My tikka likes 95 grain nosler partitions

I have found the Hornady's out penetrate the core locks. Seen it several times.
few yers back I tokk 2 nice bucks, bot neck shot staring straight at me, both around the same size both bout 75 yds.One one buck I used the hornady's blew right througt that big ol neck with a huge exit. second buck core locks, no exit. Both died instantly though.
I saw my kid take a spike at 200 + yds with the hornady's blew right through both shoulder bones.
I took a big hog, again right through at 250 yds, hornady's
I took several axis deer with the corelocks, no exit half the time.
I also saw the Hornady's out shoot the core locks, same day same gun. POI was 2" higher@ 200 yds on the hornady's zero at 100. My rifle sighted in will hit dead on at a 100 with the core locks and again dead on at 200 with the hornady's .

i agree zrexpilot, the hornadys do outperform the core lokts in penetration. the main advantage i have noticed using them over the remingtons is the accuracy. its a much flatter shooting round, thereby giving you better groups downrange.

i agree zrexpilot, the hornadys have great penetration. I was hunting with a friend once and the plan was that i would film and he would do the shooting. well, the day before the hunt, his rifles firing pin malfunctioned and he asked to use my .243, which was of courseloaded with hornadys.just before dark, a nice eight point came trotting out. my buddy had been holding out for something bigger, but season was ending soon and he still hadn't gotten his buck, so he decided to take him. at 210 yards he nailed him behind the shoulder, and the deer didn't make it thirty yards before piling up. the exit hole was huge, and he had poured blood during the short distance he ran. that day, i made a believer of my friend, and now he won't shoot anything but hornady bullets. i also got some greatfootage

l agree that the Hornadys are a harder bullet than the CoreLokt, but I feel that they are actually harder than needed for whitetails...In my tests the CoreLokts were flatter shooting than the Hornadys...Plus, the CoreLokts put a deer down faster with a center lung shot than the Hornadys...

I bought my .243 in 1980 and have shot over 150 deer with it, from 1980-1995 I killed about 75 deer with the CoreLokts...At that time I started trying other factory loadings to see what the difference in wound channels would be...I killed 8-10 deer with each round and shot some in the lungs and used a high shoulder shot on others...I want a bullet that exits on center lung shots but is hard enough to break down the shoulders in case you need to drop the deer on the spot...

The bullets I tested were: 100gr CoreLokts, 100gr Hornady Custom, 100gr Federal Premium Sierra SPBT GameKing, 100gr Federal Premium Nosler Partition, 85gr Federal Premium HPBT Sierra GameKing, 100gr Federal HotCore, Winchester Supreme 100gr PowerPoint, 100gr Winchester PowerPoint, Nitrex 100gr Grand Slam, 100gr Remington Premier SPBT (discontinued)...I also shot but didn't use on deer because of lack of accuracy the Federal 100gr Fusion, Winchester Supreme 95gr Ballistic Tips and the Hornady Light Magnum 100gr...

With the Remington Premiums, the Hornadys the Grand Slamsand the Nosler Partitions, lung shot deer typically ran 60-100 yards...I had exits even on shoulder shot deer...I had a few that went about 125 yards...

With the CoreLokts, 85gr HPBT and the 100gr HotCores I usually had exits on lung shot deer and they ran 30-70 yards...

With the 2 Winchester loadings andthe 100gr Sierra SPBT GameKing, I seldom had exits on lung shot deer but they dropped within 50 yards...

They all did the job and it proved to me that the bullet that stays in the animal and deposits every bit of energy into that animal will drop the deer closer to where they were standing...Exits are good for tracking, but once a bullet goes through the chest cavity, it's through killing...

My gun prefers the CoreLokts, I shot it yesterday evening, 5 shots inside a nickle at 100 yards...With Hornadys, I get 2 inch groups...