Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles If Coreloks were available as components?

If Coreloks were available as components, would you load them ?

When I belonged to the local gun club I worked sight in days every year and I would get a chance to see what everyone was shooting. Most of the time guys/gals shooting Corelok factory ammo shot very well. Some of them would shoot as well as good handloads. I've been hunting long enough to see how well Coreloks work on game many times so I know how effective they can be and how well they mushroom. I don't have any idea how accurately they are manufactured compared to other component bullets, but it seems they might be worth a try ....

Nope. I’d still use the Ballistic Tip myself or Hornady if I’m using a plain old bullet.

I used them in .270 Win for several years and they always shot and performed well for me. The old bulk component Win PP bullets worked fine on deer from it, too.

Ballistic tip for the win!

I used to in several calibers when they were available. All I've got left is one bag and a few loose for my 45/70 in 300 gr jhp. Ive switched over to Hornady Interlocks as I ran out.

Nope.

Not that I don't have faith in them. But THE most accurate handload I've ever come up with for a sporter weight barrel is with a Winchester PP 150 grain in a .308 Win.

About as cheap a bullet as you can buy and NUTZ for accurate. Very similar to the Core-Lokt in real life performance on critters.

The 180 gr PSPCL has been the most accurate cup/core bullet in three different .300 Roys and my KSS .300 Win. And not by a little. Maybe cuz it has more bearing surface. G1 is only about .37, but kills stuff fine loaded to 2950 fps. Took a cow elk at just over 400 with same ballistics in a .300 Win. Have 2-3k left. So yeah, I load them. It is a great deer bullet so long as you don't Texas ht or expect to punch both shoulders. Generally find them on offside hide on deer over 150# dressed.

Back in 97 I loaded a bunch of 200 grain Core-Lokt soft points in .35 Rem for my Dad as a duplicate factory load with Reloder 7. He loved em and they worked well in his 7600 and his Contender. I wouldn’t load them today, but lots of “ back in the day” kills with them for sure.

Used them in 35 rem and 6.5x55. Maybe again in the 35 but that would be only caliber.

Been a user for decades and still using them with great results.

I really liked CL’s and it was my go to bullet in my 30-06. The bullets I used were different than the new CL’s, I believe. There’s so many good bullets on the market now. Wasn’t always that way.

Well....

There's like 4 different CL now, one of them bonded. If they decided to go buy some reloading market share and offer up some screamin' deals, then yea, depending on the offering I'd give 'em a go...

I like the interlocks. The least expensive bullets I load are the Winchester powerpoints. Those shoot surprisingly well. I don't like how soft corelokts are though. Never have liked them. I've used a bunch, but there are better options out there. Besides that, I thought corelokts were available. I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Cabela's?

Nope. Too many better options.

Nope. Too many better options.

35 Remington is the only one I can think of.

I very much like the Core-lokt Ultra and load them in 270 Winchester, 257 Roberts and 308 Win, I would load more if available.

Back before the world went to shit*** I used to be able to buy bags of bulk Core Lokts and Power Points for a little over half of the price of the usual brands. They were great for putting together a box of inexpensive deer loads for a buddy, shakedown cruise ammo for new rifles, "shooting in" new brass et cetera.








***Obama's election

I'd imagine a guy wouldn't have too many complaints if Supply Chain is what it is and that's all that's on the shelf come hunting season as components. Just sayin'.

I'd be perfectly happy to build deer/pig loads with them.

I still have some and they are just fine for shots under 300 yds.

Only if nothing better is available. Years ago I bought a 500 box of 150 35cal. pointed CLs for loading my buddy's 35 Rem. I moved across country & back & he's moved since then too. If I had a 35 Rem they would get used. Nobody else makes cheap .358 light rifle bullets. They are slowly getting used up as I search for an accurate 200-250yd groundhog load in 358 Norma.

Nope! They’re good bullets…..but nope! memtb

I load them for my 243s, 7x57, and 308. I loaded them for my 30-06 for years and switched to Hornady bullets due to price.

I still have a bunch of CLs purchased about 15 years ago. A business up here had a huge sale, and I got 3 boxes that weighed about 70 lb each. The post office guy wasn't impressed. They were all 308 diameter. I used them for everything. Would I use them again? Yes, but the price would have to be right.

CL and Winchester bullets used to be cheap. They were dynamite in 224 and other diameters too. These days, Speer, Hornady and the no name bullets have seriously ate into what used to be their territory. And more people like premium bullets now.

