Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition; Since 1939, more hunters have relied on Remington Core-Lokt than any other big game ammunition, and rightly so. It’s filled more tags on more continents than any other load. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition is the original controlled expansion bullet. Its time-proven performance has made it hunting’s first choice for over 75 years.

The tapered copper jacket is locked to a solid lead core delivering massive 2X expansion, weight retention and consistent on-game results. Available in soft point and pointed soft point versions, and in a range of bullet weights for virtually every centerfire hunting caliber made. Trust your next hunt to the best-selling hunting ammunition of all time. This ammunition is new production, non-corrosive, in boxer primed, reloadable brass cases.

Core-Lokt History
In the late 1930s, the Peters Cartridge Co. (owned by Remington) introduced a controlled-expansion type of bullet called the “Belted.” The design was rather simple, although it was complex to manufacture. The Belted .30-cal.

bullet started as a standard 220-grain hollow point with a gilded metal jacket. A short, separate band around the outside brought the weight up 225 grains and was swaged into the final diameter of the bullet.

Upon impact, the nose of the bullet started to upset, but it was checked by the band, and expansion was limited. With expansion curbed, though, the bullet did retain most of its weight to penetrate deeply.

It’s not much of a stretch to say that Remington based its Core-Lokt bullet on the Belted. However, original Core-Lokts were constructed with a thickened jacket on the outside at the midpoint of the jacket. In the final swaging of the bullet, the thick jacket was pressed inward to lock it to the core.

It was plain to see the Core-Lokt was the better of the two bullets in ease of manufacture and performance on game. Remington initially loaded the bullet in Open Point (or “mushroom”) and Soft Point forms for 18 cartridges in its Kleanbore Hi-Speed and Express ammunition.

Peters eventually dropped its Belted bullet in favor of the Core-Lokt. In the Peters brand of cartridges, however, the bullet was called the “Inner-Belted.”

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World War II put a stop to the manufacture of commercial ammunition, and it wasn’t until 1952 that Remington introduced its Core-Lokt Pointed Soft Point bullets. Few hunters back then worried much about shooting game at extended distances. Nonetheless, the BC of PSP bullets was about 40 percent higher than the BC of Soft Point projectiles. PSP bullets were constructed with a thin jacket at the tip with shallow cuts to initiate expansion.

In 2010, Remington introduced the Core-Lokt Ultra Bonded featuring a PSP bullet with its lead core bonded to its jacket. Remington advertisements stated the bullet expanded at all practical velocities and yet retained 95 percent of its original weight. The bullets are currently loaded in Remington’s Hypersonic Bonded cartridges. They cost about 50 cents apiece more than Core-Lokt cartridges.

The Core-Lokt Tipped (r.) is not the first spitzer-shaped big-game bullet that Remington has made—the Bronze Point (l.) was also offered many years ago. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

Core-Lokt Tipped
Jon Langenfeld has worked as a product engineer for Remington Ammunition during the past 10 years and was recently promoted to manager of the research and development team.

Langenfeld wears many green Remington hats supervising production of all aspects of rimfire, centerfire and shotshell ammunition and also the components to make the ammunition.

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While adding a polymer tip to a Core-Lokt bullet seems like it should be fairly straightforward, Langenfeld said developing a specific load for a cartridge requires upwards of six months of work from start to finish. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

Selecting a propellant and a charge weight takes time. “We also test other powders as backups in case a vendor cannot supply the powder we originally wanted to load,” Langenfeld said.

Because cartridges may be fired in the sweat of summer or bitter cold of winter, loads are also tested for velocity, pressure and accuracy in different environmental conditions. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

As work progresses toward a final load for a given cartridge, time must be set aside on loading machines to run large samples. “We test those loads in four or five different rifles with different barrel lengths and action types,” Langenfeld said. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

Functioning issues may arise or accuracy may not be quite up to par. Adjusting bullet seating depth may be all that’s required to solve such problems.

“The proof of all that testing is when the cartridges are scaled up to production levels,” Langenfeld said.

A Montana Rifle Co. American Legends Rifle chambered in .270 Win. was used to test Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunitionwith excellent results. Five, three-shot groups through the rifle, using the company’s new 130-grain load, averaged 1.01″ at 100 yards.

To determine how precisely Remington cartridges topped with Core-Lokt Tipped bullets were loaded, I put some .308 Win. cartridges under the microscope, so to speak, of a Hornady Lock-N-Load Bullet Comparator and RCBS Case Master Gauging Tool. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

The Bullet Comparator measured the length from the face of the head of cases to the ogive of 165-grain Tipped bullets. The lengths of five cartridges varied only 0.003″.

