What happened to Remington yellow jacket 22 ammo

I've also used many different kinds of .22LR ammo for target shooting, benchrest, plinking, varmint and small game hunting for over 60 years.

Remington Golden Bullets used to be the best ammo out there, but now have too much variation in velocity and misfires, even when used in my quailty firearms. I don't buy it and won't use it. This is very unfortunate, since we had excellent results about 30 years ago, when shooting Rimfire Handgun Metallic Silhouette matches.

Today, it's hard to beat CCI rimfire ammo, for the money. Even the most expensive ammo is not consistent from lot to lot and in rifle to rifle. If you find a brand and lot number that is accurate, buy as much as you can afford.

Unfortunately, each rimfire rifle likes different lots. What shoots well in one may not group well in others, even of the same make/model. I think it has a lot to do with chambering of a particular rifle barrel.
 
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I am down to my last tin of 'Golden Bullets' from 1977.
It's the most consistent and reliable .22 LR I've ever had.

And I'm going to be very sad when I finally use it up.

The worst part is that there's another ~6,500 rounds of the same stuff sitting at my grandpa's place. But, due to family politics and recent legal developments, the person most likely to get their hands on that 'gold' will probably dump it at the closest pawn shop, for pennies on the dollar.
 
I see RGB a lot now. Has been the preferred ammo in my Walther P22 since I bought it 6 or 7 years ago. Runs reliably, much more than Federal American Eagle, and Winchester Wildcat. It is also the most accurate ammo out of my Heritage Rough Rider.
Don't know about the Yellow Jacket. I usually stick with standard velocity, or high velocity ammo.
But this is a rifle forum, so I will say I also haven't had any major problems with Remington ammo in my rimfire long guns as well.
All of my online ammo sources show Yellow Jacket as temporarily out of stock.
 
For those of you who are interested I asked the question online to Remington and got this response.


Mr. Ginn,


The Yellow Jacket ammo is not discontinued however it is out of production. The market demand shifted to folks wanting more bulk 22 ammo and to meet the demand we have focused efforts there. We are working toward bringing it back and hope to soon.



Thank you and best regards,
Remington Customer Services
 
Plenty of ammunition manufacturers make bulk ammo that is near 100% reliable if not 100%. Remington hasnt done that well in years with their bulk 22lr ammunition. Too bad because I used to like Remington everything, now not so much.

I do have some remington viper 22lr and its very reliable and accurate. Its not bulk, its in plastic boxes like Mini Mags just square instead of rectangular. After Barry was elected in '08 and we had a ammo run I got caught without much on hand and the shelves empty. Since then I have stocked up on thousands of rounds of CCI Mini Mag, Velocitor, Stinger, and Bulk Federal 510 and American Eagle that actually works.

I would buy more Viper if I could find it but thats it for Remington's rimfire. No need when there are plenty of others that are more reliable. Sorry Remington.
 
I used to shoot jack rabbits for my dog with Yellow Jackets. I swear you could hear them when the landed, whoop! I would buy them now if I found them for a reasonable price. I have stocked up on Mini Mags, Stingers and Velocitors. Remington Vipers were pretty good also.
 
If you can't find yellow jacket, I would bet that you can find cci stingers somewhere. I would put the accuracy of the stinger above yellow jacket, they have always been more accurate in my use. The fact seems to be that stingers are faster, and with a lead 22lr, speed is important.
 
With a 22LR, the speed of the bullet is especially important, because most ammo will be transonic at some point in it's path to the target. The trans-sonic zone is marked with high turbulence that will degrade accuracy. So all your hyper-velocity ammo is well and good, as long as the velocity stays well above the trans-sonic level. This is one of the reasons why sub-sonic target ammo shoots so well, even at longer ranges, as it never crosses the trans-sonic zone. Sure, the high-velocity stuff shoots with a flatter trajectory and more energy. But if you want to hit rather small targets at 100 yards or so, most folks will get a lot less misses using CCI Greentag than they will with Stingers. Remember, only hits count.....
 
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And this begs the question, are you hunting or merely shooting targets? Ranges in which ammo will remain supersonic may be better served by a hypersonic hollow point, they will, given accuracy and a good rifle, be capable of killing at long distance. You may be shooting at targets, and again, if it's at long range, you may be better served with hypersonic rounds that can reach the target quicker and thus avoid some wind drift. The heavier subsonic rounds may better serve you at any range if the winds are still, as said, because of the turbulence when the velocity drops. You must keep in mind that nearly any target round will shoot more accurately than a hypersonic hollow point, they aren't made to be target rounds.

Pretty much any animal that is prey to a .22 will receive a wound from a solid standard round that will be lethal, if a hypersonic round will be lethal. Many people look at .22 solid rounds and dismiss them because they aren't hollow points, but the reality of this is that any squirrel can take a body shot from a solid and die just as dead as if it was hit with a hypersonic hollow point.

what matters is hitting the target. that is a matter of accurate ammunition, accurate rifle, and above anything else, your own skill. In my case, I have a pretty accurate rifle, I have fairly good skills, and I have mostly used solid .22 and very rarely taken HP ammo into the field because I can take game without it.
 
Years ago I bought a S&W 41- 5 1/2"and a 6" K-22 Master Piece both NIB. I found after some cartridge exterminating the most accurate 50 ft cartridge for the 41 was the Yellow Jacket. The K like Federal Premium. (Red Box)
At that time I bought 2-3 bricks of Yellow Jacket as even during those times as I recall Yellow Jackets were to some degree kinda scarce. I think I still have a brick & 1/2 of em sitting someplace around here. I haven't shot the 41 in ???~~30 ish years or more. I can only hope those Yellow Jackets still fire up. As it would be a job and a half pulling all those truncate leads in order to dispose of em properly.
 
I always preferred the Yellow Jackets to Stingers. I used to do a lot of bullet testing just like they did in the gun mags back in the 80s and 90s. I shot into clay and putty and water bottles and game The Yellow Jackets always out performed and out grouped Stingers. And if shooting from a 22 pocket pistol like a Jennings or Iver Johnnson TP-22 the Yellow Jacket would always expand. The Stinger rarely did.

Since I have been seeing Remington bullets like the 200gr 35 Remington bullets and 35 Remington loads on the shelves I am guessing these will be available sometime in the future. That is if there are no new wars, and ISIS doesn't blow up the White House or some other stupid event. I think things are starting to get caught up.

I do have a few hundred of these socked away. Glad I do, I never thought they might be collectible.
 
The last brick of yellow jackets I bought was about 2 years ago. I shot a lot of CCI Stingers and yellow jackets when they both first came out in the 80's. Stingers usually fed a little better in my semi-autos but were a little harder on the actions. I think the yellow jackets shoot a little bit more accurately. I still shoot the yellow jackets once in a while in bolts and pumps. These days if I feel the need for 22 with a little more power like a CCI stinger I prefer to grab a 22 mag or a 17 hmr.
 
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