Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 150 grain corelockt disinegration

I agree! My case was not actually for core-lokts, my case was that even NP's can react below expectation.

Mike...

When a bullet disintegrates inside a deer, sometimes (SOMETIMES) the performance appears superior to a premium bullet that doesn't disintegrate. I've shot many deer through the heart and most ran a ways. I don't consider that below performance expecations. Likewise, a deer shot through the lungs and running a ways is not unexpected. I know we are on the same page Mike

Mike...

I do, too. But, IME, I'm not sure there's significant difference between the killing power of a 150 NP and a 150 CL when it comes to deer, especially Whitetails. Two examples: 2005, north Idaho, I shot a 6x8 Whitetail. Only shot I had was through the pelvis at 30 yards (very thick woods). I shot him, which anchored him and then shot him again to kill him. 150NP out of .308Win. Bullet shed front core and did not exit. 2006, north Idaho, 4x4 Whitetail, moving straight away at 80 yards following a doe, soon to go out of sight in the draw he was in. Texas heart shot to base of tail, anchored him, followed up with second shot to kill him. 140CL out of .280Rem. Bullet broke backbone above tail and followed backbone forward for 14" and stopped in backstrap. Couldn't find the bullet when I skinned him. Had it commercially processed (don't usually do that, prefer to do it myself, but couldn't help it that year)and found the bullet when grilling backstraps six months later. Perfect mushroom.

Neither one of those shots were Saturday morning TV broadsides and both bullets performed equally well.

Now, don't anyone assume I'm just defending CLs here. I'm not. If you feel more comfortable using a premium bullet, by all means, do so. I've shot a bunch of NPs. All the hunting I did my first time living in AK were with 140 NPs in a 7x57. They performed very well, taking sheep, caribou and moose. I also shot a Brown Bear with a .350RemMag and 250CL factory loads. They made full penetration on the smallish bear twice.

ROMAC ,

I'm glad to hear that you did anchor the 8 point ��.

What you didn�t specify was the distance that the shot was taken from . By the looks of the remnants of the bullet , I�d have to say that it was close ( under 50 yards ) where the impact velocity was still very high . I would be very surprised to hear the shot was 100 � 150 yards .

That is the reason why I use premium constructed bullets ( Nosler Partitions ) . My shots have never been over 50 yards and impact velocity is still very close to muzzle velocity .

I have completely penetrated both shoulders of deer at the distance of 50 yards or less with a 100 grain Partition bullet from my 99 chambered for the .243 WCF . I have since then changed to the 85 grainers with perfect performance . I still have yet to recover the � little � 85 grain bullets .

The component that actually does the harvesting ( oh , sorry : KILLING ) is not the part of the equation to penny pinch on .

The shot was about 70 yards.

70 yards is a pretty close shot ( but I'm sure you know that ) .....


This 8 point was shot with a 85 grain Partition from a featherweight 99 in .243 WCF . Distance was 30 yards . The bullet entered right behind the armpit and hit major arteries and exited with no bone hit ..... he dropped 20 yards from being hit . I got to him in less than 5 minutes and he was dead .

Was I dissapointed because there was no " bang - flop " ? .... hardly .







15 minutes later , this 4 point came out and took the same 85 grain pill from the same 99 in .243 WCF , and standing right in the same spot the first buck was at( 30 yards ). The bullet entered right behind the armpit and blew the heart in half . Before exiting , it also took out the offside leg .

At the shot , this buck ran like I completely missed it .... but it left a blood trail for almost 100 yards that looked like someone threw buckets and buckets of blood everywhere ( I am not exaggerating one bit )... No problem finding him . It was lethal hit and left a huge hole on the exiting side . Was I disappointed because it wasn't a bang flop ? .... Hardly .

After reading all the posts this morning I got the impression that there is some controversy with corelokts out there. Don't get me wrong, I like em enough, I'm just wondering if at the ranges I see in the PA deer woods or at least in the situation I described, maybe 180's would have been a better choice or had a better outcome. I guess for me personally, I'd have like to found a hole clear through even if it meant tracking it for a few yards with a lot less meat upset.

Here's some pictures of the recovered Barnes 130gr TTSX's from 2 deer I killed this year with the 300 Savage. Longest shot was 40 yards.









See, that's how I like my recovered bullets to look.

