Barrel leading!

[Coach Z]

I've been shooting since I was a little kid and I've never seen leading like I got today in two different .22's I had with me. I shot about 200 rds and all of the sudden accuracy went to crap. Finished the mag and brought target back in (was shooting at 10yds) and saw the keyholes, switched ammo but it was too late SHOCKING amount of lead in barrel Got it home and I could barely get a cleaning rod through. I attached a pic of the second brush through and the lead that was dragged out. I also had a split case today. I think I'm done with remington thunderbolt!

[arizona98tj]

Your Otis looks a little leaded up for sure!

[osageid]

I only shoot Winchester xpert, wow is all I can say

[Ryder]

I've only seen lead build up like that in the forcing cone of revolvers. I cram a patch that's too large to be pulled through in there and saturate it with hoppes. Pull it out the next morning with the lead attached.

[AndyWest]

I don't buy Remington any more, especially UMC. They seem to be light, dirty loads that don't cycle well.

[Rodger_p]

When I first got into shooting, (Mid 70's) I shot a ton of Thunder Bolts.
They were cheap and consistent, never had any leading issues.

About 5 years ago I picked up a few hundred rounds because they were on sale.

After twenty rounds or so the barrels (single action revolver and MKII Ruger)were so leaded up that you couldn't see the rifling and accuracy went from groups to "patterns".

I still have about 800 rounds on a shelf in a closet.

[Mike38]

By chance did you happen to have a round with low recoil / report? I had something similar happen to me a few years back, leaded bad like your’s. I was shooting a Baikal IZH35M semi automatic target pistol. Just like you, the accuracy suddenly got real bad. I shot about ten more rounds threw it, and decided to quit and shoot a center fire. When I got home an took the pistol apart, you couldn’t see the rifling in the bore. It was leaded that bad. The only thing I can figure that happened was a squib load, that somehow was powerful enough to cycle the action, but not powerful enough for the bullet to exit the muzzle. Then a follow up shot pushed the stuck bullet out, but leaded the bore badly. There was no harm to my pistol at all. Once I got the lead cleaned out, the pistol will still hold the X-ring at 50 yards.

[aarondhgraham]

I had not experienced any type of leading problems,,,
That's shooting Federal Bulk, CCI MiniMags, and CCI Blazers.

Then one day back in the last ammo shortage,,,
All I could find was 4 boxes of Remington Thunderbolt,,,
After 2 boxes the forcing cone of my Model 18 was severely leaded.

When I got home I pushed a lead tube over an inch long out of the barrel.

I shot the remaining rounds out of my H&R Sportster,,,
It took forever to get all of the deposited lead out.

It seems to me that Thunderbolt is made using very soft lead.

Aarond

.

[243winxb]

Some Remington Thunderbolt left a ring of lead in the rifling about 2" down the barrel, firing an S & W K22 m17. I didnt beleive my eyes. Went home, cleaned it. Had to shoot it again while watching. I will never buy Rem again. Had some Rem bulk from mart store. Some bullets were not fully formed in that lot.

[Brian48]

For this very reason why I will never buy Thunderbolts again.

What shocked me was I recently came across this same problem with Winchester Xpert and my Ruger MKII. After about 200+ rds, all my shots started to keyhole and chambering of rds became difficult.

This is what I scraped out of my barrel once I got home.



I had to toss the rest of the brick out.

[AndyWest]

Brian48 you must be kidding..? You pulled that fouling from 200 rounds? That looks like what I pulled from my Taurus 94 22LR (used) which I assumed was horribly abused. I pulled literally pinky-nail sized flakes of lead from it. Maybe the prev owner just shot too much Remington through it. After my experiences and this thread, Remington is on my long-term S* list.

[CombustibleLemon]

Wow That seems really dangerous! I am no rocket scientist or combustion expert, but at some point you have to be wondering if your holding a pipe bomb.

[TMD]

There's a reason their called ThunderTurds.

[Hardcase]

I threw a box of Thunderbolts away a year or so ago. Man, that is some nasty ammo. I don't know if it's poor quality lead or if there's no lube on the bullets, but I had exactly the same problems as everybody else.

[Coach Z]

I had the same thought. With that much of the bore obstructed how close was I to something REALLY bad happening.

Went shooting tonight and went through 1k rounds of mixed blazer federal and cci tactical. Fouling in the bore isn't even a fraction of what I had the other day.