Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington Core-Lokt expansion

Hello,

Just picked up two boxes of Remington Core-Lokts for my 25-06. The box has printed data for velocity and drop out to 500 yards. I called Remington to check on velocity for reliable expansion (@ 500 yards it's still doing 1825 fps). The person who answered the phone said 150 yards. That seems kind of short.

What has been your experience with Core-Lokt performance out to ...?

Core-Lokts have the ballistic coefficient of a watermelon. That said, the Rem rep you spoke to is an idiot. Somewhere between 150 and 500 yards (closer to 500, depending the velocity of the ammo) the Core-Locts will expand. I'd suggest trying to track down what Remington claims is those bullets' ballistic coefficient (BC), then shoot them over a chronograph, to see what your actual muzzle velocity is, then enter that information into a ballistic calculator such as Hornady's free online version. At a velocity of about 1800-2000 fps, the bullet should still expand reliably.

Core-Lokt performance? With the current version I have to consider it poor. A 120 gr. bullet going 1825fps is just a bit more energy than a 30 carbine has at the muzzle so in my opinion that is too far for it to be real effective. Add in the low BC flat base bullet and you get windage corrections greater than the drop correction with winds as light as 10mph. No matter my low opinion of the current state of Core-lokt bullets I would expect them to reliably kill deer and antelope out to 400 yards.

Unlike many here I have had terrible results with Remington bullets. I have killed maybe 25 head of game with them , both older and newer Cor-Lokt's and most blow up WAY to fast for my likes. Was just going through the 100 plus recovered bullets in my collection and the only Remington bullet that is notable was a 220 grain round nose Cor-lokt that was fired from a 30-06 into a 4 point mule deer "meat buck". The others in my collection are shrapnel.

Animals don't really care about ballistic coefficient. The people I have worked on didn't really take it into consideration either. Did you get the 100's or the 120's?

Used the 180s in 300wm for years on deer with zero problems out to 200 yards.

I've taken at least 50 whitetails with Remington factory ammo that featured Pointed Soft Point (PSP), Bronze Point Expanding (BP), and both pointed and round nose Core-Lokt bullets. I never had any trouble with bullet failure from any of them. I've never shot a deer at 500 yards, but if I was going to be prepared to do so with a 25-06, I'd consider trying the 117 grain Deer Season XPs from Winchester/Olin or the 117 grain SST Superformance from Hornady.

The CSR who you spoke to at Remington must not have any actual experience with the 25-06.

I’ve shot probably a dozen deer with my 270 and core-lokts. On top of that between my boys shot about a dozen deer with them in a .243. We’ve also shot a hand full with 30/06. These have been from point blank to 350+ yards. No failures, mostly full penetration. We don’t shoot them much anymore but I’d go back if need be

I killed my first Grizzly with a Remington Core-Lokt at about 275 yards out of a 300 Weatherby. 180 grain, DRT. They work.

I’ve killed a truckload of deer and feral hogs here at the Ranch with a .243 and 100 gr Core-Lokts. Never had one fail me

I've never killed anything with a factory load, but I was recently given a several boxes of factory 25-06 ammo, among them some 100 grain PSPCLs. These boxes did not have a predicted velocity on them, but I ran 20 of them over the chrono and had an average of 3177 FPS (a little low for this combo), a huge extreme spread, from under 3000 to over 3250, and an SD of 55.
What weight are yours and what muzzle velocity does Remington claim (on the box) they will produce? It might be worth confirming it over a chronograph, if you can.

I have heard very few bad statements about the performance of Core-Lokts on game. I bet they expand just fine down to 2000 FPS or so.
Check your velocity, and use one of the on-line programs to confirm the numbers on the box. See if you can find the BC of the bullet weight you have.

Good luck,
Rex

120's. The reason for this post is other (more expensive bullets) list a min and max velocity for effective expansion. Using a ballistic calculatetor I can see if a shot is ok (based on speed at that distance).

I shot a mule deer at 80 yards with a 130gr TTSX out of a 30-06. The entrance hole was just a bit smaller than the exit. And he was DRT

Thank you folks!! I believe I got my answer and it's not 150 yards😁

Campfire rocks