Remington 22 lr Golden Bullets

I've used them in a .22 snub revolver before and had decent luck. However, it pretty much feeds anything including shorts and you don't have to worry about cycling an action. Course a .22 revolver has a heavy firing pin blow and the short barrel would make it relatively hard to stick one in the barrel if it goes bang. For my semi autos, I prefer CCI.

I haven't used these in awhile, but I do have a brick or three of it laying around.

I remember the ammo as being somewhat better than Thunderbolts. A few guns I have actually seem to like them.

My main actual complaint with the ammo is this gold glitter-like residue that it leaves on your hands. Does the ammo still do this? Is it any better than, say, 10 years ago? I wouldn't know...


I remember not too long ago a lot of people would have been mighty glad to get a hold of some. If I see a 1400 round bucket on a (really) good deal, I plan to pick one up. Again, not my favorite ammo but usable and you may have guns that like it. YMMV.

I've had variable results with this ammo. My older, pre-Obama supply of Golden Bullets has worked very reliably, but some lots of their more recent production have been a iffy for me, as with your experience. My understanding is that Remington outsources rimfire production from different factories at different times, based on material and labor costs, to keep pricing competitive. Not uncommon, if you check the 'Made in' labels on different major brands of rimfire ammo.

I gather that both Thunderbolt and Golden Bullet are marketed by Remington as economy-level ammo. FWIW, now that rimfire supply has caught up with demand in my area, my preference is to buy CCI Minimags for use in my semi-auto 22 pistols that have proven fussier about ignition and feeding, and use the cheaper brands in my single shots and bolt actions, which crush primers more authoritatively. I don't know whether CCI has better QC or some magic formula, but this policy has worked pretty well for my situation.

FYI, I heard somewhere Fiocchi is supposed to have developed a different rimfire priming method using a disc rather than the traditional drop and spin method. Anyone else have more definite about this, or have noteworthy experience with recent-production Fiocchi rimfire ammo?


On the general subject of .22 rimfire reliability, check this recent video by Paul Harrell. Unless you want to watch him shoot for a solid hour, jump to the end for his results summary.

troy fairweather said:

i've had misfires but no squibs with any 22.

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I should not have said squib as that is not what I was trying to convey. To the best of my recollection I have never had a squib with any .22 rimfire. What I meant to say was they have full power loads & ones that are weaker as if they have less powder. Very inconsistent ammo & has been since the mid 1960's. Until I tried cci Stingers when they came out in the mid 70's I just thought it normal for a .22 ammo to have problems.

How in the world did the OP let himself experience 8 squibs?

If I ever experienced two SQUIBS, let alone 8, I wouldn’t be silly enough to keep shooting. I never have enjoyed banging bullets through my barrel with a rod. I also don’t imagine I’d enjoy the thought of potential to convert my rifle into a grenade or potential to remove my own fingers. One is a fluke, two in a single session isn’t something I would continue - let alone stacking up 8. That’s the kind of person I really do not want beside me at the range.

I’ve fired hundreds of thousands of Remington Golden Bullet over the years, they’re dirty as hell and far from the most consistent/accurate round on the market, but they’re available, affordable, and as accurate and reliable as needed.

I have no idea of the amount of golden bullets I've shot over the years but it's a bunch. I've found it to be more dependable and accurate than any thing Federal and Winchester offers in the same general price range. In fact I won't buy Winchester anymore and I liked the old super-x.

I've had dud rounds with every brand of lower priced 22 ammo made but only one squib ever. My brand new wife was shooting my brand new Ruger Single Six and a shot made a little "pop" sound. She didn't have a clue but I grabbed the cylinder before she could get it cocked and fire again saving a barrel. I don't remember if it was a Remington or Winchester product but that was all I bought back then so one or the other. That was all the shooting for that day as I had nothing with me to drive out the bullet.

351 WINCHESTER said:

I should not have said squib as that is not what I was trying to convey. To the best of my recollection I have never had a squib with any .22 rimfire. What I meant to say was they have full power loads & ones that are weaker as if they have less powder. Very inconsistent ammo & has been since the mid 1960's. Until I tried cci Stingers when they came out in the mid 70's I just thought it normal for a .22 ammo to have problems.

