.22 Thunderbolt Remington

T

Tatsumi67

New member
I am never buying this type of ammo ever again.

I went shooting with a buddy, he had his S&W 66 and I had my 10/22, we bought a brick of .38s, a box of .357s, and a brick of that cursed .22LR remington thunderbolt. To be short, it was the worst box of ammo I have ever used. I lost count after 30 misfires and jams, and I still have around 200 rounds left over, as I couldnt bare to shoot any more of it.

It was a dirty solid lead slug and it misfired so much it it wasnt even worth it.

With this experience in mind I will stick my usual flawless CCI minimags.

Any other opinions? prove me wrong.
 
Funny that you had such problems with the Remington Thunderbolt .22.
My little Beretta Bobcat 21a mousegun jams on everything but Remington Thunderbolt .22's My little Bobcat loves Remington Thunderbolts.:D
 
ive heard that CCI's minmags are good, but i just cant see spending that kinda money for as much as i like to just plink with my 22. ive had really good luck with just the remington 550round bulk pack. maybe 3 missfires out of the whole box, and every time i tried to shoot the missfire again it did fire.
 
I buy several different bulk packs, but generally it has been Federal bulk packs ( lately they've had thier problems as posted by some other credible forum members ) but mine, while only being "OK" as far as accuracy, have been good enough to keep buying for the cost...

I learned my lesson about Thunderbolts years ago... I used to do some informal spinning target competition at my home range... it wasn't uncommon for us to shoot close to 1000 rounds in one day ( I used an old heavy barrel Ruger Gov. Target model )... by the end of the day, the accuracy had started going so badly, that I could no longer hit the spinners... so we called it a day, & I began to clean the gun... there was so much lead build up, I stuck the bore brush in the barrel, & almost wrecked the gun getting the brush out... I've never had that much lead build up in any other gun, with any other ammo... along with the missfires, I'll never use the stuff again... I was given a few boxes... & it is bad enough... that I'll keep it around for others to use, but it'll never go in any of my guns again...:mad:
 
I've found it to be garbage too. It is like the completely elminiate quality control in bulk ammo. It is dirty & unreliable. It was the first ammo I tried that could make my trusty Mk. II hiccup.

Winchester Wildcat is slightly better, but not much.

Federal's is even better yet, but still dicey.

Try Winchester Super-X, in the gray boxes. All my 22s like that better than MiniMag and even target ammo. I think it costs less too.
 
I hadn't used the stuff in years but after hearing so much talk about how bad it was, I bought 300rds a few months ago just to see. At present my pickiest .22LR is a Ciener equipped Kimber 1911. I proceeded to burn up all 300rds without a single malfunction. The Golden Bullet bulk packs also catch a lot of grief but I use at least a couple thousand of them every month and can't complain. Like everything else you hear on the internet, you have to take it with a grain of salt.
 
Shot yesterday, 4 mis fires out of about 150 rds, Yes this is dirty stuff, But gives me a reason to get the guns out and clean them.:p
 
So far the only failures I've had with rimfire were with bulk boxes. (500+ rounds packed loose) Most of those were the Federal 550 box. Spotty quality at best. The true "bricks" (10 boxes in overpack) that I've shot have NEVER produced any malfunctions, even the Thunderbolts. I must say, however, the 5 or 6 bricks of T-bolts I've shot over the years were all used up many years ago. I do have some Wildcats left of the older stuff. Seems as though .22 ammo is getting crappier as far as QC goes. Definitely hold onto your old stuff.:confused:
 
Thunbderbolts suck. Erratic velocities and beacoup misfires. Federal bulk packs haven't been a problem for me. I haven't met a .22 yet that doesn't like CCI Mini Mags but they're expensive compared to the bulk packs.
 
My 10/22's current match barrel doesn't mind Thunderbolts either way. They cycle and accuracy is moderate. I will say that they are a bit dirtier than CCI though.

When I had just purchased my 10/22 Thunderbolts were by far the best shooting round I could find. I bought over 20 different kinds of ammo in search of what the rifle liked, and nothing beat out the Thunderbolts...Wolf and Eley included.

I might suggest Remington Subsonics. They are my go-to ammo as they are nearly as accurate as match ammo costing five times as much, and they are superbly quiet (especially with a suppressor). My roommate's CZ 452 seems to agree wholeheartedly.
 
Thunderbolt Ammo

I recently purchased a Savage Mark II .22 rimfire rifle and after sighting it in I fired the following 12 brands of ammo in 10 round groups per target. The target was a Caldwell 3 inch stick-on orange circle placed in the center of my printer paper. I wanted to know which rimfire ammunition would give me the best group at 100 yards. I expected the match grade ammo to do the best, especially after hearing everybody bragging about Wolf Match Target, Aguilla Interceptor and Federal Gold Medal.

