.22 LR ammo issue

[FITASC]

Went to the indoor range today with a wide variety of handguns, including several .22s. Brought some old Rem Thunderbolts to just use up. These are about 15-20 years old. NONE would fit in the chambers of my K-17 or my MKII - it was as if they swelled - for lack of a better term - and they had started to turn more of a gray color.

Any ideas as to why? Thinking I'll pull the bullets and at least make fishing weights

TIA

[Slamfire]

Pull some bullets and describe the color of the gun powder inside, black, rust red, or dust, and whether there is any corrosion on the inside of the case.

[FITASC]

Exterior is fine; the issue is none of then will fit in the chamber

[kenny53]

A buddy of mine gave me a brick of 22's that would not fit in any of his semi auto's. They fit fine in my revolver and went bang. But if you are worried dispose of the ammo..It's not hard to find 22's and you will be out less then $30 to replace them.

[Mike Irwin]

Remington Thunderbolts have always had a very spotty reputation, ranging from bullets so loose that they can be pulled by hand to either over or under powered to simply not going off.

I generally avoid all Remington .22 ammunition, and most Remington ammo.

[carguychris]

My experience with Thunderbolt suggests that it runs large. This can cause problems in firearms that typically have tight target chambers, such as the ones you list.

Use different ammo and use up the Thunderbolt in something that has loose chambers (e.g. 10/22) or is bolt-action.

[NoSecondBest]

Remington has always had the worst rimfire ammo you can find. It's single biggest problem from a user stand point is the lube on the bullet. Remington operated under the belief that if some is good, more is better, so too much must be just right. The lube on your bullets has hardened with age and is causing your problem. I've seriously fired at least half a million .22lr rounds in my life (old and long time competitor). I used seven-eight cases a year for many years. During that time I NEVER found any Rem rimfire ammo that was reliable or fed well in any gun I owned. It always had too much lube on it. In the colder weather (mid-fifties and down) it simply was horrible. Under the best conditions it's "iffy". If you want to use them up, warm them up in a warm room and scrub the living daylights out of the handgun chamber and they'll probably work for a while until the chamber gets a good coating of old lube and then you'll have to scrub again. IMO, I'd get rid of them and get something like CCI SV for quality/price or go all out and get some Eley, RWS, Norma that has a low viscosity lube and enjoy your range time with quality ammo that feeds and functions. Norma is often on sale at a reasonable price and shoots really well in all my rimfire firearms.

[Mike Irwin]

Interesting.

I always worked on the assumption that Remington lubed its .22 ammunition with good intentions and false promises.

[RedHoundTargets]

I remember using some thunderbolt ammo back in the day. I do t recall running into any particular issues with it. All the same, if you’re sketched out by any ammo you shouldn’t use it. Particularly if it has to be forced into the chamber.
I like the fishing weight plan.

[Bob Willman]

If the lead bullets were gray, almost frosted, it could be they were stored in a wood cabinet made from oak. Oak off gasses something that will react with lead causing a dull gray surface.
I made an oak gun carrying case many years ago and put some reloaded ammo in it with cast bullets which turned gray.
It will also cause problems with electronic equipment with tin/lead connectors.

Bob

[B.L.E.]

You can't run fast enough to GIVE me a box of Remington Thunderbolts. If the ammo store had the choice of free Remington Thunderbolts or $75/brick Wolf MT, I would still take the Wolf MT.
Remington's ammo didn't used to be that crappy. I found a box of vintage (Kleanbore) Remington shorts and they all went bang. Their STS shotgun ammo is excellent.

[P-990]

I'm late to the party (as usual), but I see there's a need to pile on about the absolutely ABYSMAL quality of Remington bulk .22LR ammunition.

I'm with B.L.E., you couldn't GIVE me a brick of Remington .22LR even if it meant the difference between going shooting or taking up knitting. The bulk Golden Bullets are the only ammo to ever give me key holes, failure to fires and more than a couple low-powered "how was that not a squib" rounds when I had my Single-Six. And the Single-Six would absolutely maul the rims of .22LR rounds, there was never any doubt it would set off a primer. And Thunderbolts are a step down from Golden Bullets quality-wise, in my experience.

On the other hand, what you're describing sounds to me like dried up lube and oxidized bullets. They don't fit your chambers any more because they're no longer soft and flexible like they were 15-20 years ago when new. Sound like good fodder for a generously chambered single-shot, or maybe a 10/22 Carbine...

(The only thing .22-related I dislike almost as much as Remington rimfire ammo is Ruger's spotty sporter .22LR barrels and chambers.)

[southjk]

I bought a couple of bricks of the Remington Thunderbolts back during the great ammunition shortage since that was all I could find. I've been using it in my S&W M&P 22 with zero issues. That's right, none what so ever. <knocking wood> I've shot at least half a box so far.

[B.L.E.]

Wolf MT is the only ammo to give me these results in my rifle, although CCI standard velocity long rifle comes very close. Both of these brands of ammo has given me zero failures to fire also.

Five shots @ 50 yards in wind free conditions.

[FITASC]

Nice group!

[jackstrawIII]

I'm surprised to see all the hate for Golden Bullets. I've had really good luck with them in the past. No experience with Thunderbolts, but the GBs have been decent.

I will say that I get different results depending on the gun. Only 22 ammo that works in all my guns are CCI mini mags and Aguila HV.

[carguychris]

Originally Posted by jackstrawIII

I'm surprised to see all the hate for Golden Bullets. I've had really good luck with them in the past. No experience with Thunderbolts, but the GBs have been decent.

GBs are plated and thus aren't smothered in thick and pasty lube.

FWIW I have a S&W Model 18 that loves the Golden Bullet, and I have likewise defended the GB on occasion for this reason, although my Ruger MkII shoots shotgun patterns with them. OTOH Thunderbolts won't even chamber in my Smith. In my experience, they're good for blasting tin cans at short range with my 10/22 (which will seemingly cycle anything), but that's it.

[SIGSHR]

Firing Remingtons through the Ciener unit on my Browning HP, I get 100% reliability, other brands, failures to eject, etc.

[Prof Young]

I had some very old 22 ammo the brand I don't remember. It was a touch corroded and wouldn't work well in my Browning Buck Mark Camper. I dumped it all in a plastic back, sprayed some wd40 in, "churned" it a bit and then they all worked fine. Gave the gun a good cleaning afterwards.

Life is good.
Prof Young

[Whistlebritches]

I have roughly 10k rounds of Remington Thunderbolt ammo.I shoot it fairly regularly out of a Ruger 10/22,Marlin bolt action,Remington 511 and a Colt Woodsman.No problems to date.......and some of this ammo is easily 20 years old.

[fredvon4]

Prof Young reminded me so a similar experience a few years Back...I was given (during the drought) 1000 rounds of off brand un boxed very dirty and greasy 22LR that I suspect most were Remington

Load a mag worth of the better looking in my MKII and they all functioned but made my pistol very dirty and greasy
Did about same as Prof and managed to plink with 90% of them

so glad I can get 22 about anywhere right now at OK prices... hell my feed store even has a couple of hundred thousand at any given time

[dogtown tom]

P-990 ....On the other hand, what you're describing sounds to me like dried up lube and oxidized bullets. They don't fit your chambers any more because they're no longer soft and flexible like they were 15-20 years ago when new.

This.