Ruger Mark III 22/45 and Remington Thunderbolt Ammunition

[heavyshooter]

Pardon me if I am rehashing old news, but I need some input about ammo. After watching this video on YouTube, I was shocked to see how detrimental Remington Thunderbolt Ammo can be to a Ruger Mark III pistol!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjbsuJhr_zE

I have had my Mark III for about a month and I have not fired it yet. I went to my ammo can and discovered that I have a box of the Thunderbolt and now I refuse to use it in my firearm. According to the video, the problem is that the wax coating is fowling up the barrel. My questions are:

1) Did the Remington Thunderbolt really do this to the gun?
2) Have any of you experinced this or witnessed it yourselves?
3) Does any other ammo (i.e. Winchester Xpert, Federal Champion, or Remington Target) have this wax coating that will cause extreme fowling in the barrel?
4) Should I stay away from lead ammo as a means of avoiding this problem?
5) For those of you who have watched the video, did he have to replace the barrel?!?

 

[brett30030]

Never heard of that problem, but it looks pretty nasty. With the amount of heat generated from combustion and friction, i have my doubts that wax could cause what he claims. I have shot a couple of thousand rounds thru mine with a variety of ammo and do little more than bore snake and brush. It could be just really dirty ammo and no cleaning, or a really bad batch of ammo.

 

[Runningman]

I avoid Remington brand 22 RF ammo, has more quality control problems that it is worth IMO. Get some CCI Mini mags and call it good.

 

[wanderinwalker]

Bad News Is

Bad news is, it's not the wax. ALL of the BEST .22LR ammo I've ever fired had a "wax" coating. Eley, RWS, SK, CCI Green Tag, stuff costing $5+ a box. CCI Blazer and Mini-Mags also have a coating.

What that video shows, IMO, is leading, very badly. I'd guess undersized bullets more than anything else.

Now that said, I'd say avoid Remington .22LR ammo anyway, as it has been almost universally some of the worst I've tried. I've switched to almost all CCI .22 ammo, as it has worked very well for me. Some Federal styles are also very good to excellent.

Just remember, low-buck .22 ammo is low-buck .22 ammo for a reason.

Edited: No true harm was done to that barrel. Just needed a good scrub and a few patches. Most of that would have come out on a proper fitting jag.

 

[RickW]

I would avoid all Remington 22 ammo. I've tried a few different ones and none worked well with my MK3.

 

[Steve C]

Thunderbrid ammo shoots quite well when it goes off. I quite buying it because of the number of miss fires I was getting. Dissasembly showed they had primer compound missing around the rim and it could be seen in the powder, or only a fraction of the rim had prining compound and the firing pin just hit in the wrong place. Its a shame as it shoots as good as more expensive ammo in my Browing Buckmark.

CCI brand ammo is some of the most reliable. I've also shot lots of Winchester WXT standard velocity target.

 

[LightningMan]

At my clubs indoor range there is a coffee can for misfires, guess what? the majority of the duds are Remington .22 ammo! That ought to tell you something, I even tried shooting those misfires through my K22 S&W revolver and dam few fired, even after 2-3 tries moving the rims to a different position. TG I haven't spent any money on this type of ammo. LM

 

[cliffy]

Remington Bulk Ammo for .22 long rifle users

I've had poor results, sorry to say, so I ONLY use CCI Mini-Mags, Velocitors, and Stingers fort BEST results. CCI VELOCITORS NEVER FAIL to impress me. cliffy

 

[jhansman]

Pretty nasty. I have shot T-bolts out of my Browning Buckmark with no such fouling or performance. Quite the opposite, in fact. There is a good deal of discussion of this ammo over on Rimfire Central, and many of us have had good result with this ammo.

 

[kartoffel]

That video shows leading, not wax buildup. I think Wanderinwalker is right, that it's leading more due to undersized bullets, or maybe the lead is too soft.

Either way, all you need to do is pull a patch or two through before the leading gets that bad. Leave the bronze brush at home! Use a weedwhacker line or a patchworm and simply pull a few patches through every 100 rounds or so (probably more often for that nasty Remington stuff).

300 rounds without pulling a patch may be feasible with very clean match ammo, but clearly not with Remington. Yuck!

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I feed my Ruger MKII federal bulk packs from wally world, they are accurate and haven't caused me any problems.

 

[Average Joe]

I gave up on Thunderbolts long ago. They are just plain garbage. Go with Federals or Winchesters.

 

[WardenWolf]

I saw this video and I, too, refused to put this in my new Ruger 22/45. I have a box of the crap, too, but I won't use it.

 

[.38 Special]

I would read Wanderinwalker's post twice and then get on with your life.

BTW, I think the word you're looking for is "fouling". "Fowling" is the hunting of game birds.

 

[WardenWolf]

Last I checked the Mini Mags were copper washed, not waxed.

 

[kym]

I stopped using remington .22 ammo when it jammed up my marlin 60, ruger auto pistol and 10/22 all on the same day. The old yellow box cci ammo had wax on it but was never a problem.

 

[Bartkowski]

I saw this video and I, too, refused to put this in my new Ruger 22/45. I have a box of the crap, too, but I won't use it.

Anyone else feeling this way can send their ammo to me. PM me for an address.

 

[Runningman]

Last I checked the Mini Mags were copper washed, not waxed.

Unless something has changed in the last year or two. Mini Mags are copper plated and also use a paraffin based wax. Been like that for decades.

 

[barnetmill]

A few years ago I use to fire about 500 rnds of the cheap wally world federal .22 in a 22/45 and about then it would require cleaning because of failures to eject, but that is not unreasonable. The fouling from the lead exposed remington is strange. It could be a bad batch. In any case the barrel is not ruined, it simply needs to be cleaned. I have in general found the remington golden ammo to be dirtier than other bands relative to chamber fouling, but nothing like that picture. something is not adding up.

 

[wanderinwalker]

Runningman beat me to it! I just checked my stash, to double check, and the Mini-Mags sure do have a parrafin over the copper wash. It's not dramatic enough to get a picture to show it, but it's there, especially at the case-mouth. The Blazers are just parrafin over lead, as it the Standard Velocity. The box of Green Tag has a little softer lube on it.

Probably the stickiest wax I've ever handled on .22LR ammo was RWS Target Rifle. It would leave your finger tips feeling greasy after loading a couple of magazines.