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ok thanks for clearing that up.

the only thing with paul's video is he had failure to fire with a few cci, i shoot mostly cci and can say i have never not had one go off.

10 years or so ago I got curious and compared various brands of bulk .22LR that I had bricks of. I probably had at least one brick of every popular brand. Blazers were the most accurate with the least number of FTF's. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever had a FTF with Blazers. Goldens were at the bottom of the heap in accuracy. I have one partial brick of Goldens left and took them to the range a couple weeks ago and the FTF rate was about 5%. I was shooting an SR22 and an MKIII 22/45 and didn't have any FTF's with either the CCI subsonics or the Blazers I also had with me that day. I know it's anecdotal, but I seem to see more unfired Goldens laying on the ground at the range than any other brand - I'll have to pick them up and check the rim for firing pin marks the next time I'm out.

dak0ta said:

How do they compare to the Thunderbolts?

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Thunderbolts are usually surprisingly accurate for me even though it feels like roughly half of them have half charges. I don't buy them anymore, or Winchester of any kind. YMMV

On the general subject of rimfire priming methodology, check out the sectioned photos in this very interesting post:

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=506351

I've shot tens upon tens of thousands of these and never found anything to complain about.

Shot a bunch of GB's during the lean times of the previous Regime, when it was vulture-hunting for .22LR at Walmart.

Dirty? Filthy? Inconsistent shot-to-shot?

Yes.

Ignition problems?

No.

Very reliable ignition, and the bullets performed very well.




GR

Keyfer 55 said:

Dose Remington have a Quality problem
with there 22 long rifle ammo. I purchased 100 ct. Golden bullets .
I had 8 squib. 2 misfire rounds.

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What are you shooting them in?, a handgun?

Handguns seldom have the mainspring power of a rifle and it is my experience that my rifle match .22lr does not reliably ignite in my target 22lr's. I have switched over to CCI SV in my M46



and I still have failures to eject, failure to fire, even with new ammunition.

Every batch of primer mix is different, has different sensitivities. One lot that functions perfectly, the next will have misfires. It is very frustrating to have to shoot an alibi in Bullseye Pistol, but at least you get one.

I will say that my case of Remington target match is the absolute worst batch of rim fire ammunition I have ever owned. I purchased it from the CMP, and I get lots of misfires in rifle actions, never mind pistols. It is only good as rock busting ammunition.

I haven't used Golden Bullets for a while, but when I did use them (early 90's?), they worked fine. This was a couple loose-packed bricks that came in what looked like small milk boxes IIRC.
I understand some have had horrible luck with them in the past decade (or two), which is a shame.

I have had wonderful luck with CCI Blazer and between those, Federal Champion, Aguila and Armscor (I know, right?) all my needs are covered. Between them, I'm sure I have at least 30k rounds and what I have fired have proven them, so far, reliable.

I buy the Rem Goldens very frequently for my Pistols and Revolvers. Bottom line is they work great. Had the Ruger SR22 and LCR out two weekends in a row shooting 200 through each and on both occasions did not have one single failure. Which is very typical.

I’ve shot GBs since the 50s, it’s my go to bullet. Back then, one shot one squirrel. I think squirrels thought they deadly enough from first a Savage 6, later followed by a Rem Mohawk 66, followed by Marlin 39M.
Haven’t drilled a squirrel since turn of century! Getting old I guess! Squirrel hunting used to be my therapy, now reloading is- “When” I get time!!!!!!

With my 12 year old Ruger 10/22 and my newish Savage 64F they perform better than all other bulk ammo with the exception of Blazer 40gr RN. Accurate enough at 100 yds to hit 4" steel regularly. Can't use them in my Advantage Arms Glock .22 conversion, many FTEs and a few FTF, but it's very finicky and only runs 40gr Mini Mags consistently.

Catpop said:

Squirrel hunting used to be my therapy, now reloading is-

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Mine as well. It turns out that I cast, coat and reload more than I shoot. This creates the bizarre situation of ammunition surplus and the need to buy additional .50 ammo cans every few months. The only thing keeping things in check is my access to lead wheel weights.

