what's the concensus of the performance of these? i know they're not a premium but confine the use to moderate velocity rifles way 2400-3000fps. the reason i'm asking, i could have sworn i'd read in rifle or handloader that these days the corelokts are just a plain, ordinary conventional bullet sharing only the name with their predecessor and the old peters inner belted. i shoot lots of these because they're cheap but have never used on game. i finally got curious and sectioned one and they do still have an inner belt or thick wasp-waisted midsection. the jacket is very thick and it was a lot of work to finally mangle the bullet enough to get the core out of the sectioned slug. far, far superior to the bullet i similarly cut up out of a S&B 7x57 round (bought for cheap blasting ammo) which lost its jacket before i even got thru sectioning. from what i can tell tho, the corelokt seems a stoutly constructed bullet for what they cost.

I have used them a fair amount in my shooting and hunting experience... they worked pretty darn good for me... especially the round nose ones!

People get too hung up on the word "premium" in my book....

They've been around for so long that they've probably killed as many animals as any other bullet made. At your velocities I wouldn't hesitate to hunt with them for anything here in the U.S. sized to the caliber.

With proper shot placement, Corelokts have never failed me. I used to shoot Barnes originals and Nosler Pt and they worked too. For 98% of hunting..they are fine.

What you are paying for in a "premium bullet" is predictable performance.

Yeah, mabey the more ordinary bullets will work ok, but sometimes they work less than "ideally" on game.

For a reloader the extra cost for actual-at-game-shots is trivial in the greater scheme of things.

Assuming a 30 caliber 165gr bullet: (Per Bullet)
1) Nosler partition will run $0.44 ($21.99/50)
2)Barnes TSX $0.56 ($27.99/50)
3)Barnes XBT-XLC $0.59 (29.49/50)
4)Swift A-frame $0.78 ($38.99/50)

How many of these premium bullets are you actually going to send downrange?
One box is usually enough to work up TWO or more acceptable loads and another box makes 50rounds
Assume two rounds for sight checking before beginning to hunt (further assuming that your "fouling shots" will use some cheaper bullet)

What inexpensive bullets are GREAT for is practice.
even if you know they don't shoot as well as what you intend to use, or don't trust their terminal performance
Practice is always a good thing....

I spend time effort and money and not a small ammont of luck to get my sights on a game animal why take a chance that'll throw it away to save $0.50 on the bullet you use?



AllanD

I have only shot one game animal with a core-lokt. It was a medium bodied 4 point mule deer. I took about a 300-325 yard shot with my 30-06 with the factory 150 grainer. The bullet performed flawlessly. He took about 2 step and dropped.

My dad hunts elk with his 30-06 and 180grain factory remington corelokts. It seems without fail the perfectly muchroomed bullet is recovered under the hide on the far side with 100% weight retention. I don't understand how it doesn't lose any weight. Must be something special about that 2400 to 2800 fps, maybe thats why there are so many good rounds designed in that velocity span. Same result on a 50 yard shot as a 250 yard shot. I wouldn't hesitate to use this load on anything in north america, the bullet is plenty tough for this velocity range.

quote:

Originally posted by willmckee:
what's the concensus of the performance of these?

Hey Willmckee, They perform quite well for a Standard Grade bullet. But I've seen the accuracy vary from Lot to Lot. In either situation, they were plenty accurate enough for Hunting inside 400yds.

quote:

i know they're not a premium but confine the use to moderate velocity rifles way 2400-3000fps.[/quote}Depending on the particular Remington Design you are talking about, that will work just fine.

[quote]the reason i'm asking, i could have sworn i'd read in rifle or handloader that these days the corelokts are just a plain, ordinary conventional bullet sharing only the name with their predecessor and the old peters inner belted.

All that is "True" for a specific Time Frame. Many of the old designs had the Inner Belt, then they phased it out, and now as you found out they have brought it back on "some" of the Bullets. The reason I say "some" is they may choose not to do it on all the Bullets.

quote:

i shoot lots of these because they're cheap but have never used on game. ...