No pics.

EXACTLY!

Because I recovered no bullets.

If you want complete penetration then the 180s will give that to you.

So will the right 130

lol!!!

That's just too funny Steelhead!!!!!!!!

Got me rollin' on the floor!!!

Mike...

I suggest you try a 150 grain Hornady Spire Point. This is my go to bullet in the .300 Savage. My experience is that it is plenty tough enough, but not too tough to pencil through Michigan whitetails. Excellent performance without the premium price. Save the premiums for the magnums. See attached picture. On a quartering toward shot, this Hornady broke the onside shoulder of a 150 lb whitetail, broke ribs on the far side and came to rest under the hide. Retained weight was 118 grains or 78%. The buck went 40 yards and collapsed. This has been typical of my experience with it. No second shot was needed. My experience with 180 RN is that they always pass through and they tend to die in 40 yards or less also.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/300jimmy/IMG_3867.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/300jimmy/IMG_3867.jpg

I had the same happen w/ a 280 handload, but loaded w/ a Sierra 140 game king. The buck was bedded and I rolled him no problem, but he wasn't positioned the way I thought. The shot actually hit the rear leg and went into the chest cavity, but it was just fragments that did the trick. I got lucky on that one, but I think alot has to do w/ shot placement and where and what the bullet hits. I have used the cl bullets in my 7x57 w/o a problem. Jeff

In the mid 80's, my brother and I shared 2 boxes of Remington 150 grain corelocks in 30-06, he was shooting a 700 ADL, I was shooting a 760 carbine. We were fortunate to shoot about 20 deer with those 2 boxes of ammo(same lot #). All the deer were taken on a private farm in Orange county NY that hadn't been hunted in years, and the deer were pretty relaxed, all were standing broadside shots except for one doe hit in front straight on.

The thing that bothered me the most was the erratic results of bullet performance within that same lot # of bullets. My brother shot a 9 pointer and had results identical to yours, all we found was a banana peel of copper under the far side of the skin, and he only broke a rib going in, did not hit any shoulder bone. I shot an 8 pointer, broke a shoulder, hit his spine, and recovered the bullet under the skin in his neck. It was a better mushroom than the one they used in the Remington advertisment, and weighted 150 grains after I recovered it. Others were and werent recovered, some went right through the animal, some we just didn't find within the animal. These deer were shot between 40 and 75 yards. If a bullet kills the animal, then I guess they did do their job, however bullet performance was extremely inconsistent. The animals either dropped on the spot, or went 20 to 30 yards before they ran out of blood and dropped.

The last deer I shot at with one of these bullets was a small doe, at about 50 yards. She took off with her front leg dangling. Missed on the followup shot. When I went to the spot that I hit her, there was enough hair in a 30 inch or so circle, that it looked like a doormat, with shoulderbone fragment and lead shrapnel in it. I followed that deer for over a mile, ran out of blood in the first 50 yards(wasn't much to begin with), and never saw her again, had to stop tracking when I came to property I couldn't access. Thats the only deer I ever lost, and the last time I used a Remington core lock.

I know it's only one failure, but for me it was the icing on the cake on a single lot of bullets with the most inconsistent performance I've seen for similar size animals taken under similar conditions. I haven't used a core lock since.

So to answer your question, no, I don't think you're over reacting, on the contrary, I think I waited to long to make the decision I made not to use them anymore.

Thanks for sharing your experiences Wink Man. Interesting.

I have switched to 150gr N/P and A/B for my .300 savage and have had complete pass-throughs on all deer i have shot.

I was using federal 150gr psp and had them blow apart on me. I hit a big 10 pointer in the neck (bad shot my fault) it dropped when I go close to it, it got up and ran in my dad's direction therefore I could not shoot a follow up shot. I tracked the deer for a few min and gave up because of the dark and was not sure where I had hit it.

Next morning I went out and found the deer 80 yards in a swamp still alive I was horrified by my shot and that it had suffered all night. When I skinned the deer out my first shot on the deer was in the neck, hit no bone, no pass through and the bullet was in shards with a small piece of core. This was in 2003 so the new blue box federal ammo was out then. I know that the A/b work flawlessly in small and out a little bigger, through bone at any angle. Some would say too tough a bullet for .300 savage velocities but in my experience Not at all!