Varminterror said:

How in the world did the OP let himself experience 8 squibs?

If I ever experienced two SQUIBS, let alone 8, I wouldn’t be silly enough to keep shooting. I never have enjoyed banging bullets through my barrel with a rod. I also don’t imagine I’d enjoy the thought of potential to convert my rifle into a grenade or potential to remove my own fingers. One is a fluke, two in a single session isn’t something I would continue - let alone stacking up 8. That’s the kind of person I really do not want beside me at the range.

I’ve fired hundreds of thousands of Remington Golden Bullet over the years, they’re dirty as hell and far from the most consistent/accurate round on the market, but they’re available, affordable, and as accurate and reliable as needed.

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No kidding....who in their right mind would keep shooting. Keeping playing this version of russian roulette just does not sound like a good time to me. It also makes me think the same as you do...I don't want to be around someone so irresponsible and careless to keep doing this. A person that does this does not need to be owning a firearm.

Now that said, back to GB, thunderbolts and other "bulk" ammo.

I have had more then a few "duds" and as I understand the working of a "rim fire" the primer compound is stuck to the rim (duh) of the cartridge....I would think that in those big boxes where the ammo can "rattle around" it would have a better chance (my thinking anyway) of having the primer compound knocked loose....I am sure we have all taken a "dud" turned it and had it fire, you look at the round and see two hammer marks on the case....one where there was no primer, and one where it went bang. As I see it there are two ways this can happen....poor QC, the machine that puts the primer in is not getting it along the entire edge, or it is getting knocked off.

Remington misfire?
Kinda like asking if the Pope is Catholic.

While the bulk packaging might be tempting, I'd avoid all promo ammo.
While their Golden Bullet might be better than the Cyclone/Thunderbolts..........I wouldn't.

Shame WW Super X quality isn't what it used to be.

For general plinking ammo I rather like the CCI Blazer.

Target........SK rifle match (hard to find though).

Hunting........well I have a couple bricks of the WW Australian stuff, 42gr Max.
One rifle did not like it, the other did.
Both of them since sold.

Have not tried it in my CZ455.
And my 10/22 (sporter 1970) is not worth testing. Not good with anything.
Def needs a GM sporter bbl put on.

Shooting indoors, with other people banging away, easy to miss a squib if one isn't watching for it.
Proly thought he just had a gun issue, not ammo issue.
Autos............people should be on the watch, suspect squib at any cycle failure or odd sound.
Revolver guys doing speed drills, usually shove em out with the next one (and ring the bbl) LOL

Worked a shop w indoor range.
Brass rod got a workout.

Some folks had rather catastrophic failures.
No RO on range, so couldn't babysit.

I always find the spread of .22lr reliability between different bullet types and different people interesting. Golden Bullets are my bulk round of choice behind Aguila’s and Blazer’s. I might have 1 misfire out of every 2-3 bricks, which is acceptable to me and far better than anything except CCI and Aguila rimfire rounds. Accuracy-wise they are nearly on par with CCI Mini Mags, which is to say they are better than average.

The .22 lr rounds I avoid are Federal Auto-match; I had way too many misfires and jams out of any semi auto I tried them in and accuracy was horrible, even in my bolt guns. Also Thunderbolts sometimes give me reliability issues in some guns, and Winchesters tend to be hit or miss, though the packs I’ve bought the past several years seem to be pretty good.

I have noticed a lot of misfires are dependent on your particular firearm and how hard the firing pin hits the rim/primer. In that regard, my 10/22 tends to have more issues than most of my other guns. I have a buddy who has the same issue with his 10/22's, they just don't seem to strike the primer as hard as other makes.

22 rimfire guns are strange critters. I think they must all be female in gender with all their quirks.

I haven't shot much of the Aguila ammo, mainly because the results with what I have shot hasn't been encouraging in any of my guns.

Dave DeLaurant said:

FYI, I heard somewhere Fiocchi is supposed to have developed a different rimfire priming method using a disc rather than the traditional drop and spin method. Anyone else have more definite about this, or have noteworthy experience with recent-production Fiocchi rimfire ammo?

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And this is true, I have a new box. I will take pics when I get home.