I use a lot of the Plated Hollow Points(PLHPs) for plinking around and on Varmints. They average in the 8s with randomly selected Bullets and perform just fine. These are not Inner Belted, but have the Jacket Plated onto a Lead Core - similar to a Speer Gold Dot.

Really fine, inexpensive Bullets that have always worked well for me too.

I would think 3000fps might be the high end of the spectrum for a core-lokt on anything bigger than a coyote.

I have found tht 150 gr Pt Core Lokts work great in the 308 Win, but in the 300 Win Mag, they are too soft and quite violent on impact under 300 yards.

i've noticed the same thing abt accuracy varying. and i only sectioned a 165 gr 308. will try some of the others. i don't spend much time at a bench beyond sighting in and for field positions they're as accurate as i can use tho i will admit some cases have been disappointing even to me. the worst has been GI type 7.62nato's. so far neither an ar10, m1a or a couple of fals has shot them as well as mixed headstamp berdan stuff in 2 different weights i've tried. 243's, 30-06's, 300 winmag's and 270's tho seem to like them just fine.

i do agree w/ the cost issue and were i to get to go on some expensive hunt i'd likely invest in better bullets. but the gist of my question was is their performance so bad or erratic that they couldn't be counted on. doesn't sound like it.

Core-lokt is not a dirty word here. Thesebullets have proven their value time and time again...they're good bullets ...period.

If I'm on an expensive hunt however I'll use the best I can get.....and that usually means A-Frames etc. Are they a lot better?.....NO!!!!! But enough so to pay the insurance premium for the hunt. Premium bullets are not a guarantee.....only an increased chance of performance. I believe they're worth it for big game and hi dollar hunts.

quote:

Originally posted by willmckee:
i've noticed the same thing abt accuracy varying. and i only sectioned a 165 gr 308. will try some of the others. ...

Hey Will, I appreciate you mentioning that was in the 165gr 30cal. Just walked in to look and I've got about 250-300 of them, but I'm sure the ones I have are in that Time Gap which do not have the Inner Belt. And I have maybe 50-60 of the older 150gr-ers left.

I've shot both 30cal Rems in the 308Win and 30-06, so I did not have any "Impacts" above 2700fps or so. Have not shot them in a 300WinMag or faster cartridge, so I'm "guessing" when I think "my older ones" would be a bit fragile - up close - at higher Impact Velocities.

And I'd also be "guessing" the Inner Belted ones you have might do just fine in the 300WinMag on Deer and Hogs. As Seafire mentioned, the old Round Nose Inner Belted Bullets were both very accurate and great on-game performers. I've used a lot of those old 180gr-ers in the larger cartridges and they really did perform very well.
---

But it really doesn't matter what the bullet is, someone always has had a problem of some sort with them - except for the Barnes TSX. I've not used any of them, but I've yet to read anything negative about them at all.
---

It would be difficult to find a better bullet for your 30-06 than the 165gr Inner Belted Rem for Deer and Hogs when the Lot accuracy meets your needs. And the price is right for plinking.

Nothing at all wrong with the Premiums and I agree there are outstanding Premium designs available.

They work well in the 2300 fps range from a 30-30 but in 30-06 and 7RM I've had many of them explode and stay in the animal. They blow apart more than ballistic tips for me. I've only shot the 150s, 130s, and 170s. The 170s from a 30-30 are great performers and give a textbook mushroom. My advice would be to keep the MV below 2800 w/ them and you should be fine.

Good Luck

Reloader

I killed 4 goats with 130gr CoreLokts from my 270 this fall, from 70yds to 287, all critters died!

corelokts?

oone of the bests weight retention 30 calibers there is, outside a barnes.

Wish I could find the link to the gent that shot about 40 different types of 30s into media, at different spends... nice poster picture of them laying side by side.. hard to argue with.

and the old corelokt, while NEVER the best bullet for weight retension, was always IN the best bullets..

