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Any gun writers or others used the CL Ultra Bonded bullets on game?

Just got onto a few hundred in .257 / 115g to use in my 250 Sav AI. Should get 2950fps from the 25 inch barrel.

I believe they've probably been discontinued hence they were very cheap. Any thoughts?

I've shot quite a few animals with Core-Lokt Ultras, with both factory ammo and handloads. In general they work well, but they're basically bonded Core-Lokts, with the same jackets. The performance of any bonded bullet also depends on the jacket, and while CLU's don't separate jacket and core, they can still come apart. My wife, for instance, shot a mule deer in Alberta with a 150 from her .308 Winchester at about 275 yards.

The buck was big-bodied (as mature bucks are in Alberta), weighing at least 350 on the hoof. The bullet hit the shoulder and killed the deer quickly, but didn't exit, and all we found during field dressing and skinning was a few fragments of jacket. Fragments of core were attached to them, indicating bad bonding wasn't the problem, but like any bonded bullets with relatively thin jackets, bonding doesn't guarantee the bullets will hold together or penetrate deeper. Lead is a soft metal, and the usual bonding process involves heating the bullet to melt the lead and essentially solder it to the jacket. The heat tends to soft both the jacket and core.

That said, they do work pretty well most of the time, and are usually fairly accurate--the reason Eileen was using them in Alberta. I've shot several caribou bigger than that mule deer with CLU's, and all died promptly.

Thanks John. They sound perfect for my use - pigs, goats and deer.

I'll see how they shoot with some Varget.

I have reloaded them in 180 grain for my 30-06 for a few years. They are more accurate than Nosler Partitions in my rifle. Have taken several elk and a number of mule deer and whitetails with them. Last year, I had a similar experience as mentioned by Mule Deer above. I shot a cow elk in the shoulder and the bullet fragmented as he described above. The cow did, however, die quickly.

O.K. I have to ask this. Why are they, or are they, better than plain old Core-Lokts? I've shot or been with Core-Lokt shooters since I shot my first deer in 1951 and I've never seen one come apart like you described. In full disclosure, we're talking deer and elk but not at extreme velocities but neither was Eileens deer at 275 yards. Regards, Woody

I've seen Core-lokts not make it past the shoulder on 2 deer. That was enough goat roping for me.

Woody,

1) I have seen "plain old Core-Lokts" come apart, but mostly since the early 1990's, when Remington started making the jackets in the Pointed Soft-Points thinner. The roundnoses, as far as I know, still have the thicker jackets that made Core-Lokts so reliable. (Do you shoot only roundnose Core-Lokts?)

2) "Bonded" is a magic word to some hunters and many handloaders, who somehow believe bonding any bullet, even those with relatively thin backets will prevent bullets from coming apart. Since even the hardest lead alloys used for cores in expanding bullets (about 4% antimony) aren't particularly hard, this isn't true. The toughest bonded bullets have relatively heavy jackets to help them stick together during expansion. Core-Lokt Ultra Bondeds appeared when this unquestioning belief in bonded bullets started becoming more prevalent.

'Core lock' figured out

Steelhead, way to go!

Yes, mostly and ancient pointy nosed ones too.

And yes I know what a Partition is. When I was growing up I lived in the town where John started making them.

Regards, Woody

So you lived in Ashland. I have a box of .270 Partitions made there, still in their red box.

The old Core-Lokts did have much heavier jackets than the present models, even the pointy ones.

No bullet always acts the same on an animal depending on caliber and who knows what else is involved. The thing I always liked about CorLokts is they opened up even if they only hit soft tissue. I have had some bad results with both Hornady and Sierra bullets in certain calibers that only "Poked through". I will always reload with CorLokts if they are available in the cartridges I am reloading. Whatever works for you, but that is my experience.

