Remington Thunderbolt 22lr

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triplebike

New member
I really enjoy shooting my 22 handguns and I shoot them a lot. 22LR is getting a bit scarce in my neck of the woods and after the last drought a few years back, I made a promise to myself to always keep 10 thousand on hand. So today I was at my LGS and they had the Thunderbolt 500 pack for $15.00, picked up 4 boxes. I have never used this ammo before and I must say I was pleasantly surprised with it's performance. I fired about 250/300 rds without a single problem and the accuracy was quite acceptable. I know it's not as clean as my federal bulk stuff, but I clean my guns after every range trip so it's not that big a deal. I won't hesitate to pick up another few thousand rounds since it priced right. The two handguns I ran it through today was a Ruger SR22 & a Ruger MKIV 22/45 LITE.
 
I can't figure out why a company that makes such good center-fire ammo makes such 'hity rim-fire ammo.

It would have to be free for me to bother taking it then it wouldn't be worth shooting in a semi-auto since it's so dirty. Blazer .22 is almost as bad but more reliably goes bang when you pull the trigger.

Tony
 
I haven't used any in over 20 years. They used to be nasty and more squibs and duds than you could shake a stick at. I have heard they used powder swept off the floor in them and I wouldn't doubt it.
 
I have most of a case of pre Obama Thunderbolts. Boxes of 50 in bricks. Good ammo, really as good as Rem Golden at the time. Pre Obama ammo from Rem, Win, Fed and CCI was all good ammo compared to today’s rimfires. I have several cases of pre Obama stock. Most in brick form. Even Bulk was dependable then. Trouble today is there is no reject. I’ve not seen as many dud rounds in my whole life as I’ve seen in one day at range. My old ammo shoots fine. The factory fresh stuff is lousy. Most is bad priming, they usually go off on second try.
 
I have a few bricks of the stuff that I bought when the panic took hold of some. the stuff is cheap but has been a pretty good performer in my autos and revolver.
 
I've got quite a bit left over from my IHMSA silhouette competition days and it shoots extremely well in my 14" scoped TC Contender barrel and my CZ452 also likes it.

It is a tad dirty but that makes no difference to me because I clean after each range session no matter what ammo I'm using.....the ammo was purchased around 2002 and I haven't experienced an abnormal amount of duds.
 
So today I was at my LGS and they had the Thunderbolt 500 pack for $15.00, picked up 4 boxes.
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That's outstanding.

Thunderbolt is a favorite whipping boy of rimfire ammunition snobbery, but I've always found it a reasonable value. Yes, it is dirty. Also dirty: every other 22lr round I've ever used.
 
I haven't seen thunderbolt for a little while now, but I was buying it last year or the year before in loose pack boxes of 500. It shot surprisingly well with few failures. Accuracy was better than Federal and the Remington was more reliable than Winchester. I did notice inconsistencies in the report(bang)which would lead me to check for squib caused barrel obstructions, but there were none. I'd buy it again, especially for $15/500. I've been buying blazer bricks for $20 and AguilA bricks for $25.
 
I just went through almost 2000 rounds of Winchester X22s recently. They were on sale for $22 for 1000 rounds. I had so many failure to ignite. Well struck marks on the casings.

I am to the point where I use strictly CCI standard for my plinking and target shooting.


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Thunderbolt works okay for me yet people I trust have had terrible reports so I expect it depends on your lot.

I used (15 years ago) to see that CCI Standard Velocity was good enough for club level bullseye shooting and it grouped as tight as their match ammo. Last batch I bought- no. Word on the inter webs is CCI SV is no longer the quality it once was. In my testing (Norinco TT Olympia, Bearcat, 10/22, CZ American) CCI Blazer shot as well as SV at less cost and Aguila (Standard) was even less expensive and grouped slightly better in half my guns. Aguila smells funny but I will get used to it.

Regrettably, really expensive RWS grouped noticeably (kind of amazing little groups) from my CZ but at that cost... reloading centerfire rifle is cheaper.
 
Lotta misfires . . .

I haven't kept an exact tally, but there is no question that I've had more misfires with Remington 22lr ammo than any other. I don't buy it unless I have no other choice, or it is really, really cheap.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
I have gotten 100 percent reliability with Remington Thunderbolts in my Ciener conversion units, the other brands numerous failures to extract and eject.



P
 
stinkeypete said:
Thunderbolt works okay for me yet people I trust have had terrible reports so I expect it depends on your lot.

I used (15 years ago) to see that CCI Standard Velocity was good enough for club level bullseye shooting and it grouped as tight as their match ammo. Last batch I bought- no. Word on the inter webs is CCI SV is no longer the quality it once was. In my testing (Norinco TT Olympia, Bearcat, 10/22, CZ American) CCI Blazer shot as well as SV at less cost and Aguila (Standard) was even less expensive and grouped slightly better in half my guns. Aguila smells funny but I will get used to it.

Regrettably, really expensive RWS grouped noticeably (kind of amazing little groups) from my CZ but at that cost... reloading centerfire rifle is cheaper.
Click to expand...


Coaching SASP for a few years...watching kids shoot thousands of rounds in rim fire cartridge through a variety of firearms...here is my observation. Each gun is picky about the ammunition it feeds. We had a Ruger Mark 2 that would only feed Federal .22 Automatch. Most kids gun prefers the CCI standard. We experienced a few batches of bad CCI like stinkeypete last year. I tried the Aguila match pistol ammo this year with mixed results. It was at best 95%. My recommendation is to always try a few boxes. If your gun feeds it, buy a crapload of it.


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Well over 1000 rds fired without a single failure. Three different guns. I'm very impressed, none of my other brands of bulk 22 ammo has performed as well.
 
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