1. Winchester, 40 grain solid
2. Federal Bulk from Wal-Mart, 36 grain HP
3. Federal American Eagle, 38 grain HP
4. Federal Gold Medal, 40 grain solid
5. Wolf Match Target, 40 grain solid
6. CCI Mini-Mag, 36 grain HP
7. CCI Mini-Mag, 40 grain solid
8. Remington Cyclone, 36 grain HP
9. Remington Thunderbolt, 40 grain solid
10. Aguilla Super-Extra, 40 grain solid
11. Aguilla 22 Interceptor, 40 grain solid:barf:
12. Aguilla Sniper Subsonic, 60 grain solid

The top three brands listed are order of the most accurate;

1. Thunderbolt:D
2. Aguilla Sniper Subsonic:)
3. Federal Bulk from Wal-Mart:p

The absolute worst ammo was the Aguilla Interceptor. This group was spread all over the place. Fast, but not accurate. The enclosed targets are from my first and second time out with this rifle. Please note my rifle is sighted in for the Remington Thunderbolt so the Aguilla 60 grain shoots about 3 inches low and to the right but had a very tight group of less than 3 inches(except for 1 flyer).
 

Attachments

  • 1st target.jpg
    1st target.jpg
    24 KB · Views: 146
  • 2nd target.jpg
    2nd target.jpg
    32.4 KB · Views: 112
  • Aguilla.jpg
    Aguilla.jpg
    48 KB · Views: 110
I have a few bricks of the stuff left (10-50 round boxes) lying around from about 10-15 years ago. Back then I could never tell much difference between it and regular golden bullets (which I have too, a lot). Lately I shoot Federal Champion 510's (50 round boxes) from Walmart mostly when I'm just plinking. I don't buy much bulk pack ammo of any manufacture. Have a little to feed kid rifles.

But I echo most of the sentiments of the current manufacture of both Golden Bullets and Thundrebolt 22LR ammo. It is very inconsistant and there are way to many fail to fires.
 
WHAT! My 10/22 loves that stuff. I never ever have a misfire out of a brick of it. Fires everytime as is accurate. Thats really all I buy anymore cause its cheap and it works great for me. Put a box of Federal American Eagle crap through my 10/22 and it will FTF about once every clip or jam in the slide. That stuff is junk if you ask me
 
Yes, the Remington Thunderbolt ammo is dirty and plain.

However... my .22s can't tell the difference between thunderbolts and anything else; except the rate at which they get dirty.


As long as you have a well-functioning action, keep the weapon clean, good firing pin (and spring), and good shooting technique; it's fine. If you lack any of those ingredients... don't buy it.

Most guns have a prefered type of ammo. Some just happen to eat everything they can.

You go ahead and keep spending $6/100 for MiniMags. I'll buy the $12/brick Thunderbolts you leave on the shelf.
 
One thing few people know about Thunderbolts by Rem is that they
are the hardest 22 rimfire long rifle bullets and will penetrate deeper
than any other 22 LR rimfire round. I think the penetration tests
were done over at Rimfirecentral.com
 
the first few boxes i tried of them i had a some jams and ftf. i bought some newer manufactured boxes they did better. i still have a box or 2 of them. shot both in my nylon 77 and my sons cricket. they work great in the cricket. the win. wildcats 40 solids,and federal 40 gr. solids did better. so i only use the remington thunderbolts for plinking. i had no trouble at all with the remington golden bullets, hollows and remington high speed solids in the 77.
 
Well guys after reading all the posts, one thing is clear...

And that is every .22 rimfire gun has an ammo preference.

About the only thing I glean from these topics that are posted all over firearm forums on the web is that Thunderbolts and Golden Bullets don't work well for a majority of people and work awesome for some people. I've read that some are getting superior results with them. Wish I was one of them.

Mini-Mags work well for most people.

Federal bulk ammo works well for most people.

Remington Sub-sonics are crap to many people and folks such as myself had a favorable experience with them. Some are getting match ammo results with the stuff. Lucky bastids. :D


Proof positive that if you want to get the best performance out of your .22 LR gun, ya gotta run a lot of different brands to find out what works best in your particular firearm. And that includes the ammo that is reviled by most folks. It just might be golden in your gun. :cool:
 
I'm a fan of the Federal Bulk ammo from WMT. I put close to 600 rounds through my 10/22 last weekend alone and had only 1 FTF and zero FTE. (I thank the Volq edge extractor for the FTEs):D
I did buy a bulk pack of the Federal Match Ammo the other day and am waiting to give that a try to see if it cuts down on some of the flyers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top