Is it me or ?

[Tactical]

Is it me or is Remington .22 Thunderbolt's from Walmart junk?

Man, I must get 10 out of every 50 rounds as under charged or duds.

Some of these rounds throw out so much smoke that a think I'm shooting a black powder.

Is there a better buy?

 

[m0ntels]

I get a fair amount of duds from most bulk pack ammo. I will agree that the Thunderbolts have that problem a bit more frenquently. My rifles love the things though. Most accurate bullet out of my Marlin out of the many I've tried.

My favorite so far for all around 22LR bulk is AguilaSE standard velocity. They have an unusual smell when you shoot them, but they shoot right on and I dont think I've had any duds in those yet.

Randy

 

[bigcim]

i havent had any problems with the federals i think there the same price

 

[jman74]

CCI Standard Velocity is about the same price and I've had no problem what so ever with it.

 

[poncaguy]

I have real good luck with the Wally World Federals, no misfires so far in 3 rifles and 3 pistols.....all Rugers semi auto's except one Remington Mohawk.......

 

[Eightball]

STAY AWAY FROM THE THUNDERBOLTS. They are junk. I sell 'em where I work, but if I can get to a customer before another employee w/o experience with them, I cal always sell them the blue-box federals. Thunderbolts are shoddily constructed--the bullet will turn, while seated in the case, it wobbles, you can shave the bullet with your fingernail, and they generally aren't worth the hassle of FTF/FTE. Got 100 rounds left, and i'm trying to give them away. If you're using a manually operated rifle, go for it, no feed problems---in a semi, stay away.

Federal blue-box=good. High quality--shot it in a match one time, got better groups than average, and not one FTF/FTE out of my 10/22. I Highly recommend them--and where I work, it's only $3 per box more. Very worth the difference in price.

 

[foghornl]

In MY experiences, the "Thunder Bolts" are the cheapest of the cheapy ammo...not always in price, but always cheapest in quality.

There is a huge difference between 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'.

My OLD Marlin 99 shoots the TB's faily well, Single-Six revolver likes them OK, none of my other .22's like them. A shooting buddys Nylon66 didn't like Thunder Bolts, either.

All of my .22's do well with Rem's "Golden Bullet" bulk-packs, though.

 

[Shoney]

I have never shot Thunderbolts because the bullet would wobble and turn in the case. From Walmart I have purchased lots of 550 boxes of the Remington High Velocity “Golden Bullets” in both solid and hollowpoint. I have also purchase lots of the 550 packs of Federal hollowpoints. Although I felt the Remington High Vel was a tad more accurate, the Federals were extremely good. I believe that out of several thaound rounds of each Rem and Federal, I have had 2-3 failure to fire in each, I will continue to buy and shoot each.

 

[~z]

about 15 yrs ago while working at a large range we had a lot of problems (FTF and squib) with the Thunderbolts. I sat down with a scale, pair of pliers, and a brick of thunderbolts. Massive variation in powder charge and out of 500, I found 7 with no powder or a small trickle of powder (think kernels, not grains). We discontinued selling them and informed our Remington rep. I have not used them since.
~z

 

[dtalley]

I have been having trouble with the Thunderbolts and anything with lead (Federals) that is not Copper washed or what eve it is to make them a little shiny. I'm shooting a Ruger 10/22, Ruger Mark II and Walther P22. Trouble out of all 3 guns.

 

[Red Tornado]

I recently did a bunch of .22 ammo testing, and I had pretty bad luck with the Thunderbolt, too. However, the Remington Golden Bullet has been great for me. They are the 550 packs Shoney mentioned. The also surprised me by being one of the most accurate in 3 of my rifles. Only the high dollar stuff matched the accuracy.

I've also gotten good reliability from the Federal bulk packs, but the accuracy wasn't up the the Rem GBs.

RT

 

[Gary G23]

I use CCI Mini Mag. I've never seen the point of using junk ammo.

