Remington Core Lokt issues - Shooting terribly

[Deleted member 28227]

I have been having a terrible time with these in my .264 win mag and I wanted to see if anyone else has had similar issues. I bought a .264 win mag a couple of years ago with brass and dies and immediately started reloading barnes match ammo 140 grains for practice and swift A-frames 140 grains for hunting I'm pushing both at around 3000-3050fps with 61 grains of IMR 7828 ssc. Both bullets shot flawlessly and at 100 yards I'm shooting 1 MOA which I'm considering good as I'm a relatively new shooter. The swift A frames group slightly left and high of the match grade, so I adjust lightly when I switched ammo.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a couple of boxes of Core Lokts to hunt with and provide me with more brass. Holy crap do they shoot terribly. I went to the range to check and see if they would hit the same as Swift A frames and I didn't hit paper. I was confounded so i moved the target up to 50 yards. First shot was 8 inches high to the left second was 6 low to the right third was Left low... ect... ect... tried a few bullets from each box but after 6 shots I was look at like 20-30 MOA for CoreLokts.

I cleaned my rifle well went back to the range the next day, same results with the Core Lokts, switched to Swift A-Frames and put 3 bullets in a hole the size of a nickle.

Also I'm pretty sure it's not the barrel being burnt out I bought the gun from a friend and I know for a fact before I bought it he only but 50-60 rounds through it.

I have heard that some guns like some ammo and not others but this seems a bit ridiculous. Is it possible that this ammo had been sitting on the shelves for 30years and went bad, I'm at a complete loss... I guess I just can't shoot factory ammo out of my gun, since pretty much nobody carries ammo in this caliber.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Why would you want to hunt with CoreLokts when the A frames shoot so good?

 

[Mountainguide]

I've never had much luck with core- locks. I've never had them shoot very well out of any gun I've owned.

 

[airlocksniffer]

I've had decent luck with Core-lokts but for a cheaper factory ammo, my T3 has been shooting sub-moa with Federal Fusion.

 

[Mthuntinfool]

I am not a fan of the core lokt, for that same reason. My results weren't as bad, but 4+ inch groups at 100 yards with several rifles, where a different brand you could cover 3 shots with a nickel. I would pull the bullets and reload what you know works, rather than waste your time trying to shoot them.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Like I said i was more buying them for the brass as it's relatively hard to find/ expensive when you do. I figured I would try to spread out the pain and use corelokts for a season and then have brass for next year. Seems like I'm going to be taking Mthuntinfool's advice and pulling the bullets...

I wish another company made ammo for the .264 but Remington Corelokt is about the only ammo available. Federal doesn't make the caliber, Barnes loads it stupid slow... like 300pfs slower than Remington or my handloads, and nosler is pretty much only available online and ends up being close to $100 for a box of 20 with shipping, which is ridiculous as you can handload A-frames for $20 for 20.

 

[Firedancer]

When i bought my 7mm Mag in 2007 i would just buy the core-lokts and they would shot beautifully. I ran out a couple years ago and bought another box and i couldn't hit anything, i actually missed an elk with them. So i tried to site my rifle in to them and could not get any kind of grouping. So went i went in to buy a different kind of bullet i talked to the gun guy at the counter and he told me that sometime in the last few years Remington changed up the powder and the amount that they had been using for a very long time and they lost the accuracy they once had.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Like I said i was more buying them for the brass as it's relatively hard to find/ expensive when you do. I figured I would try to spread out the pain and use corelokts for a season and then have brass for next year. Seems like I'm going to be taking Mthuntinfool's advice and pulling the bullets...

I wish another company made ammo for the .264 but Remington Corelokt is about the only ammo available. Federal doesn't make the caliber, Barnes loads it stupid slow... like 300pfs slower than Remington or my handloads, and nosler is pretty much only available online and ends up being close to $100 for a box of 20 with shipping, which is ridiculous as you can handload A-frames for $20 for 20.

10-4. I missed the brass part. I've had good luck with CoreLokts in a couple different calibers. Every gun is different, though.

Cabela's has Winchester brass for your caliber at less than a dollar per round.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I've also had great results with Core-Lokts in both .270 and 7RM so perhaps your rifle just doesn't like them. I was given a couple of boxes of Nosler Pation reloads in exchange for 10 boxes of 7RM brass and they were all over the target at 100 yards.

 

[Tjay]

Here, buy a bunch.

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/73653

 

[scotttgill]

I haven't noticed their inaccuracy in my Savage .270, but I had one misfire on a deer last year. "Click" ... I thought God just didn't want me to get a deer (the year before I lost one after tracking it for hours, made me sick all year). I cycled it out quietly and the primer was punched. The deer still fed and finally gave me another broadside. The next Core-Lokt fired. I'm trying Federals this year... I've just read too many complaints on the Remington's lately.

 

[sneakypete]

I've had great success with core-lots over the years! How old is your 264? Not sure if your barrel isn't shot out? My partner has one and when it went it was bad!

 

[Rooster52]

Never had an issue with them.

 

[el unit]

Core-Lokt 165 gr. shoot great out of my 30.06 rifles. My friend has used them successfully for over 20 years with his .270.

 

[Lawnboy]

It's not uncommon for guns to favor certain factory bullets over another. I have 2 7mm-08's that shoot totally different with the same brand of bullet. 1 shoots Hornady GMX great and the other doesn't. The other one likes the plain ol soft points. They groups on the bullets they don't like are huge like you're describing. I have had nothing but good luck with Core Lokts. 11 bulls shot with them.

 

[Boarmaster]

I am shooting them with no issues in both a ruger tanger 30-06 in 165's and a model 700 xcr ii 270 in 130's. Both with ammo purchased in the last year. Been shooting them in the old ruger since I got it 2ndhand around 1988. Because they are shooting good for me sure dont mean you couldnt have got a bad batch of them. I bought five boxes of 7mm08 hornady American whitetail for a rifle
I bought last year and ran two boxes through it with no issue then three loads in a row out of the next box must have got bad primers as they never fired off. I threw. that box off to the side and shot another 6 rounds out the next box and no issues.

 

[ccc23454]

Core lokts usually shot at least decent and are the only thing remington I would ever buy! With groups your having it sounds like something is wrong almost. While i dont unedrstand it If your handloads are that accurate I would just shot/pull the rems and move on and learn from it.

C

 

[Trial153]

Really is a gun to gun issue. I had a .257 Roberts that would stack 117 core loks on each other. I like you bought a boat load of it for less then the cost of brass. Killed a few deer with them and reloaded the brass. Fast foward to a .308 I had that couldn't short coreloks for anything.
I am not sure there is an answer.

 

[Aussie_hunter_JD]

Guns can be finicky, I've literally seen two identical rifles as in same brand, model and calibre shoot the exact same load differently.

 

[hnt4life]

Could be a Remington ammo quality issue. I was zeroing my kimber last week, and shooting Remington premier scirocco. Had 3 ftf in about 12 rounds attempted. I need to measure, but it looks like the primers were seated too deep. I also had one that hit about six inches high of the group and caused hard bolt lift. Not impressed. After zero, I switched to my nosler trophy grade 180 accubomds. Re zeroed and cut my groups in half or better.