Has anyone ever had a Core Lokt truly "fail"

[ryan80]

There are so many ways that I could preface this, but let me just say that this "antiquated" bullet is one of the true great performers over so many decades and my quest for expensive premium bullets is reverting a bit to a classic. In a 30-06, like my personal baby, the versatility is amazing. I have recently used 165 grains on white tails and feel that 180 grains are quite effective for deer and elk and the 220 grains (currently under $16 per box with free shipping at Midway) are an incredibly underrated round for anything from pigs, deer, bears, elk, moose, and plains game under 200 yards (which most of us need to admit covers 90% of the hunting done on the planet.) I have friends that live off of the 130 grain in their 270s and see no reason to ever use anything else for deer, sheep, antelope, etc.

In this spirit, has anyone truly had a bad story, bullet failure (which I personally define as a lost animal on a good shot, NOT a separation)? Please educate me if you have, but I have really tried to follow the bad stories on this wonderful forum that offers so much generous experience and advice and I just don't see much negative on this cheap and reliable round. Thanks in advance!

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I love coreloct, but how will you know it a good shot if you lose the animal? I would always wonder if I missed. IMO a separation is a failure on a big game bullet.

 

[crs]

Years ago, back when I learned that Remington Core Lokt 150 grain .308 ammo was as accurate in my M70 FWT .308 as my hand loads(sub minute of angle) , I switched to Remington and used them as my deer bullet for 20+ years. When a bullet did not shoot through and was recovered, it was always a classic mushroom.

Later, I switched to Hornady Lite Magnum 150 grain and then to Superperformance 165 grain with the same results. Still use the latter on hogs, deer, elk, exotics, etc with no problems.

 

[ryan80]

Wyatt, obviously u are right on on not truly knowing if it is a good shot if you don't recover the animal and I am very sure that you have far more experience and knowledge than I do. I respectfully disagree, however, on your definition of "failure." And I know that I am likely in the minority here on theat definition of "failure", however, I would argue that a single shot and a run of under 100 yards, no matter the condition of the bullet, is NOT a failure.

 

[sestoppelman]

Many years ago the CEO or some big top at Remington was asked about why a recovered bullet had failed to perform properly. His answer is a classic. He said, "at what point in the animals death did the bullet fail".
Mind you this was in the days when the only "premium" bullet was the Nosler Partition.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I doubt I have more experience than you, so take my word as you want. But I call a failure doing something it wasn’t designed to do. A core loct was not designed to separate, so I call it a failure. Yes I know they still kill, and they are one of my most used bullets, second to Speer hot cores.

 

[sestoppelman]

I doubt I have more experience than you, so take my word as you want. But I call a failure doing something it wasn’t designed to do. A core loct was not designed to separate, so I call it a failure. Yes I know they still kill, and they are one of my most used bullets, second to Speer hot cores.

Was merely passing along an old story, don't get excited.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Was merely passing along an old story, don't get excited.

I didn’t even see your post, you must have been just before me. I was responding to Ryan. I’m not excited, I love Core Lokt bullets.

 

[sestoppelman]

I didn’t even see your post, you must have been just before me. I was responding to Ryan. I’m not excited, I love Core Lokt bullets.

LOL! And I didn't see Ryan's post or your reply would have made more sense! Lesson: read all the posts before posting. Now we got that cleared up!

 

[ryan80]

Wyatt, what a great forum where we can kinda disagree but still partially agree have a great conversation. This is severely lacking these days.

I will play a bit of devils advocate here and ask, is a bullet designed and manufactured to kill or to not come apart? Obviously this is a silly argument, but I feel very strongly that results are far more important than cosmetics. Since u r a core Lokt fan, I am sure u have experienced their killing power. Frankly, the postings of our most respected friends @Major Khan and @Kawshik Rahman have really made me take a second look at the 220 grain core Lokt in 30-06. This pill just seems to be far more useful than I had known. I full realize that this isn’t a dangerous game or long range cartridge vs so many great options today, but what a price! If I decided to leave the world behind and go to Alaska for a simpler existence, a few boxes of 180 and 220 core lokts might just keep me fed forever at less than $1 per round. I really do want to know if anyone can cite failures in this cheap and useful round.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I have loaded some 220 Hornady bullets to about 2350 in my 30-06. Super accurate, and the recoil seemed milder than my 180 loads. I need to test them on game. I should try the Remington factory loads for that price, I did get a couple boxes of 180 grain PSP though.

 

[ActionBob]

You could certainly do worse than to take a trusty 30-06 and box or two of 220 grain core lokt's on a general PG and night critter hunt. They'll hit hard and penetrate deep on the largest Plains Game and move slow enough to not blow up little critters.

 

[BRICKBURN]

I have learned the hard way that Core-lokt bullets are not meant for, lets call it, less than optimum shot angles.
Also, close range shots when they are moving fast I have had absolutely useless penetration on two Elk and a Moose.
That same bullet at a longer range, when the bullet slowed down, knocked that Moose over, literally. It penetrated the entire broadside and was found in the offside shoulder under the skin.
The first bullet had penetrated the neck only a few inches. Shot was taken under 50 yards.

