers were the shiet too...

Huh? Need to get my glasses. I could barely read your message.

I guess no way to prove it, but I bet if someone could tally up al the big game animals killed with CL the total would be more than all the other bullets on the market put together.

In states like PA an WS here 600,000 deer a year are killed, you will find more green box ammo than any other brand.

Just like a 30-06 they are boringly effective

No hate but no love either. I just do not trust them just like the Sierra Gamekings.

They made a reputation off the old style Core-Lokts, they are no more...


Here's a .35 from the mid 80's (350 Rem Mag)

Yes, and I can also remember folks warning me on this august forum just a few years ago to switch to the 200 grain SPCL's because the PSPCL's were too tough for deer sized targets.

I did, and I have to admit that everything has died quite well since. I'm sorry, I'm not sure I get what y'all are saying. They thin out the bullet, because it isn't expanding to folks' tastes and then bullet is villified, because it's not as tough. I am not trying to be an expert here, but I would like to understand.

This sort of reminds me of the fellow from a few years ago who was going on about how his 300 WM bullet choice was blowing up on Elk shoulders inside 25 yards. Some booger had the temerity to suggest he might want to shoot something besides the shoulder when the game was that close. As memory serves me, that booger was me.

I understand your point, Scott.

I had a NP 210 in .338 not make it past the shoulder of a moose at 100 yards. Never used 'em again, although the second one pretty much up his nose at 10 feet when he surged back to his feet did the trick. (Clean pants here!)

I'm still using Corelokts however, as I've never had that kind of failure with one.
I think the point about moderate velocities with Corelokts is valid.

I've also quit on the shoulder shots... CNS if I can get it, or boiler room all the way.

OK- I have to admit it- I broke down a couple months ago and bought a box of TSX or something Barnes for the .260. Not yet sight-fired.

I expect they will perform adequately (hopefully with similar POI on sight in) on caribou, or moose - sort of like the Coreloks... bang-flop.

Back in the Eighties we used to have a lot of trouble with the 180 Core-Lokt round nose out of the .30-06 not expanding well on deer. I shot a buck behind the shoulder and it went 200 yards. When I found it I still had to finish it. We had several examples of this and then my dad shot a 130 class buck and it made it a couple hundred yards onto a neighboring property. He couldn't get permission to go on and get his buck. After that we switched to 150 Core-Lokts and all the problems went away.

Wait, you had a 210 Partition blow up on a Moose's shoulder blade and Shrapnel can't believe that I had a 150 Core-Lokt blow up on a Moose shoulder blade?

I killed piles of critters with them as a youngster in 30-30 and 30-06. I never disliked them until I tried them for several years in a 7RM. The added MV led to many large wounds with little penetration, but they always killed critters just fine. We always referred to them as "John Deere" bullets.

Don't know that I'd take them after larger game with so many tough bullets available, but there's probably been more elk and moose bagged with CLs than any other bullet available. My Dad carried his 25-06 and 100g CLs to CO once many years ago. He shot a nice bull at 150yds that made it about 15yds after impact. Blind luck I guess

A bullet (any bullet) can only be designed to perform "perfectly" within a very narrow "window" of velosity.

Corelokts are designed to perform best at 2500-2800 fps (like most cup-and-core bullets). This just happens to be the "window" of the .30-06 at 100-200 yards (the most common distance game is taken in North America). That's the distance the Corelokt built it's reputation.

Add more velosity (read....Magnum) and things get a bit "hinkey". If you want a real "test" of how "tough" a bullet is......try shooting heavy bone at 20 yards at a muzzle velosity of 3000+ fps. The Corelokt wasn't designed for this and will sometimes "fail" as will most bullets. Design a bullet for these conditions and then people will scream because they fail to expand properly at 200 yards (where velosity has fallen off).

The bullet makers can't win. The Corelokt performs great....in the "window" it was designed for. It does so at a moderate price too. To gain the do-it-all performancesome seek requires something like the Nosler Partition.....but it comes at a price.

You pays your money and takes your chances. Corelokts are a GREAT bullet.....as long as you don't ask them to do more than the design is intended for.

Since you can only hunt with one bullet at a time, why bother with corelokts in the first place. If that's your cup of tea, then go for it. To me the Partition is still the gold standard for an all around hunting bullet. Close behind them would be the Horn Interlock. It's about choices. But in my experience and in talking with other folks the performance of corelockts is not even on the same page.

Many bullets seem to have far larger "windows" than the CoreLokt... and they remain unreliable within their respective windows...

Their reputation was built the old-fashioned way... they bought it with lots of advertising dollars touting low price.

.......... x2!

Partitions, TSX, etc may be a little more expensive but is there anything else that connects you to the animal other than the bullet? If there is, I'm yet to see it. Besides, a box or two of Partitons for hunting can last a long while. A good handloader will find another bullet for practice, etc that has a similar POI. Will be no need to worry about "windows"...

I think a lot of the time we put way too much thought in all this. This bullet comes apart, this bullet pencils thru. I never recover this bullet, the bullet is the cheapest part of the hunt, I need one to perform in all circumstances.

I use to worry about all that myself I confess, although not a lot. If you chambering has a Magnum name attached to the end of it, you had best use tougher bullet or the same if you want to go to a light for caliber bullet.

Years ago I started using Game Kings, but usually heavy for caliber, 180 -220 gr in .308 and 30-06.

I guess I have a whole baby food jar here of C&C bullets that many would say failed, but I dug them out of dead animals. Except for one that I can remember, the elk probably never went more than 50 yards. The biggest bull I ever shot dropped on the spot and never flinched.

The one that entailed a long tracking job was hit in a quartering towards me shot,7 mag, 160 gr Partition. It wasn't the bullet, it was me, trying to make magnum do something it wasn't suppose to.