Thunderduds on the menu

[Jack Stanley]

Years ago I had used Remington Thunderbolts and they were OK for the money given . This past week I've had the twenty-two rifles out and I had Thunderbolts I bought at the local Dunhams just last year . Three different rifles didn't like the stuff , even the Kimber that can normally shoot poor ammo at least OK didn't like them .

The Marlin bolt action apparently wasn't sealing well with it because it was leaking just a bit of gas with the firing of some of the ammo . When that happened the rounds had a different sound to them , sort of like a subsonic round .

I don't think I'll be buying anymore for a while if that's what Remington is calling good quality control .

Jack

[Wally]

I have used them and I'd never buy them again. I bought a sizeable quantity a few years ago for $5.99/500.... These days I find that their Golden Bullet is quite good, but I may have been lucky to get a good batch, as others seem to have a lot of issues with them.

[0verkill]

I've not bought any Thunderbolts in the last couple of years, but the batch I've got (and running low on) shoot good. Switched to them when I started having trouble with the 550 round boxes of Federal, which I switched to after a bad batch of Winchester Dynapoints. It seems the cheap 22 is really inconsistent. About the best value for price and quality these days seems to be the CCI Blazer 40gr in my opinion.

[jh45gun]

I am no fan of Remington 22 ammo I quit using the golden ammo back in the 70's. I once left some Thunderbolt ammo in my truck in the summer time and the lube melted off and leaded up a Ruger pistol I had but I am not blaming the ammo for that I should not have left it in the truck. A couple of years ago when I 22 ammo was about 35 dollars a brick I bought three bricks of Thunderbolt at a garage sale because it was ten dollars a brick. Because of the price I felt I better buy them. Much to my surprise my Marlins like them and I have not had any misfires out of any I have shot so far. Not saying I would rush out and buy more if I can get other ammo at the same brick price but these did surprise me.

[uscra112]

I also bought a lot of T-Bolt when it was cheap. Silly me.

Lately I got deep into analyzing .22 ammo for weight variance and other factors. (I'm a failed retiree - process measurement technology was a big part of my career, and I can't give it up.)

Suffice it to say that no other ammo is a match for T-bolt in the weight variance category. Some bricks will show 3 grains or more extreme spread, which is 6% or so of the total cartridge weight. Horrible. Most of that is in the bullet weight; (I pulled a few dozen to check). What this tells me is that Remington doesn't give a tinker's dam for process control in making T-Bolt. If the weight is that variable, what about powder charge, priming, and brass?

For comparison, CCI MiniMags vary not more than 0.4 grains, lightest to heaviest, no matter how many you weigh. Proper match ammo, (Wolf, Eley), I can't detect any weight variation at all. My scale only resolves to 0.1 grains.

[Forrest r]

I don't even mess with any remington 22lr ammo anymore. This is what I pulled out of a bbl the last time I was stupid enough to try remington ammo.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/tboltlead.jpg

The firearm was an old k-22 that I never had a problem with before I used the thunderbolt ammo & I haven't had any problems since I quit using the thunderbolt ammo. The lead just pored ot of the bbl in chunks after 1 box of ammo.

[canyon-ghost]

I spent one summer testing out several different .22 ammos from a rifle. I shot them at 75 yards. The Green Tag was best if the lube doesn't get in the way. After that, the Federal and Winchester tied as far as accuracy.

I'm not a big fan of CCI but, I shoot Standard Velocity or Green Tag. My everyday ammo is Winchester X22LR (Specificly in 40 grain for 100 meter distance). I just like the louder winchester report over the Federal Lightning or Gold Match. In a shooting contest, the extra sound keeps me going better.

Good Luck,
Ron

PS: in the ammo test for accuracy, Thunderbolt, Wildcat and bargain ammo was just **** for plinking.

[jh45gun]

I don't even mess with any remington 22lr ammo anymore. This is what I pulled out of a bbl the last time I was stupid enough to try remington ammo.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/tboltlead.jpg

The firearm was an old k-22 that I never had a problem with before I used the thunderbolt ammo & I haven't had any problems since I quit using the thunderbolt ammo. The lead just pored ot of the bbl in chunks after 1 box of ammo.

Looks like the same problem I had years ago with a MkII Ruger. I blamed it on leaving the ammo in the vehicle in the summer time and the lube melting off. Maybe some lots do not get the lube they should? Or maybe them boxes got hot too. Not sure like I said the boxes bricks I bought worked ok. I still got two bricks.

