Remington Thunderbolt 22lr

[triplebike]

I really enjoy shooting my 22 handguns and I shoot them a lot. 22LR is getting a bit scarce in my neck of the woods and after the last drought a few years back, I made a promise to myself to always keep 10 thousand on hand. So today I was at my LGS and they had the Thunderbolt 500 pack for $15.00, picked up 4 boxes. I have never used this ammo before and I must say I was pleasantly surprised with it's performance. I fired about 250/300 rds without a single problem and the accuracy was quite acceptable. I know it's not as clean as my federal bulk stuff, but I clean my guns after every range trip so it's not that big a deal. I won't hesitate to pick up another few thousand rounds since it priced right. The two handguns I ran it through today was a Ruger SR22 & a Ruger MKIV 22/45 LITE.

[FITASC]

Glad they worked for you! I had too many misfires/duds and jamming on my MKII Ruger

[sparkyv]

I'm trying to shoot up what I still have after the last shortage. Last week in my M63, they shot just fine.

[Geezerbiker]

I can't figure out why a company that makes such good center-fire ammo makes such 'hity rim-fire ammo.

It would have to be free for me to bother taking it then it wouldn't be worth shooting in a semi-auto since it's so dirty. Blazer .22 is almost as bad but more reliably goes bang when you pull the trigger.

Tony

[Hawg]

I haven't used any in over 20 years. They used to be nasty and more squibs and duds than you could shake a stick at. I have heard they used powder swept off the floor in them and I wouldn't doubt it.

[Drm50]

I have most of a case of pre Obama Thunderbolts. Boxes of 50 in bricks. Good ammo, really as good as Rem Golden at the time. Pre Obama ammo from Rem, Win, Fed and CCI was all good ammo compared to today’s rimfires. I have several cases of pre Obama stock. Most in brick form. Even Bulk was dependable then. Trouble today is there is no reject. I’ve not seen as many dud rounds in my whole life as I’ve seen in one day at range. My old ammo shoots fine. The factory fresh stuff is lousy. Most is bad priming, they usually go off on second try.

[darkgael]

I had too many misfires/duds and jamming on my MKII Ruger

Ditto. I stopped using Remington .22s because of repeated FTFs. No problem with other brands.

[JERRYS.]

I have a few bricks of the stuff that I bought when the panic took hold of some. the stuff is cheap but has been a pretty good performer in my autos and revolver.

[IKE]

I've got quite a bit left over from my IHMSA silhouette competition days and it shoots extremely well in my 14" scoped TC Contender barrel and my CZ452 also likes it.

It is a tad dirty but that makes no difference to me because I clean after each range session no matter what ammo I'm using.....the ammo was purchased around 2002 and I haven't experienced an abnormal amount of duds.

[zukiphile]

So today I was at my LGS and they had the Thunderbolt 500 pack for $15.00, picked up 4 boxes.

That's outstanding.

Thunderbolt is a favorite whipping boy of rimfire ammunition snobbery, but I've always found it a reasonable value. Yes, it is dirty. Also dirty: every other 22lr round I've ever used.

[GarandTd]

I haven't seen thunderbolt for a little while now, but I was buying it last year or the year before in loose pack boxes of 500. It shot surprisingly well with few failures. Accuracy was better than Federal and the Remington was more reliable than Winchester. I did notice inconsistencies in the report(bang)which would lead me to check for squib caused barrel obstructions, but there were none. I'd buy it again, especially for $15/500. I've been buying blazer bricks for $20 and AguilA bricks for $25.

[sikiguya]

I just went through almost 2000 rounds of Winchester X22s recently. They were on sale for $22 for 1000 rounds. I had so many failure to ignite. Well struck marks on the casings.

I am to the point where I use strictly CCI standard for my plinking and target shooting.


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[jar]

I've had good luck with the last few bulk boxes of Remington Golden Bullet I've bought.

[GarandTd]

Winchester is awful in my experience. Specifically the x22s. Failure after failure.

[stinkeypete]

Thunderbolt works okay for me yet people I trust have had terrible reports so I expect it depends on your lot.

I used (15 years ago) to see that CCI Standard Velocity was good enough for club level bullseye shooting and it grouped as tight as their match ammo. Last batch I bought- no. Word on the inter webs is CCI SV is no longer the quality it once was. In my testing (Norinco TT Olympia, Bearcat, 10/22, CZ American) CCI Blazer shot as well as SV at less cost and Aguila (Standard) was even less expensive and grouped slightly better in half my guns. Aguila smells funny but I will get used to it.