Lesson learned when using the Core-lokt bullets; Don't take a shot at a less than perfect angle and certainly not while they are under 100 yards. What would you call it?; over expansion / lack of penetration/ failure.

It's the only weakness in an otherwise good bullet.
Deadly accurate, always expand.
I'll use them and keep a mind to the limitations.

 

[BenKK]

One of the best, kindest, most decent human beings I know wanted buffalo meat and a set of horns. Away we went, and located a huge old bull in a swamp. His first Core-lokt from his Savage .308 missed and the buffalo hit the afterburners, range about 150m. His second shot, on the run, hit halfway back - and dropped it instantly with a spine shot.

I was amazed. I would not recommend either the bullet or the rifle for buffalo.

 

[Forrest Halley]

The name is deceptive. It is the most deceptive mushroom in the woods, but I don't know about how deadly it is. I have had poor results with the 150 in .308 where the jackets were found in the far side of a turkey hit at 10 yards. I have had good results on whitetail with the 150 gr. in 300 WM at various ranges. I dunno if I'd use it on bigger animals. I'm always ready to follow up with it.

 

[larry4831]

I have a 270 Winchester, 700 CDL with a 4 1/2 to 14 Leopold scope. A guy gave me half a box of core loft 270 Winchester 150 grain round nose. I never liked bullets heavier than 140 grain in the 270 Winchester but he gave them to me so I figured I would take them out and shoot them at 100 yards to see how they did. I shot 2 five shot groups and both groups you could cover with a quarter. I couldn’t believe such an inexpensive round would shoot that well.

 

[Velo Dog]

Fellow Hunters,

I prefer vintage design and much dreaded “cup and core” rifle bullets.
The more lead exposed at the tip the better, in my moderate velocity experiences.
Furthermore, I definitely do not prefer hollow point type bullets of any description for big game hunting.
However, owning several hunting rifles, I have the luxury of being able to do as Robert Ruark once said, “Always use enough gun”.
Likewise, I will add to his excellent advice, “Always use enough bullet” as well.

In other words, I prefer heavy for caliber / high sectional density bullets, at moderate velocity, for the vast majority of my hunting plans.
I agree with those chaps here in the world’s greatest forum who, have already spoken highly of the 220 grain round nose bullet in .30-06.
I have used that load, both here in Alaska and in Africa, with 100% success.

When discussing bullets for hunting, I wonder if many of the core and jacket separations happen from using a light for caliber bullet weight and therefore there is a somewhat high impact velocity during close-range shots.
Of course, when planning something like a pronghorn or coyote hunt in open grasslands, a light spitzer at high velocity would be a good idea and my preferred choice.

Any discussion of hunting bullets is incomplete without mention of premium bonded core bullets so popular today.
My preference for these is the Swift A-Frame.
That said and for what I do, the almost antique status Remington Core-Lokt and Hornady Inter-Lock, round nose bullets work so well that I have not really needed A-Frames (sure is interesting when one occasionally does not exit, to then dig it out of a bagged critter, for examination during the butchering process though).

Cheers,
Velo Dog.

 

[Dwight Beagle]

When I was growing up we had two centerfire rifles for hunting, a 1903 Springfield and a .303 Lee Enfield. Neither of them were sporterized. My dad always bought Remington Corelokts for them so I guess that’s why I bought Corelokts when I purchased my .270 700 ADL in 1972 when I was 13. The .270 took my one and only elk in the early 80’s and a couple of Nilgai in the 90’s. Not knowing any better I used 130 grain Corelokts and they worked fine. I’ve continued to use Corelokts to this day because they seem to be pretty accurate. I use them in 30-06, 30-30 and .270. The only rifle I have that doesn’t like Corelokts is a Weatherby Vanguard .243. I shoot Winchester Power-Points in it. I also don’t use Corelokts in my CZ 550 American 6.5x55 because American 6.5x55 ammo is pretty anemic with the exception of Hornady Superformance SST.

 

[ryan80]

One of the best, kindest, most decent human beings I know wanted buffalo meat and a set of horns. Away we went, and located a huge old bull in a swamp. His first Core-lokt from his Savage .308 missed and the buffalo hit the afterburners, range about 150m. His second shot, on the run, hit halfway back - and dropped it instantly with a spine shot.

I was amazed. I would not recommend either the bullet or the rifle for buffalo.

I know absolutely NOTHING about water buffalo or hunting them, but any 150 grain pill out of a 308 sounds very light for what appears to be a very large and thick skinned animal.

 

[Bullthrower338]

I was recently speaking with the Rigby Rep and he is in love with the corelokt bullet, although he loads his own ammo. The conversation surprised me greatly. I have shot quite a few animals with Corelokt bullets, nothing bigger than a cow elk and they are all dead and long since digested! Never lost an animal using them either. But I seldom hunt with factory ammo these days and prefer a Swift A-Frame for heavier game and Barnes or Nosler Accubonds for the rest, with an occasional Speer Grand Slam thrown in for old time sake.
I have seen several jacket separations of the Remington bullet but I’ve also seen failures of “premium” bullets. Shoot enough venison and you will see some things that are hard to explain. I believe impact velocity is usually the root cause of those hard to explain performance issues. Dark timber hunting, slower and heavier seems to be the best flavor, save the hi-vel for cross canyon shooting if that’s your thing.