Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

The great ammo debate continues...Just got my first rifle and after asking around the Remington Cor-Loct and Hornady SST seem to be the favorites. Looking to load Savage 111 bolt action 30.06 for deer and pigs. My choice of grain will most likely be 150-165.
Mark

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

I hope you're exaggerating?

The best ammo is, put quite simply, the ammo your particular rifle "likes" best. Not what the guy at the gun counter recommends, nor is your buddy's "favorite load" a sure thing (unless you're sharing a rifle with him).

Buy something readily available. Take it to the range. Shoot it. Compare it to the other brands you bought. Go back and buy the one that seemed the most consistent (try to make sure it's from the same lot).

I've used "cheapo" Core-Lokts, PowerPoints, and Hi-Shoks for years (before I started reloading) and never had a problem with any of them. No, they weren't shooting sub-MOA, nor was that degree of accuracy necessary - all would print 2" groups (some a bit better than others) at 100 yards, and since most of my shots were coming at LESS than 100 yards, 2" was plenty accurate.

Now, if you're shooting beyond that, you'll probably need to start doing someexperimentation with different loads.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

For deer or hogs with a 30-06...any hunting bullet is fine. Some will tell you that hogs are huge and covered with armor...but any hunting bullet from an 06 will place the pig quickly on the ground.

Just find one that shoots groups that you're happy with and that's that!

I had a guy come to our farm and deer hunt a few years back. He owned the bear camp where I went in Ontario. He pulls out a .340 Weatherby and I believe the ammo was "Fail Safe" somewhere in the 200 grain range. These were reccommended to him by a guy at a gun shop as "great deer ammo".

The deer that he shot looked like it had been hit by a Land Rover at 55mph. My point is that you don't need premium expansion or penetration ammo out of a 30 caliber rifle to take down a thin-skinned whitetail.

I'd try the Core-Lokt's. My Rem 760 in .270 loves them.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

I'll put it to you this way. Any time I get a new rifle, the first ammo I try is Cor-Lok. If I can't get decent groups, I switch to something else. 30-30, 30-06, 270, 280...all green boxes. Cant argue with them. Shoot great.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

Either will do the job for you just fine. Grab a box of both and pick the one that gives you the best groups.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

+1

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

I shoot and love my core-lokts, but I have never shot the hornady's.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

x2

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

Gotta agree with the majority. What ever your rifle handles the best is what you should use. Every deer I've shot with a Core-lokt didn't know the difference, and they never took another step.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

I don't hunt pigs but have heard people say they require more then a whitetail in terms of bullet due to body structure and shoulders coming more into play. If such is the case and your shots are on the closer side of things meaning mid 100's down the SST isn't really of any benefit to the situation. It is a rapid expansion bullet that is really designed for longer range, hornady's version of a Nosler Ballistic Tip. While it will work - at higher velocity impacts, especially on a shoulder its expansion can be violent which results in bigger holes and may lead to loss in penetration. If your wanting a comparable bullet to the corelokt by hornady I suggest you try the Interlock SP instead. My experience with them has been positive, taking deer, bear and moose with the bullet in several calibers. Another option if you want a polymer bullet is the Hornady Interbond or Nosler Accubond (loaded by federal and winchester), bonded cores allow this bullet to be a better choice for the close to longer range hunters. Used both of these as well for deer and up, never a problem.

I used corelokt when I wasstarting outworked on deer and a moose buthaven't since I started reloading in my teens.

Research the bullets design, pick the ones that meet the taskand then let your rifle deciede which one to shoot.

Best of Luck

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

Uh, isn't a core loct more comparable with their boat tail soft point?

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

The Hornady InterlockSP & Corelokt are both flat base soft pointed bullets.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

Ok that makes more sense. I think the SST's are more like a premium round.

RE: Remington Cor-Loct vs. Hornady SST
 

#1

It honestly depends on what you're target distance is. Hornady's biggest selling point is superior accuracy. But if you're never taking shots greater than 100 yards that superior accuracy is a difference of three-quarters of an inch which really isn't that big of a deal on an animal the size of a deer. If you're looking at 100-300 yards the SSTs will outperform the Core-lokts every time considering that Hornady uses a more accurate projectile mixed with more consistent and higher quality powder loads. Furthermore, on those longer range shots the lead spire point on the Core-lokts will deform and degrade the performance at a much faster rate than the polymer tips of the SSTs. The final notable difference is that the SSTs are more expensive. So if the pricing is a big point for you, the Core-lokt would be the better choice of the 2, although at that point I would ask that you look at Hornady's spire point line of bullets. All this information aside, the biggest key is that when you decide on the ammo that you want to use, make sure to use the same ammo to sight your rifle in as you will be using when you go hunting. If you decide that you want to change ammo in the future, you will also need to resight in your rifle for the new ammo to truly get the best performance out of it.