I WISH they made a .416, .458. and .475 400, 500, and 500gr repectivily, and I would shoot them in big bores.

reloader and I disagree on BT's, but heck, Even my closest and best friends and I disagree on which tequila is the best...

jeffe

quote:

reloader and I disagree on BT's, but heck, Even my closest and best friends and I disagree on which tequila is the best...

I hear ya . If we all agreed on everything it'd be kind of boring.

The only reason I say that about the CLs is that I've had the 150s in 7RM and 150s in 30-06 turn into tiny shrapnel on entry and not exit. Most every BT i've ever had not exit had the solid base w/ a chunk of lead still in it stuck aginst the hide on the far side. Seems like the CLs have a supersoft jacket that will shred under high velocity impacts but, never lost an animal because of it .

Reloader

Corelocks ? I like um!!! load the 30cal. 170s down in a .308 for the woods, works great. Bill439

I've shot a fair number of red deer (mostly hinds, yearlings and fawns) with 180 grs Core-Lokts out of a .30-06. Never had reason to complain. Sometimes the deer dropped where they stood, sometimes they didn't...

I recently shot a fair size wild boar with the same combination. Since I hit the boar with a high shoulder shot, it fell over immediately, squealed loudly and died. BUT, the bullet did not exit, and if I had needed to look for the pig, I would have had a hard time.

Consequently, I think Core-Lokts are fine for lighter game, but they would not be my first choice when tough game is on the menu...

- mike

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
...Wish I could find the link to the gent that shot about 40 different types of 30s into media, at different spends... nice poster picture of them laying side by side.. hard to argue with....

Hey Jeffe, I believe you are looking for Mr. Gary Sciuchetti's Bullet Comparison Test.

No doubt at all it is the very best Bullet Comparison Test I've ever seen in the civilian world.

Ya'll be sure to check how well the 180gr RN Rem did in comparison to the rest.

When culling does on a local plantation, we have used just about every load combination possible. We keep records of the number taken, range, bullet, caliber, etc...We have taken enough deer to see what works and doesn't and after 10 years data there were only two bullets that had zero failures ever: Nosler partition and the plain ol Corelokt. Great bullet in my opinion....not flashy, but sufficiently accurate and they really drop them in their tracks!

My two cents worth.

quote:

Originally posted by Allan DeGroot:
What you are paying for in a "premium bullet" is predictable performance.

Yeah, mabey the more ordinary bullets will work ok, but sometimes they work less than "ideally" on game.

For a reloader the extra cost for actual-at-game-shots is trivial in the greater scheme of things.

Assuming a 30 caliber 165gr bullet: (Per Bullet)
1) Nosler partition will run $0.44 ($21.99/50)
2)Barnes TSX $0.56 ($27.99/50)
3)Barnes XBT-XLC $0.59 (29.49/50)
4)Swift A-frame $0.78 ($38.99/50)

How many of these premium bullets are you actually going to send downrange?
One box is usually enough to work up TWO or more acceptable loads and another box makes 50rounds
Assume two rounds for sight checking before beginning to hunt (further assuming that your "fouling shots" will use some cheaper bullet)

What inexpensive bullets are GREAT for is practice.
even if you know they don't shoot as well as what you intend to use, or don't trust their terminal performance
Practice is always a good thing....

I spend time effort and money and not a small ammont of luck to get my sights on a game animal why take a chance that'll throw it away to save $0.50 on the bullet you use?



AllanD

Allan,

Arguments like that always remind me of the scenario of:

Practice drinking by just using Cheap beer at home... but when you go out with friends, switch over to champaign....

Learn to handle your liquor on beer, and handling it on Champaign will be a breeze......

I use Partitions at times... but that is about it on spendy trendy bullets...About any Speer or Hornady bullet will work just fine... sierra is the only game bullet I have ever had problems with... and that was actually the bullet being too hard!