[bob208]

i have old thunder bolts that are marked .60 cents a box they are great the new stuff not impressed.
when i shot .22 pistol matchs i used federal champion. in my mk1 ruger. it shot great. in fact it shot better then i could hold. the only problem i had about once a match i would get a bloop and a failer to eject. and a low hit on the target like it would drop out of the scoring ring. i started weighing the shells kept out the lite ones. the blooprs stopped.

one time i tried some of the cheap russian .22 with the steel case. it shot right along with the eley and others. alot of people bad mouth it . i have won three .22 silhoutte matches in a row. two seasons in hunter class one season heavy. i don't know what i am going to do when the two cases i have are gone.

[paul h]

Every few years I forget how miserable that stuff is and buy another brick. The results are always the same, several failures to fire and lots of crud in the action.

Federal 550ct bulk boxes are much better and my standard plinker bullet.

[jh45gun]

Yea I prefer the Federal ammo also for plinking but at 10 bucks a brick when the stores were selling it for 35 a couple of years ago I was not going to pass it up.

[crowbuster]

Seems unanimous, I quit em yrs ago when I had to visually inspect the barrel after bang, bang, pop. Garbage

[JeffinNZ]

When I had a friend from Alaska to stay he left his remaining .22RF ammo with me when he went home. It was the illustrious Thunderdud. I couldn't get rid of it quick enough.

[blaser.306]

I have a story that is different from all others! In 2002 when I bought my first 10" contender, I also went to every retailer that sold 22 ammo. I bought 2 boxes of each type available, ranging from the cheapest to the most expensive match rounds. Just my luck the contender decided that it liked the Thunderbolt the best. I am still buying and shooting sillywet with them ! As recently as an hour ago. In the past 10 years and I am not sure how many thousands of rounds, I personaly have never ( touch wood ) experienced a misfire!!! Now federal bulk pack is another story .

[JeffinNZ]

blaser.306: I woudered who got the good batch of ammo. Now we all know. ;-)

[jh45gun]

Well blazer is not alone I shot silhouette with it last year too with out a hitch or a misfire.

[jh45gun]

I don't even mess with any remington 22lr ammo anymore. This is what I pulled out of a bbl the last time I was stupid enough to try remington ammo.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/tboltlead.jpg

The firearm was an old k-22 that I never had a problem with before I used the thunderbolt ammo & I haven't had any problems since I quit using the thunderbolt ammo. The lead just pored ot of the bbl in chunks after 1 box of ammo.

You know I do not know how old that ammo is but how long ago was it? I had the leading problems with my pistol back when my friend was alive and he has been dead for 12 years so say 13 to 14 years ago when I had the issue.

Like I said the bricks I bought at the garage sale have been ok I wonder if they had some bad batches where the lube failed or they did not get enough on it?

[Lance Boyle]

I have used them and I'd never buy them again. I bought a sizeable quantity a few years ago for $5.99/500.... These days I find that their Golden Bullet is quite good, but I may have been lucky to get a good batch, as others seem to have a lot of issues with them.

Wally, every gunboard seems to have some posts lambasting the Golden Bullet for failures to fire and spotty charging. I've had some duds in the milk cartons but the boxed bricked ammo especially the hollow points has worked perfectly in my ruger 77/22 and just about anything else I've tried. In fact I use them at work on rabid critter control. They work well for that too. Accuracy was fine with them too.

Now thunderduds, wildcats, and the white and black and white generic box Olin ammo for the gov't is dud city with hi and lo charges.

[troy_mclure]

The golden bullet and thunder duds are both trash in my guns. Hughes rate of duds by far, horribly dirty, copper fouling from the gb, spotty reliability in autos, and poor accuracy.
However my single six loves both. If it weren't for the duds I'd keep a brick around just for it.

[Jack Stanley]

Thinking that maybe I had some of the old Thunderbolt still in the supply system , I went on a search and recover mission today . In a long abandoned tunnel complex located under no mans land in an ammo locker right where I left them I found some . Old enough to have a price tag from Quality Farm & Fleet in the amount of a dollar nine cents on it and the ammo itself was in good shooting condition too . Nearby I found some boxed Remington "Golden" bullets as well so I just had to proove to myself what it could do .

With a box of ammo of each kind and four rifles I stapled an A-17 target at almost thirty yards and started with the Kimber . Groups were what I would expect , next up was a Marlin 881 that actually liked the Thunderbolt better than it's brother a 880 Marlin . Even the Springfield 84c did pretty well for itself considering it was the only rifle without a scope . The worst group produced were still way better than the best of the modern ammo . As for sound , they all were pretty close in sound as far as I could tell .

So I guess I proved to myself that I was right , the modern ammo is junk compared to this ammo that was probably made about 1990 or so .

Jack

[rintinglen]

My Marlin likes Thunderbolts and in several thousand rounds over the last 10 years I haven't had one failure to fire. Not saying you can't get a bad batch--ran into that myself with some Win. Wildcat ammo that I bought, but I buy it whenever I see it for sale at a good price. When it comes to 22's above all, YMMV.