Regrettably, really expensive RWS grouped noticeably (kind of amazing little groups) from my CZ but at that cost... reloading centerfire rifle is cheaper.

[Prof Young]

I haven't kept an exact tally, but there is no question that I've had more misfires with Remington 22lr ammo than any other. I don't buy it unless I have no other choice, or it is really, really cheap.

Life is good.
Prof Young

[SIGSHR]

I have gotten 100 percent reliability with Remington Thunderbolts in my Ciener conversion units, the other brands numerous failures to extract and eject.



P

[FITASC]

Thunderbolt is a favorite whipping boy of rimfire ammunition snobbery

Snobbery?? Not at all; it comes from years of crappy results using a particular product

[sikiguya]

Originally Posted by stinkeypete

Thunderbolt works okay for me yet people I trust have had terrible reports so I expect it depends on your lot.

I used (15 years ago) to see that CCI Standard Velocity was good enough for club level bullseye shooting and it grouped as tight as their match ammo. Last batch I bought- no. Word on the inter webs is CCI SV is no longer the quality it once was. In my testing (Norinco TT Olympia, Bearcat, 10/22, CZ American) CCI Blazer shot as well as SV at less cost and Aguila (Standard) was even less expensive and grouped slightly better in half my guns. Aguila smells funny but I will get used to it.

Regrettably, really expensive RWS grouped noticeably (kind of amazing little groups) from my CZ but at that cost... reloading centerfire rifle is cheaper.

Coaching SASP for a few years...watching kids shoot thousands of rounds in rim fire cartridge through a variety of firearms...here is my observation. Each gun is picky about the ammunition it feeds. We had a Ruger Mark 2 that would only feed Federal .22 Automatch. Most kids gun prefers the CCI standard. We experienced a few batches of bad CCI like stinkeypete last year. I tried the Aguila match pistol ammo this year with mixed results. It was at best 95%. My recommendation is to always try a few boxes. If your gun feeds it, buy a crapload of it.


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[triplebike]

Well over 1000 rds fired without a single failure. Three different guns. I'm very impressed, none of my other brands of bulk 22 ammo has performed as well.

[kenny53]

I have always had good luck with Thnunderbolts. I bought a couple of bricks of Winchester and I have never been so disappointed in any rimfire ammo. I bought a couple of thousand rounds Armscor 22 and found it to be very good ammo. Most of my 22 stash is CCI and I can't complain about it.

[SHR970]

Ah the infamous ThunderDuds and GoldenGarbage. I have a brick of Thunderbolt left from the 90's that ran great. Stuff from the late 2000's were pure junk. I still have 4 550 bulks left of Golden from a 2 case lot that had WAY too many duds and weak rounds; no wonder I got a good deal on it. I used to pawn it off on my friends kids and told my friends to save their Blazer / Federal Bulk / whatever just to burn it up.

I also still have a brick of 90's Win Wildcat that ran real good and a brick of MiniMags that my 10/22 LOVED. There was a period of time when the RemChester bulk / bargain / good lines were total junk. Recently it seems CCI had some runs of garbage too which is sad since they used to be so consistent. Aguila used to be the junk but they seem to be one of the better ones these days for plinking ammo. Sad to say but under Obama I got some Armscorp that out performed my Remington Golden in my 22/45 by a long shot.

[Hawg]

Thunderbolts were crap in the 80's. A lot of duds and squibs. I haven't tried any since then.

[Hal]

Years ago - I went to the range three to five times a week - my wife went along a lot of the time. Between us - we would shoot an entire brick (500 rounds) every time we went.
We bought every type of .22 lr ammunition we could find on sale.

K-Mart and Dicks were the two that ran sales the most often & both of them carried Thunderbolts. Once in a while, K-Mart put Winchester Wildcats on sale & every so often it was X-pert.

I guess on the conservative side and say we went through 75,000 rounds on Thunderbolts in that year.

My S&W 22/s just loved Thunderbolts. It shot those better then it shot expensive Ely match ammo.

Anyhow - extremely filthy stuff to shoot, but, it was reliable enough that I can't remember it being any trouble at all. Trust me - if it had any issues & caused my wife to keep telling me she was having troubles with FTF, FTE or enything else - - I'd remember it. - or I should say, she would never let me forget it..

[stuckinthe60s]

remember when Winchester wildcats were on the shelf the same time thunderbolts were in a store?
I use to grab the wildcats.
I used thunderbolts for plinking where a jam or ftf wasn't important.
but hunting?
WILDCATS.