The Gauging Tool indicated bullet runout of 0.002″, 0.0015″, 0.002″, 0.001″ and 0.0015″ for five cartridges. Overall cartridge length varied 0.006″ between the five cartridges. Many handloaders wish they could emulate such exact bullet seating. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

Remington is initially loading its Core-Lokt Tipped bullets in nine cartridges and 13 loads, from .243 Win. loaded with 95-grain bullets to .300 Win. Mag. seated with 180-grain projectiles.

All Tipped bullets wear a boattail, except the .243-cal., which has a flat base. Langenfeld said the ogive on some Tipped bullets are secant while others have a tangent shape.

Rising interest in long-range shooting is evident from magazine articles and website posts, and companies would be missing out by failing to offer products to meet that demand. So the whole idea of the green polymer tip is to increase the aerodynamics of Core-Lokt bullets.

As an example, the .30-cal., 150-grain PSP Core-Lokt has a G1 BC of 0.314, while the same diameter and weight Tipped bullet carries a 0.415 BC. Say both bullets are fired from a .308 Win. at a muzzle velocity of 2,820 f.p.s.—the Tipped bullet’s higher BC results in nearly 1.5″ less drop and 180 f.p.s. more velocity than the PSP Core-Lokt at 300 yards. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition For sale

The Tipped bullet also retains 60 percent of its original energy, while the PSP retains 51 percent. Way out at 500 yards, the Tipped bullet really pulls away from the PSP with 8.5″ less drop and 263 f.p.s. of additional velocity. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

The Tipped bullet has also held onto 41 percent of its original energy, compared to 31 percent for the PSP. Another way of looking at the Tipped bullet’s advantage is it carries about the same velocity and energy at 500 yards as the PSP bullet does at 350 yards.

Despite concerns that his Ruger M77 Ultra Light in .308 Win. was too well-worn to produce good accuracy, the author managed to shoot this respectable group at 100 yards using 165-grain Remington Core-Lokt Tipped bullets, which contributed to a five-group average of 1.34″.

So increased downrange performance is accomplished with the Tipped bullet’s better ballistics, not by firing a regular bullet from a larger cartridge with more propellant to achieve that higher velocity. A 180-grain Tipped bullet, fired at 2,745 f.p.s. from a .30-’06 Sprg. has only about 3″ of additional drop at 400 yards compared to a .300 Win. Mag. firing a 180-grain PSP bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,980 f.p.s.

Core-Lokt Tipped bullets are formed with a hollow point, filled with a polymer tip. On contact with game, the tip is shoved back into the hollow point to start expansion. “Once the initial expansion starts, fluid can now flow into the cavity of the bullet, causing full expansion,” Langenfeld said. “Tipped bullets provide very similar performance on game as regular Core-Lokt bullets.”

Controlling that expansion can be a problem. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition do this with a thin jacket at the nose that progressively thickens halfway down its length and then somewhat thins toward the shank.

This hourglass shape tightly swages the jacket to the core and helps hold the core in place in the jacket when the bullet expands. I cut a .30-cal. 165-grain Tipped bullet lengthwise in half to look for that thickened section. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

The cannelure was the only part of the jacket visibly crimped into the core. Melting out the lead core failed to show any hourglass figure to the jacket, however, the jacket greatly thickened from the nose toward the middle and down to the base. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

Langenfeld and I went on a Texas mule deer hunt to test the Tipped bullets (sidebar, below), during which he carried a custom .270 Win.-chambered rifle.

The 130-grain Core-Lokt Tipped bullet he fired from it hit his buck through the lungs and broke the far shoulder where it came to rest. The bullet expanded back about three-quarters of its length and retained its core to hold onto 51 percent of its original weight.

I shot a 165-grain Core-Lokt Tipped bullet from a .308 Win.-chambered rifle that hit my buck at a distance of about 150 yards. Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Rifle Ammunition

The bullet shattered the buck’s near humerus bone, plowed through the front of the lungs and broke the opposite humerus, where it stopped. After that rough ride, the recovered bullet had been mashed pretty flat, however, some of the core remained attached to the jacket, and the bullet weighed 61 grains—or 37 percent of its original weight.

I’ve shot Remington factory-loaded Core-Lokts and handloaded Core-Lokt bullets for decades. Just the other day, I found a box of 6 mm 100-grain Pointed Soft Point Core-Lokt bullets. The red box wore a $7.83 price tag, and I must have bought them at least 45 years ago.

For old times’ sake, I handloaded a batch of them with 46.5 grains of W780 propellant in .243 Win. cases. On a blustery November day, I shot them through a pre-’64 Winchester Model 70 Featherweight, and my five, three-shot groups at 100 yards averaged 1.56″.

Features

• Consistent 2x expansion for large terminal wound channels
• Deep Penetration and high weight retention
• Bullet cores “Lokt” in place to provide deep penetration
• Jacket designed for progressive, reliable expansion to almost twice the original diameter