At this point we should be asking which bullet is better for killing zombies. Which is appropriate, because the last post before JMoody's is about the time frame when the zombie craze actually started.

I use allot of core-lokts, but for zombies the SST is the correct answer for sure.

Should work very well.

-Jake

I usually would shun necroposting and abstain from responding, but there are a few objective claims I can’t help but question.

Do you have reference for these statements? I’m exceptionally intrigued to read a evidence which confirms these two claims - stating 1) Remington uses objectively lower quality powder than Hornady in their factory ammo, and 2) Hornady loads the SST product lines to an objectively higher consistency than Remington. Naturally, this second statement could be a consistency in powder composition, such I expect gas chromatograms would be required as evidence, or it could be considered a consistency of powder charge weight, which would require a simple statistical analysis of large batches of ammo. Of course, neither would prove an increased consistency in burn rate or efficacy in real-world rifles, as a highly consistent charge weight loaded at an anti-node for a barrel mag not shot as well as a relatively variable charge weight lot which is matched to the node.

This part is patently false. Lead has a higher melting point than most injection molding polymers, such as those included in the SST tips. The ELD’s will rival or reportedly exceed the thermal tolerance of lead, but the SST’s don’t use the Heat Shield(TM) tips used in the ELD lines. The ELD line was created to help close a gap which had existed for Hornady - their most consistent, highest BC product lines were losing aerodynamic advantage at long range, such they were losing out to conventional cup and core BTHP’s. So they developed the ELD Heat Shield tip (and now the A-Tips) to jump them back up into the game. Hornady even acknowledges in their FAQ section that the SST is meant for 0-400yrd hunting, such it doesn’t earn the Heat Shield tips.

But I’m earnestly on the edge of my seat to hear substantiating evidence that Hornady uses higher quality and higher consistency powders. Such evidence could be a stake in the heart of one of Remington’s few surviving business units, although I don’t expect it would bolster Hornady’s already favorable market share.

I don't get the disdain for zombie aka necro threads. The internet is a living thing that is still going to be here in 100 years (most likely). Instead of having 100 smaller threads over a century, might as well just have one century long thread. It would be awesome to watch how thoughts and opinions change over many decades.

Vive la Zombie threads!

cor-locts suk, that's my experience, the sst's are a bit better, want good bullets shoot nosler BT's, accubonds, or bergers
RR

11+ years later and the old core lokt is still selling strong. I know a lot of folks out east swear tooth and nail by them. I myself never really liked them all that much. The old man didn't either. He had one old .06 that shot them super well so he used them in it but had some problems with penetration from them. Our whole family pretty much uses Hornady in our hunting rifles and handguns. We all reload though so I have little to none in experience with factory loading.

its not the rifle's or calibers fault if you get a huge bunch of ruined bloodshot meat,
its the result of the projectile selected and the shot placement,
and the hunters knowledge of the games anatomy.
I regularly hunt ELK with my 340 wby and a 375 H&H,
but I've used the hornady 250 grain in the 340 wby bullet #3335
https://www.hornady.com/bullets/interlock#!/
and the 270 grain 375 H&H, bullet #3711
after decades of using those rifles,and during those deacade,
shooting more than a few mule deer and white tails, during hunts.
I can assure you a well placed shot, to the lower chest behind the foreleg,
with a bullet designed for elk,,
hardly has time to expand on a deer, before it exits ,
with precise hits in the lung/heart
if you place your shot correctly on deer theres very little wasted meat.
now if your shots bust through a shoulder or spine, even a 270-30/06-7mm mag makes a big mess.
you don,t need a ton of power even a 357 mag revolver will kill deer, but it doesn,t hurt, to have extra bullet mass or velocity, if your shot placements precise either,
and yeah, deer shot in that location with my rifles, will occasionally run like a scared cat for 30-60 yards,
but its more common that they go nose first in the dirt from what Ive seen.