Win and Rem do not offer the weights and diameters that they used to. I don't think that it was because they needed them for their own ammunition. Over time, sales dropped.

Win and Rem bulk bullets aren't the bargain they used to be.

I've had the Powerpoints shoot VERY well in a few rifles. The only Corelokts I have are 7mm and .358. I never loaded the 7mm but shot a bunch of the .358's. I still have quite a few of the SP and RN. Though they are not as accurate as some other bullets, I think they're the toughest .358 200 grn.

NOPE , there are alot better bullets than Coreloks to load.

I have never heard of a CL failure. Not sure why the negative comments.

I still use my good stock in the 260 and a few 165 308’s I load for my buddy. Balance the weight velocity and the terminal target and they are as good as any cup and core. I too bought them for the value but doesn’t change the fact that they work Just fine.

I wouldn’t be in the market for them today but if I was just starting out & they were as cheap as they once were and available, I’d pick some up.

Growing up I had a buddy who used to repeat ad nauseam the Deadliest Mushroom in the Woods tagline as he opened his green & yellow boxes of slow speed .270’s.

Think:

Campfire-Leupold

Shrapnel, I think you hit it on the head.

Yeah, used to be able to get 500 for about $50. I have a bunch of the .358 200 SP and RN's left luckily.

They did used to be cheap in those green bags. For components, I liked it when the Fusion bullets were available and economical.

Used them in the 6mm,270,30-30,308,8x57 with no complaints. Everything shot with them is still dead.

I loaded a lot in the nineties and killed a pile of game with the 165s in a 30-06 and 300 win. I worked up a load for a friends M77 Tanger that shot the 180s into a very small ragged hole.

If anyone needs 140 gr .264 Corelokts I have 200 I'd let go for $55 shipped

I used to have a Model 70 stainless synthetic 7mm rem mag that would literally tear a ragged hole with the green and yellow box 150's. I bought 1000 of them through Midway for I believe 89.99. I still have about 100 of them and am loading them in my Model 70 Featherweight in 7x57.
Wish I still had that stainless synthetic.

I tried the 185gr 8mm in my 325wsm Kimber Montana and they shot like buckshot. I believe I'll let them go.
.
As to buying them now, not as long as Nosler. Speer, and Hornady are selling bullets.

Indeed.

Loaded a bunch of the 100 gr for .243. A long time friend killed north of a hundred deer with that bullet. He thought it was the bestest. His 243 shot it very well at 2850-2900.
Still have a box or two of them.

GreggH

I have 400 200 grain .358 CLRN for my .35 Remington pump rifles and 400 200 grain CLSP for the .358 Browning . For the hunting I have they are great so yes I would. I wish I could find them in other calibers .

It's been a long time since I bought Remington or Winchester component bullets, but both companies used to sell most or all of their bullets as components. I can remember buying Bronze Points, Silvertips, etc.

Ghostman, I sent you a PM regarding your 200 .264 Core Lokt bullets.

I started handloading back in the late 70s. We used t get bulk packs of Corlokts and Power Points. Great deer/hog bullets in 30-30, 308, 30-06. When "Frontier" (Hornady) came out with factory ammo, it was loaded with Hornady SP. man they were accurate! I used them in a .308 (150) and 7mm RM (154). So I started handloading Hornadys. Then Nosler came out with their Ballistic Tip ( never used Partitions until 1980, 150 in 7MM RM) liked them best. I still have some .30 180 CL bulk and some 170 30-30 bullets too.

I would not load Core-lokt bullets not because they are bad bullets but because there are so many other better (cheap) options like Hornady Interlocks, Speer Grand Slam and others....Good luck...Hb

I have 500 140s in protected point Spitzer 7mm or whatever they call them. The deadliest mushroom in the woods!

I would if I could get 30 caliber 180 grain round nose.

I liked the round nosed versions but I always felt the Winchester Power Point was a better bullet. That and no in my reloads I don't want garden variety factory cheap bullets in my brass.

I don't want garden variety factory cheap bullets in my brass.[/quote]

LOL I'm with you Rick....so many bullets to try...so little time....:)

I've had a good run with the .257 100gn CL. I bought 500 years ago and still have a couple of hundred. They shot through pigs and one solid fallow buck. They perform pretty much like the 100gn Hornady SP.

