Remington Thunderbolt verses the world

[Tech Ninja]

We all have our personal preferences, I like this but not that.

And I don't care for Remington rimfire ammo.

But there was this lone box sitting on the shelf.

Poor little box of Thunderbolt. Nobody likes you. But you are only $1.99 so I will take you home and together we will take on the world!

Or at least these guys:

Plain old Golden Bullet, the best ammo ever CCI SV , fancy pants Dynamit, Wildcat and Gold Medal.

No surprise that CCI SV put four into the same hole. But the Dynamit doesn't do well in my rifle and that stuff costs $7.50 for 50 rounds!

The Gold Medal cost $4.50 a box and I had one misfire.

And look at the Thunderbolt. Not bad for $1.99 I would say.

So be nice to Thunderbolt. He's not so bad.

 

[Tim the student]

Glad it worked out well for you.

I don't care for it, myself.

To each his own.

 

[Hardtarget]

I've always heard .22s like different brands/types/velocities of ammo. You took the time to run a test and found some info that suits your rifle. None of my .22s are fine enough to profit from a day like that...or I just don't shoot good enough to see what the rifles are showing me.

What gun did you use? Were all shots from the bench? Distance? Calm day? I'm just curious.

Mark

 

[Hunter125]

My reason for not buying Thunderbolts is not the accuracy, it's because it's so stinking dirty and it is quite a bit less reliable than other brands, at least for me.

 

[Tech Ninja]

50 year old Mossberg 142A. 25 yards, calm day, sitting position.

 

[forindooruseonly]

Surprisingly, the Thunderbolts shoot really well in some of my rifles, including my Winchester 52. Much better than the much more common Golden Bullet junk. I remember the plain old green box Remington High Velocity stuff, I really liked that stuff. Shame it isn't made anymore.

 

[bannockburn]

Tech Ninja

It didn't matter what gun I used it in (including a Remington 597), every kind of Remington rimfire ammo I tried was by far the most unreliable ammo I have ever come across. I couldn't even give you a guess as to its possible accuracy as I was never able to string more than two or three shots together before I had to clear another misfire, total dud, failure to feed, or failure to eject.

So you can have all the Thunderbolt ammo for yourself as I'm not going to be buying it, even if it's the last box of rimfire ammo in the store.

 

[Buzzsaw46]

I bought a brick of ThunderBolt this summer and it seemed to shoot ok I had quite a few that sounded flat when fired. I have had much better consistency with Federal bulk blue box.

 

[moewadle]

Why has no one mentioned

how very dirty and filthy Thunderbolts are. That is reason enough to avoid them completely. The dirty residue from them should be enough to leave them on the store shelf. Plus, I have found a fairly rate high rate of failure to fire. But I did not use them very long.

 

[Salmoneye]

It wasn't till the internet told me so, that I 'found out' that Thunderbolt was "bad"...

I've easily gone through a few bricks a year (or more) since I got my Ruger Mark I in 1975...

 

[hardluk1]

How many rounds of each different box of ammo did you fire before checking group size?? Most times takes 10 to 20 rounds to re-season the barrel to the different brand.

You can also shoot a few rounds of wlf/sk ammo and then shoot your worst ammo you have and the lube left behind from the wolf can make it shoot very well , atleast till the lube is shot out.

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

All the original post is missing is the sad music, and where to send the donation.

 

[S&W-Keeper]

Good thread,I shoot most of the time at 7 to 10 yards. I can't tell the difference in accuracy in any of them. Some feed better than others. You would tell a difference at 75 , 100 yards.

 

[armarsh]

As others have said accuracy was not the main reason to stop using Remington 22LR. All the crud and duds are the reason.

 

[Hunter125]

It wasn't till the internet told me so, that I 'found out' that Thunderbolt was "bad"...

I've easily gone through a few bricks a year (or more) since I got my Ruger Mark I in 1975...

I have gone through probably two dozen bricks over the years, always thinking that's juust how rimfire ammo was, unreliable and dirty. Then I bought a brick of Federals and I was amazed how much more reliable and clean they were. I'm glad the Thunderbolts work well for you, you can keep them.

 

[j1]

They function perfectly in my Beretta 22 when others do not. Mine does not like HP ammo at all.

 

[Drail]

Remington has been manufacturing the worst ammo made in the U.S. for many years. Dirty and not reliable. Thinnest brass cases I have ever seen. Most other manufacturer's bullets and primers are a lousy fit in Remington's cases. Now it seems their firearms are having QC problems as well. There has been much discussion on the forums regarding the QC problems with the 870 shotguns. Another American company bites the dust. In their defense I would say it is probably not possible for them to compete with the huge amount of foreign made ammo being imported and sold here. It's them old Detroit blues again.

 

[brunowbe]

Thunderbolts are all I use in my old Remington Viper 522 (yes, it's the same .22 that a lot of folks had issues with), it likes the ammo and never jams with it.

If I use any ammo other than Remington ammo in it, it jams/misfires every couple of rounds, as the Thunderbolt is filthy cheap, it's all the ol' Viper gets fed. My wife and daughter love shooting it (as did I when I was given it by my dad when I was about 13).

 

[22-rimfire]

I shoot Thunderbolts. I shoot Golden Bullets. They aren't my first choice now, but I still shoot them. For years, they were my go to 22LR of choice. They give me typically 0.75 to 1.0" 5-shot groups (edge to edge) at 50 yds. Typically you get a cluster of about 0.5" with a flyer and sometimes two.

 

[doubleh]

I didn't realise how sorry Remington 22LR ammo was until I started reading some forums on the internet. I really don't care though. I go by the results that I get with different brands of 22 LR ammo, not what I read about.

 

[hermannr]

different weapons, like different ammo. I have some brown box old, unplated, .22lr manufactured by Olin Mathisson that feeds and shoots clean and accurately in my Marlin 80.

However, it absolutely will not feed (not even one round) in my High Standard Trophy. I have hand feed 1 cartridge at a time into the High Standard, it will fire, it is accurate, it will eject, but it refuses to feed. Pitty too as I probably have 10,000 rounds of that stuff left, don't know if the Marlin will last that long, the bolt is alread getting a bit rough.

BTW: anyone know how you can reharden a worn out ramp on a Marlin bolt?

 

[CZguy]

BTW: anyone know how you can reharden a worn out ramp on a Marlin bolt?

I would try starting a new thread in the gunsmithing section.

 

[Ky Larry]

I replaced the firing pin springs in my CZ bolts with J&P enhanced power springs. This pretty much solved the problem of Rem misfires.Rem G.B.s and T.B.s are still nasty.I have a few bricks of G.B.s that are 15-20 years old. They are clean, accurate, and reliable. Remington can make better ammo.They just choose not to. It's not like Big Green doesn't know how or can't afford to make better ammo.

 

[EvilGenius]

It wasn't till the internet told me so, that I 'found out' that Thunderbolt was "bad"...

I've easily gone through a few bricks a year (or more) since I got my Ruger Mark I in 1975...

Same here, People keep telling me the "golden bullets" are total junk. Yet here I am 3 bricks later with 3, maybe 5 malfunctions?

 

[chris in va]

I've never had a gun that liked Thunderbolts. Misfeeds, jams, duds.

Actually I did have one defective Ruger 22/45 that wouldn't feed hollowpoints and would only take these. Still horrible.