"The OLD Remington Core-Lokt in both 150 and 165, but the newer ones are made with lighter jackets, so I reserve judgement on them. I bought many thousands of them from the 70s and those were really good, but I have seen shots made with those made in the last 20 years and many of them came apart, some on small deer, so I am not willing to recommend the Core-Lokt anymore without more info. Maybe John Barness can tell us more?"
Steve,
Remington apparently quit making the original, thick-walled Core-Lokts around 1990--except the round-nosed version, which still still had the thick jacket walls the last time I sectioned one a few years ago.
They apparently went to a thinner jacket to speed up manufacturing, but they may not even make their own bullets anymore. I know that some of the factory loads in the 1990s featured Hornady Interlocks, because Remington sent me ammo for various projects, and the bullets had a definite "pencil-point" look to them (as Elmer Keith used to call the secant-ogive Hornadys). So I sectioned one, and it had the Interlock ring, but the "Pointed Soft-Point Core-Lokts" that weren't pencil-pointed did not--though they had far thinner jackets than the original PSP Core-Lokts I'd sectioned.
So I contacted the PR guy for Remington, who'd been there many years. He talked to the ammo guys and they admitted the PSP Core-Lokts had been changed. He was pretty upset about the whole thing, partly because they never informed him of the changes, but was near retirement--and did retire not long afterward.
Later I heard a rumor that a separate company was making the PSP "Core-Lokts," instead of Remington, but never followed it up.
As a side-note, Eileen and I have mostly been using monolithics on antelope for quite a while now, because we like the lack of meat destruction. The antelope may go a little farther after the shot than when with lead-cored bullets, but that's not a problem in open country.
Have also used Bergers on antelope, and they don't shoot up much meat either, partly because the delayed expansion results in almost zero meat destruction around the entrance hole. The exit hole is often larger, but if you keep the exit away from the shoulders it's usually about an inch-wide hole through the ribs--and they kill so well the bullet can be placed a hand's width behind and still drop them quickly.
John
