A deer for the books

[RockyMtnMT]

No cor-loct ever made looks like that with a 3k impact velocity, including the round nose version heavy for cal style. At 3 k impact, that bullet is effectively a frangible. Especially a 150 in 30 cal. Low sectional density, cup core bullet, not buying it looked like that. No offense intended, but I am not buying all the "facts" as stated.

I have never used a corloct bullet. Do they not mushroom? Whatever that bullet is, it looks like it performed as designed. Problem is it is too soft and squished so much on the impact that it "dumped" most of it's "energy" on the shoulder. In other words it created a large surface wound on the shoulder at the impact. This is where all the blood came from. Then it passed through the top of the lungs without enough velocity to tear a permanent wound. Along with the slow velocity going through vital tissue the rounded mushroom gently passes through the vital tissue.

This bullet may have done better if the impact velocity was lower. It likely wouldn't have squished so much on impact that it would have retained more velocity to pass through and create a larger permanent wound in the lungs. This is a good example of how "energy dumping" bullets can fail when they work perfectly as designed.

 

[ChanceInTexas]

Like others have already said, shot looked high to me. Couple that with the upward angle and the result makes sense.

 

[QSYB1]

No cor-loct ever made looks like that with a 3k impact velocity, including the round nose version heavy for cal style. At 3 k impact, that bullet is effectively a frangible. Especially a 150 in 30 cal. Low sectional density, cup core bullet, not buying it looked like that. No offense intended, but I am not buying all the "facts" as stated.

Use them much? I love uninformed opinions, or peeps that just spew 'facts'.

I shot a TX Hill country deer in the shoulder at 30 yards with a 100gr Corelokt from a .243. MV is 2960, so impact would have been pretty high. Bullet hit the biggest joint in the shoulder, deer went straight down. It did not exit and looked exactly like the bullet in the photos above - a perfect mushroom. It was just under the hide in the offside.

I've shot well over 100 WT deer with that bullet and I've never seen one explode or be 'frangible', even on bone, even at close range.

 

[ButterBean]

No cor-loct ever made looks like that with a 3k impact velocity, including the round nose version heavy for cal style. At 3 k impact, that bullet is effectively a frangible. Especially a 150 in 30 cal. Low sectional density, cup core bullet, not buying it looked like that. No offense intended, but I am not buying all the "facts" as stated.

Buy it or not Fordy is the salt of the earth and if he said you can chisel it in stone

 

[ButterBean]

It just goes to show how tough critters are and the will to live is incredible

 

[Allen Kitts]

Great Story and congrats to your buddy for getting his stag. I shot the first three Bull Elk in Montana with a 140 grain core-lokt bullet from Remington Factory ammo and all of them looked like that and all three were recovered from the animal. One did completely separate from the jacket but the mushroom looked exactly like that and I found the jacket inside the elk as well. I would not consider them to be the best bullet for all game species but I can tell you we took lots of elk and mule deer in Montana in the first ten years we lived here and all of them were with Remington Core-Lokt ammunition.

 

[BillLarson]

Buy it or not Fordy is the salt of the earth and if he said you can chisel it in stone

Use them much? I love uninformed opinions, or peeps that just spew 'facts'.

I shot a TX Hill country deer in the shoulder at 30 yards with a 100gr Corelokt from a .243. MV is 2960, so impact would have been pretty high. Bullet hit the biggest joint in the shoulder, deer went straight down. It did not exit and looked exactly like the bullet in the photos above - a perfect mushroom. It was just under the hide in the offside.

I've shot well over 100 WT deer with that bullet and I've never seen one explode or be 'frangible', even on bone, even at close range.

Since 1962 most of our group of 9 hunters used rem.corlokt bullets.... lotsa deer shot on drives.... in timber and swamps......way over 100.....
I don,t remember any getting away....Biggest deer of my career was an 8pt. 200# at 40 yds...2 chest shots anchored him.Bullets performed exactly as pic.above.....
Proof enough for me and many others....

 

[CMP70306]

Use them much? I love uninformed opinions, or peeps that just spew 'facts'.

I shot a TX Hill country deer in the shoulder at 30 yards with a 100gr Corelokt from a .243. MV is 2960, so impact would have been pretty high. Bullet hit the biggest joint in the shoulder, deer went straight down. It did not exit and looked exactly like the bullet in the photos above - a perfect mushroom. It was just under the hide in the offside.

I've shot well over 100 WT deer with that bullet and I've never seen one explode or be 'frangible', even on bone, even at close range.

Since 1962 most of our group of 9 hunters used rem.corlokt bullets.... lotsa deer shot on drives.... way over 100.....
I don,t remember any getting away....Biggest deer of my career was an 8pt. 200# at 40 yds...2 chest shots anchored him.Bullets performed exactly as pic.above.....
Proof enough for me and many others....

Our group ditched them in the 90s when Hornady came out with the light magnums in the 30-06. The corelockt would kill but they would take forever to die and leave meager blood trails even with a double lung shot. The Interlock followed by the SST gave substantially better performance on deer so we switched and we never looked back.

 

[ButterBean]

Use them much? I love uninformed opinions, or peeps that just spew 'facts'.

I shot a TX Hill country deer in the shoulder at 30 yards with a 100gr Corelokt from a .243. MV is 2960, so impact would have been pretty high. Bullet hit the biggest joint in the shoulder, deer went straight down. It did not exit and looked exactly like the bullet in the photos above - a perfect mushroom. It was just under the hide in the offside.