My Dad killed a big bodied muley buck with the CorLokt Ultra the first year he bought his 7SAUM. I can't remember if they were 140, 150, or 160 grain bullets but they were factory loaded. He was pretty close, 50 yards or so, and the first one went to steam on the ribcage after clipping the back edge of the shoulder, ruined a whole quarter and failed to penetrate the ribs. The buck stumbled then regained his feet and headed out at high speed. Dad poked the next one right into the base of his tail from about 75 yards. The second shot put him down, but it also pretty much ruined the top half of both hind quarters, the bullet hit the pelvis and pretty much exploded. He ran up to the now thrashing buck and stuck one in his neck from about 10 yards and, you guessed it, that one blew a grapefruit sized crater in his neck. It killed him but damn was it a mess, little bits of lead with scraps of copper attached everywhere when we skinned and quartered that buck.

I'd had hopes that the Ultra would redeem the CoreLokt that I'd read about being a great bullet, but had come to hate after having 2 140 grain 6.5 versions fail to exit on broadside rib shots on 98 pound whitetails. I didn't see anything to change my mind and the rest of the ones Dad had got shot up at rocks and pigs and other non game targets. So much for the deadliest mushroom in the woods.

I would have thought they'd be better than that. Mmmm.

As I noted earlier, the "magic" of bonding isn't the sole answer to big game bullet performance. The jacket's configuration still has a major effect, because even bonded bullets still have lead cores, and lead isn't a hard metal.

Here's a story about how much many hunters believe in the magic of bonding: When the first North Fork soft points were made, the little dab of lead in the nose wasn't bonded, yet theyt worked great, because essentially they were Barnes TSX's with just enough lead to insure expansion.

But a lot of hunters just knew they would work a lot better if the lead was bonded. The guy who was making them bonded some, and shot them into test media in his shop to compare their performance with the original, unbounded version. Both bullets penetrated exactly the same, but he went ahead and bonded them anyway, which of course meant he had to raise the price. This didn't bother the customers, apparently because they thought more expensive bullets always work better.

I call this the "bed and breakfast" syndrome, because some friends of mine started a B&B in a big old house they remodeled here in Montana. Because they didn't spend much money to buy the house, they didn't charge a vast amount of money for a night's stay, only about as much as a stay at an average motel in the area. But they weren't getting many customers, despite plenty of publicity.

Then they went to a B&B owner's convention, and were told to raise the price, because people who stay at B&B's expect something more than a motel room, and assume a B&B with motel-room prices isn't any good. So my friends doubled their price, and soon were totally booked up.

Many hunters who buy limited-production custom bullets are a lot like B&B customers: They're convinced more expensive bullets work better. And many hunters are total believers in the word "bonded."

I don't know about "Bonded", but I am a believer in CorLokt. I don't care for higher priced bullets. I rarely had any that were accurate, and if they were I did not trust them to expand. It seems to me a lot of bullet problems did not exist until there was a new cure (Design) for them.

Most anything will out shoot a Core-loss.

A close friend in the liquor business told me a similar story about a certain "premium" 12 year old blended Scotch. The price was raised a significant amount and sales volume went up.

I had thought and hoped they would too Bob, but at least in our experience they weren't. I had hoped they would be a good performer because my Dad doesn't handload and at the time they were the "premium" load for the 7SAUM. After the muley fiasco, which could have been much worse since he hunts elk as well, I bought a set of dies for his birthday so I could load him good ammo. He uses the 160 NPT now, I load him 50 at a time and they'll last him a year or so. Since switching to the Partition he has had really good luck with that rifle and alway gotten pass throughs, to include some pretty sizable hogs and one mountain grizzly. Partition seconds from SPS are a good investment that cost no more if not less than a lot of inferior bullets.

I actually quite like soft bullets that expand quickly. Exit holes have NEVER been a priority for me. I find fast expanding bullets put game down usually where they were standing.

The exception is the odd wild horse or scrub bull. Happy to look for a NPT or even solids for those.

Shot my first deer with a plain old 150g CL from a 308. Fallow buck about 70m front on chest shot. It exited in front of the left leg and left a 1.5 inch exit.

These CLUBs sound about right for the game and velocity they'll be applied to.