Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Regular Green box Remington Core Lok

A fella in my group had a bad experience with core-lokts a few years ago. Bullet didn't open, hit bone and traveled along. He was lucky to get the bull on subsequent shot.
Lotta nice premium bullets to chose from these days.

I have had some close calls on deer sized animals. So I don't use them on elk

Oh, I've had success with them (270, 130 and 150gr) but it wasn't pretty. There are a LOT better bullets out there.

Having said that, my dad has been using 180gr CL's for 50+ years out of his 06's. Of course, he usually shoots them in the neck at 50 yds......
Seriously.

Casey

No experience on elk with them, but I do have enough experience with core & jacket separation on deer that I won't use them.

As previously stated, they worked until we had the internet; well, I suppose they did and one of the reasons they did is that options were extremely limited years ago and at that time, they were a major player in the market. Fortunately, that's not the case today.

Thanks guys for all the responses. Ordered some Barnes TTSX to try...

The comment that they worked before the internet is misleading. If they didn't work before the net. Who are you going to tell? Just a few close friends?

Now, if something doesn't work the whole world knows it in a day.

Very true, I concur.

My only elk was a sizable cow with a 140 TTSX.

I wouldn't suggest the CoreLokt's on any animal over 300 lbs.

Good luck to you and your son this year. I've really been impressed with how well the TTSX shoots and how they break through bones even at longer ranges. Your son can take out the front shoulder if he wants to and feel pretty good about getting to the vitals, if that is the only shot presented.

I've seen them go through lungs, heart, then break the off side shoulder of a good bull at 350 yards from a 180 in 300 Win and break the spine of a big Russian boar limping away at 520 yards with a 150 in 7 RM.

Before the internet the Core-Lokt in the PSP configuration was a tougher bullet than it is today.

I think the internet got people to thinking and discussing. Me not being a fan of the pointed style, I looked through my spent bullet collection today and found a 175 grn pointed Core-Lokt I pulled from a bull elk. It was shot at 30 yards with a 7mm Magnum. The bullet smashed the spine and completely penetrated though and was found on the opposite side weighing 61 grains with the jacket and core still together. Stellar performance with such a close range hit on the toughest bone in an elk. Exactly opposite results I had decades later when I hit a small mule deer in the spine at 220 yards. Bullet disintegrated on the spine, and failed to break it. Recovered weight of the bullet fragments was 31 grn IIRC. Another example of, is it a good bullet or a bad bullet.

I've seen and heard of too much variability in how the Core-Lokts act after striking animals. I used them as a kid. I avoid them now, and though I think that a 130 in the ribs would turn out just fine, I'd not recommend it. I just don't have any faith in them. I'd say either go heavier, as in the 150's, in the RN style, which I have heard and seen far more positive things about, or go to a different design.

I have always used Nosler Partition 30-06 180 grain. Way back when the ammo shortage started, all I was able to find was green box Core-Lok 30-06 180 grain. I bought 6 boxes and I am still using them. I have killed two cow elk with no problems. I suppose when they are gone I will go back to the Nosler Partition.

I should add that I like the price better but as few as a shoot every year it isn't that much more for the premium bullets.

120 bullets, and two cows. You have a ways to go yet.

I wish it was that easy, I burn up about a box a year after checking my sights and pre-season practice.

stuvwxyz,

The pointed soft-point Corelokt was "redesigned" about 20 years ago. Before that all Core-Lokts had jackets with pretty thick sidewalls, the reason they held together pretty well, though they never actually had an "hour-glass" shaped core like Remington used to claim, due to the sidewalls being thicker in the middle. When redesigned they ended up with jackets about as thick (or thin) as most cup-and-core bullets, so didn't hold together as well.

The only Core-Lokts that still have the thick jackets are the round-nose models. Or at least they did a few years ago, last time I sectioned any.

I figured at least that much, but with 6 boxes you should have a couple of years left. No so bad really. They're working for you.

I shot a couple of elk using the 150 gr. PSPCL's out of my 30-06. Hitting them broadside thru the ribs they ended up under the hide on the far side a bit over flattened and the elk ended up down for the count pretty quickly. But any bullet would have done OK under that circumstance. And elk hunting does not provide perfect broadside shots very often at least in my experience. I am a partition fan and have been for many years.

these were taken from an elk before the internet. the one on the left is a Coreloct (Coreloss?). the one on the right finished the elk.

Its funny when I go elk hunting in NM how many locals go with the Green Box Core Lokts...of course their line of reasoning, and mine too, is that I, being from GA, and only there for 5 days, don't have the same opportunities that they do.They seem to love em and I've never heard the first complaint from the elk crowd out there. That being said, Core Lokt's work and in my little world, they work very consistently. I've killed a huge pile of deer with them culling does (legally) from local plantations. Zero failures.