 

[birddog]

Through some "friends" and family dumping excess twenty-two ammo on me a couple years ago, I ended up with a pile of a thousand or so of the golden Remingtons and a couple thousand Thunderbolts. I think I'll get the same number of live rounds out of each can, lol. I find my .22 revolvers pretty forgiving, but if autoloaders of any kind (rifle or handgun) come into play, the Thunderbolts just don't do it.

They are definitely junk.

 

[Ohio Rifleman]

I got a brick of 500 Remington Thunderbolts when I got my 10/22 carbine a few months ago. I've fired maybe half of it, and haven't had any problems whatsoever. True, you can shave the lead bullets with your fingernail, but I haven't had any feeding problems. And the accuracy seems excellent too. The fouling the barrel may be a little more than with jacketed bullets, but I don't know. I've only fired Thunderbolts out of my 10/22.

 

[DMK]

Is it me or is Remington .22 Thunderbolt's from Walmart junk?

It's not you. I don't like any Remington 22LR. To be brutally honest, their Golden Bullets are absolute crap too.

Pretty much the only bulk 22LR I shoot anymore is Winchester Super-X or Dynapoint and various flavors of Federal.

 

[jjohnson]

Junk. It's not you.

Nah, it's not you. It's junk.

Mind you, I don't mind shooting junk ammo at the range - I mean, I get what I expect for $10/brick, but the Thunderbolts are pretty darned close to the bottom of the stack. For bulk ammo, I've had WAY better luck with Federal. The Winchester HPs don't feed well in some of my autos, but yeah, the Rem Thunderbolts seem to be pretty erratic whenever I shoot them. By erratic, I mean everything from the occasional shot that sounds underpowered, to outright duds, and failure to feed/eject. For the price, I can get other cheap brick ammo that works better, even Blazers, which I don't particularly like.

 

[cortez kid]

I would'nt deny the junk status, but haven't had any problems in my little "AK" .22. Like Federal but bought the TB's last trip to Wally's.
kid

 

[Nathan Williams]

I have never had a bad round out of a brick of WallyWorld Federals. The only problem I have with them is they have a tendency to stove pipe every 10 or 15 rounds, I think they just dont have enough power to cycle in my 10/22. The best round I have found is the CCI Stingers. And yes the thunderbolts are crap. I gave away the rest of the box after shooting around 200 or so.

 

[hksw]

I've sworn to stay away from Thunderbolts since 1998 or 1999. It was when I bought 4 or 5 bricks when they were on sale and the majority of the cartridges had oversized bullets. The only gun I had that would feed them close to 50% of the time was a stock Ruger 10/22 with the loosest chamber. Even the Marlin 15YN and 25N I had would not feed them easily. Had to really jam the bolts home. Had a few boxes where I had to forward assist the 10/22 bolt to fully chamber the round on almost all of the rounds. Then in the same brick at the other end a couple boxes would feed fine with only occassional stopages. I've had the best luck with Federal and will stick to those.

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

I buy them once in a while for plinking but not if any other brand is available. I hate remington rf ammo. All of it.

 

[RustyFN]

I shoot in a 22 pistol league on Tuesday nights. A lot of us have had trouble with the thunderbolts and won't use them any more. I have also had bad luck with the Remington golden bullets in my semi-auto. I am going to finish them in my bolt action rifle and I will be done with them. The ammo that has worked the best for me is the Federal value pack. I have used around 2000 rounds without a problem.
Rusty

 

[Tactical]

Thanks for the input people.

 

[Skofnung]

Of all the cartridges I have tried, Thunderbolt shoots the worst... from all of my rifles. I don't recall ignition or extraction problems, but my groups looked more like shotgun patterns from rifles that are quite accurate.

I steer clear of that stuff now.

 

[Davo]

remington bulk 22=worst of .22 bulk ammos. For a similar price, I have found the federal bulk pack to be much better but of course its bluk ammo. CCI is always good, but usually a few more bucks. I like copper plated HV, but thats just me.