If they were the originals with the inner belt I'd consider them, but AFIK that went away years ago, leaving them just another cup and core. One of the “new” ones in 180gr factory .30/06 ammo stopped under the hide after passing through the shoulders of a nice, but not giant buck back in the late 90s. He was very much dead right there, but I was surprised that the famous grizzly bear bullet didn’t sail on into the blue.

Haven’t seen any for sale, but the price on Remington’s site is over $50 a box. I’m still working on the $9 a box (50) closeout Partition Golds I bought from Grafs sale sheet way back when, plus a lot of others from SPS.

They are available, at lease they were because I bought some just for trigger time. I’d buy them again if they were cheap enough just to load in 308 for my sons AR 10. That’s all I’d use them for.

I bought a used 6.5CM that came with a box of Rem factory ammo, corelokts… My first group with my hand loads was .65”, first group with the Rem’s was a solid 3.5”. My son did even better with them with a solid 4.25” group. I told him to shoot the rest so we could reload the brass

So many armchair long range “hunters” who think that a bullet which groups one half moa is so much better than one which only groups 1.5 moa. Complete disregard for bullet terminal performance, which the CoreLokts are well known for over the past seventy years. Are all Interlocks great? Are all BTips? Not likely. I’ve used all three and all work in particular uses. But it’s hard to beat a 200 RN CoreLokt in the .35 Remington, or the 165 BTip in the .300 Savage. The wise hunter chooses the best bullet for his needs, not committing to only one brand…






.

The terminal performance of many Core Lokt bullets has changed considerably over the years.

Nosler Partitions have been around a long time ,if your hunting trophy animals or bigger big game animals why use a lower grade bullet ? sure load Core -Loks just to shoot at paper but when i have a decent rifle ,my handloads i want a bullet that i can depend on when i shoot a big game animal. i am no arm chair person and i am sure plenty more are not either on this site. after 58 years of hunting and 45 years a handloader and have always butcher plenty big game for myself , family and working at a wild game processing plant so probably done well close to 1,000 butchered animals , i have seen what bullets have done and what cartridges have been used out of what gun.

yes, if I could get the round noses with all that exposed lead.

Bingo!

As long as interlocks are avaliable.....nah.

I guess I just been lucky as I have never had any issues with them . Never had a complaint from any of the Deer I have shot with them , they fell too fast to complain.

They also make a Core-Lokt Ultra Bonded. I picked up a couple hundred .30 cal/ 180 gr at the beginning of the pandemic. Haven't got around to shooting any yet. I got them to help out my hunting pards who don't reload.

I'm willing to trade them 1 for 1 for 6.5 / 140 gr Accubonds.

Deer don't take a lot of killing. For my taste a relatively "soft" bullet is what I want to use.

I'm talking about the significant reduction in side wall jacket thickness of the pointed soft point versions over the years. The 180 grain 30-06 ammo my old neighbor used for his elk hunts back in the day had a tougher bullet than the ones that have been loaded for a good while now.

I found some 180gr RN Corelokts on the classifieds and jumped on them like a duck on a Junebug!

I''ve still got a bunch of them from the days they were available as components...

in 6mm, 6.5 mm, 7mm and 30 cal....

was going thru some of my storage stuff the other day.... 6mm bullets for 7 cents a piece... and 140 grain 6.5 mm bullets I bought for 8 cents a piece...for the 7mm and 30 cal.. had to pony up like 10 cents a piece for some of those....

found some Speer Bullets... 50 TNTs, with the invoice still folded up in one of the boxes... 2,000 of them.... a pair of 1000 round packs.... $60 per thousand...with shipping $132 on the door step...

A few years back in Handloader magazine, a guy by the name Gary Sciuccetti (spelling?) did one of the most comprehensive bullet expansion tests I have ever seen. Very thorough, expensive, time consuming etc....anyway, there was a 2 page foldout with photos and the 2 best looking mushrooms of the whole test was the then terribly expensive .308, 180 gr Bear Claw and the lowly Rem Core Lokt 180 gr .308 round nose. Other people must have seen it too, because you seldom, if ever see 180 RCL RN's at gun shows.

I have always been a round nose fan... in the upper midwest, I use to hunt with an 06, and the only ammo I bought, was either Federal or Remington, with the 180 gr RN or the 220 Gr RN. the later was my most favorite...