I've shot well over 100 WT deer with that bullet and I've never seen one explode or be 'frangible', even on bone, even at close range.

Since 1962 most of our group of 9 hunters used rem.corlokt bullets.... lotsa deer shot on drives.... way over 100.....
I don,t remember any getting away....Biggest deer of my career was an 8pt. 200# at 40 yds...2 chest shots anchored him.Bullets performed exactly as pic.above.....
Proof enough for me and many others....

I quoted the wrong post, all apologies Bill
Bean

 

[Muddyboots]

Buy it or not Fordy is the salt of the earth and if he said you can chisel it in stone

I spent a lot of time in Aussieland on business and the one absolute you can take to the bank is the frankness and sometimes brutal honesty of these "blokes"! Don't ask a question unless prepared for between the eyes answer. Made my job heck of a lot easier when problem solving.!

I was once called a "bloke in training" and considered that the utmost compliment that you could receive from them.

 

[Jon Bischof]

I want modify my earlier statement. This wasn't really a bullet failure. Usually when we talk about bullet performance failure, we mean a bullet that fails to expand or a bullet that overexpands, fragments or otherwise loses so much mass that it fails to penetrate.

This 150 grain Corelokt performed as it was designed. It mushroomed and penetrated almost all the way through this 550 lb stag. It is a bullet designed for light skinned game and works well on whitetail and mule deer here in the States. But this specific case, it just took on more than it was designed to do.

I think we can agree that a heavier Corelokt would have probably penetrated farther, resulting in an exit wound which would have been the difference between a stag that lived 6 more months before being shot again and a stag that would have lived 6 more minutes and would have been easily found due to the blood trail.

An animal that big just requires a heavier bullet for penetration (even a Corelokt would penetrate more if heavier). Not saying that many stags aren't killed with 150 grain, just saying 165-180 or even heavier if your rifle likes them would be a better choice for terminal performance on these larger animals.

 

[fordy]

Gday
Man I can see why this young fella is camera shy
We need to give him a little slack as he's just learning the art of putting it all together & man I wish he had of taken more photos & delved a little deeper in those lungs but such is life & we have what we have

I actually think when you look @ the entry it's a bit lower than some think ( myself included @ first ) as you can see ea side of on leg just & direction of hair gives me that impression also look @ lung makeup looks like a lot of scar tissue to me but I will confirm as soon as I get hold of him but he just started back @ work & maybe untouchable for 6 weeks he works 6 on 6 off& phone reception sucks sometimes where he works

Moving on
muddy oh I'd love to say what I really think

This is a better approach I think
@elkfire I'd love to see a corelox act like a frangible so please show actual evidence

To be fair I'll let you know a couple of my cards I've taken the 150 gr in question to impacts of just shy of 3500impact & also on a few big critters some way bigger than this stag easily 3 times along with a lot of goats & never have I seen a corelox act like a frangible but if you say loosing it's core that's a frangible well we have different opinions on what a frangible does so all cool
Looking forward to your reply with pictures hopefully as they are always the best fact finders imo

The guys on here who have used them a little or lot you can tell they have watched the wounds or preformance @ a minimum as from their description & I can't quote everyone you know who you are but the best was Bob as he has put up what these bullets on the whole do & don't do well if I'm interpreting correctly
Although they penertrate a fair bit it's when we delve a little deeper into that wound channel you see why they were slow killers now & then ( it's here I look @ & marvel @ the ability of a few brands of today to take the once common wound channel & push it to a new level )
I found the 150 fairly good on critters to around 180/200 lbs on the whole across multiple impacts & resistance but today we are blessed to have far better pills available

On pill selection no frangible can be relied upon to give consistent results on this impact once again look @ entry side as you need to put these through less resistance to get consistent results

Energy dump pills are just that in my opinion a dump & yes they will work most of the time but your number will get called out in that bingo raffle eventuality if not you your either a great shot , lucky or haven't shot enough critters yet especially under less than ideal circumstances

A exit on a broadside or slight broadside is the most consistent pill across all the angles we will encounter in hunting as a whole as hunters well from my observations but I'll say if you can't dispute when a frangible works well it's very good it's the other side that's gives us that P's saying on preformance

Here's a thought for you lot to ponder on this scenario on needing a heavy to give better results here yes I agree on the whole but I'll also say don't dismiss a lighter pill to do a even better job than your heavy

I'm off testing pills today / tomorrow & it's for all you longrange low impact freaks
So catch you lot in a couple days
Cheers

 

[fordy]

Also I won't be drawn into brands on this thread as usually a show starts & one for me it's to valuable information for a newcomer to not understand so my thoughts if possible can we keep brands out as energy dump pills frangible bonded & the 2 mono types should be all we need to discuss to help the new comers understand a bit more
Let's leave that for another thread I say but we will see
Cheers

 

[Jon Bischof]

Also I won't be drawn into brands on this thread as usually a show starts & one for me it's to valuable information for a newcomer to not understand so my thoughts if possible can we keep brands out as energy dump pills frangible bonded & the 2 mono types should be all we need to discuss to help the new comers understand a bit more
Let's leave that for another thread I say but we will see
Cheers

Agreed! There are two different approaches to deal with/solve your specific challenge.

1. A heavier expanding pill with more penetration. A 165-180 would be more likely to exit; giving you a blood trail to follow and a dead stag on the ground.

2. The other route which I'm sure MONO fans will hyperventilate over is a MONO driven at a much higher velocity. This is only preferable if it gives you better accuracy.