I am not out hunting to impress anyone...

not knocking your opinion, I am pointing out just the way I see it, ...

cheers
seafire

I have loaded and shot a bunch of corelokts. Mostly 150, 165 and 180 grain PSPCL's and have recover very few of the, none on deer, one from a large feral hog, a 150 grain bullet, hit thru the shoulders at close range from a 300 Win. mag. Bullet weighed 76 grains intact under the hide on the far side. I have never had the so called shrapnel effect but have had a few over expand. I presently load the 165 in my 308 and truthfully I don't need better bullet performance from that rifle. They shoot into an inch most of the time. I have seen more animals killed using the corelokt in various factory loads than all other bullets combined and seldom to never seen evidence that a solid complaint could be lodged. I cansee complaining about the mystery results some others post but in my experience they appear to be fabricated.

Rick, You must not have shot too too many of them.

They are the worst penetrators we've seen around our camp and that's mostly on average sized whitetails. The biggest entrance holes I've ever seen in deer were w/ CLs. I've seen deer shot w/ light weight CLs from magnums on the shoulder point that had entrance holes you could have most likely stuck a coke can in. In those cases you couldn't even find the bullet inside the deer, just shrapnel. I've shot a pile of animals w/ the 150s out of an old auto 30-06 and a Savage 110 bolt and it seemed that almost every time I shot one up close in the woods the bullets would not come out unless they were perfectly Broadside and nothing but ribs were hit. I've heard many fellow hunters complain about corelocts not exiting on deer and can think of two just this past season. When pushing 150 grain bullets at 2950-3100 fps MV the two softest bullets the fellas that I hunt w/ and I have found were Hornady SSTs and Rem CLs. The Hdy Interlocts on the other hand seem to hold just a little better. Probably very limited results though the few guys that I hunt w/ and I only kill around 50 big game animals a year combined .

I've only taken 50+ animals w/ CLs so, that may not be many to some of you to get a good feel for a certain bullet but, I personally feel it's a pretty good amount to evaluate their overall effectiveness. The only rifle they're going to see of mine is going to be a 30-30 and maybe for fouler shots in others. They work well when velocity is slowed. The heavier CLs are much better so I hear, the lighter ones have just left too much of a bad taste in my mouth.

Good Luck

Reloader

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
Allan,

Arguments like that always remind me of the scenario of:

Practice drinking by just using Cheap beer at home... but when you go out with friends, switch over to champaign....

Learn to handle your liquor on beer, and handling it on Champaign will be a breeze......

I use Partitions at times... but that is about it on spendy trendy bullets...About any Speer or Hornady bullet will work just fine... sierra is the only game bullet I have ever had problems with... and that was actually the bullet being too hard!

I am not out hunting to impress anyone...

not knocking your opinion, I am pointing out just the way I see it, ...

cheers
seafire

MY technique for practice is one that is practiced by Uncle Sam in training tank gunners.

the real "warshots" are more accurate than the
the practice rounds.

For accuracy testing use what you are going to use to hunt, but for the purposes of maintaing familiarity with the particular firearm
there is little if any purpose in wasting "the good stuff"

Shooting at reaction targets a bullet that shoots to 2-MOA will still hit a 5" disc at 200yds. and most shots are inside 200yards.

Would you use "good bullets" for fireforming cases or the cheapest you could find?

My hunting ammo is all loaded into once fired
neck sized brass.

I make that once-fired neck-sized brass by loading it first as "practice" (aka informal target practice) ammunition with a cheaper bullet with the same weight and similar BC.

All hunting ammunition is cycled through the rifle for which is loaded before that ammunition is boxed and labeled and L O N G
before it goes out in the field...

The thing is I could load the more expensive bullets for my practice but it wouldn't help anything and cost much more, so I'd shoot less
and would not be as proficient as I am....

All in all it's more like a wedding rehersal
where everyone is there, but nobody is wearing their formal clothes....

AllanD

150 grain Remington CL in front of 68 grains of H1000 in a 7mm mag going about 2900 fps.

Looks OK to me.