Yes, I would load them. I was just looking at cross section and though it could be an optical illusion it looks to me like the jacket is thinner at the base on the pointed version as well. The jacket is thinner on the psp but if that is the case would still be a mechanical lock. In any case they perform well on deer. 165 psp in 30-06 is a particular favorite of mine. As side note for last couple years my son has been shooting corelokt ultra in 270 with excellent performance. Low bc compared to trend these days but excellent performing bullet

Lou

If they were all I had I would kill with confidence.



P

I have a pile of them for a 264 WM I bought last year. They shoot well.

I would.
.458” 405gr RNCLfor the 45-70
.358” 200gr RNCL for the 35 Rem and 35 Whelen
.308” 170gr RNCL for the 30-30 and 308 Win
.308” 180gr and 220gr RNCL for the 30-06
.257” 120gr PSPCL for the 25-06

I wish they were available again as components
Thanks, Tom

Me too!. bought them about 2 decades ago.

Where in WY??

Attention any Rem Model 14 and 141 owners.

Several years ago I tested a couple of dozen bullets in my 30 Rem model 14. Some bullets were more accurate than others, but more importantly, many of the bullets tended to hang up a little or a lot in the process of feeding into and through the tubular magazine and into the chamber. This J.D. Pedersen designed action is relatively complicated, which was typical of Mr Pedersen's designs.

I found that the rounder the nose of the bullet, the smoother it fed. Happily, the Remington 150 gr Round Nosed CoreLoks were both the smoothest feeding bullets and the most accurate in my rifle. The best bullet in this Remington rifle was a Remington bullet. Go figure!

I tried to take advantage of the spiral magazine by testing lots of pointed and semi-pointed bullets. The magazine/feeding issues and the very limited overall length that would feed through the action made the effort futile. Some bullets would work well as a single-shot, or a two-shooter, but overall the rifle worked much better just as it was designed to: with very round-nosed bullets.

I would have saved myself much time, trouble and money if I had known at the beginning what I know now. Maybe this tale will help someone else. I really like the old Remington pump rifles. Accept them for what they are and load for them as they were intended to be loaded and enjoy them.

This matches the experiences of gunsmiths who specialize in M14 and M141 rifles. Most say that the easiest way to get one of these rifles to jam is to use pointed bullets. The consensus is that the spiral design was for reduced friction rather than to use pointed bullets. The fact is that the cartridges chambered in these rifles were NOT originally pointed. As so often happens, one gunwriter makes a poorly-informed false statement and it gets repeated for decades - in this case for over a century.




.

They were my go to bullet for 45/70 with the 300gr HP and 405gr RN. I loaded up my last 200gr 358 for the 35 remington. But like others have said outside of those 2 guns there are better options out there.

The last whitetail I shot with a 150 gr Corelok from my 308 BAR went thru the side of a 3" oak tree after killing the buck. 35 yard shot in NY. My buddy did the opposite in Maine, went thru the tree first and dropped the buck, 06 BAR at about 10 yards.

Not too far from Cody

I just bought 1K of the 165 CL from an estate a couple months ago. I'd love to find some .358s, either round or pointed. I'd probably buy all I could.

Only place I've seen them in recent years is on Gunbroker...they pop up time to time:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/935140454

Somewhere out in my shed I have a can with about 200 of the 150 gr. 7MM Remington CL bullets that I picked up at a gun show to use in my .280 Rem. Never have loaded them into the brass. I'm thinking they might work in a 7x57 as well but as I made a killing on 150 gr. 7MM Nosler partitions are few years back those CLs have just been gathering dust. The 150 gr. Remington factory .280 ammo shoots quite well in my .280 and the original plan was to duplicate the factory load. However, you know what they say about best laid plans. When I found the old two core style Speer Grand Slams shoot so well that I'll stick with them for my elk load. I haven't tried some of the newer single core Grand Slams in that rifle so no idea as to how well they'll shoot.
Most of my deer hunting over the years has been strictly for deer with an occasional elk hunt thrown in. Never saw the need for a premium bullet for deer and still don't think they're all that necessary. For elk though I've mostly used the 225 gr. Barnes TSX in my .35 Whelen. I have taken one elk each with the 30-06 (165 gr. Accubond) and .300 Win. Mag. (200 gr. Speer Hot Core) but the rest of the elk were with the Whelen and the TSX bullet.
Paul B.

200 grain .35 caliber RNSPCL.
150& 170 .30 cal RNSPCL
180 grain .30 cal RNSPCL