Flakey Remington Golden Bullets, what to do?

[JKH]

Hey guys,

I was checking my ammo hoard recently and decided to check my .22 ammo while I was at it. I like to randomly open boxes to see if things are good to go, I opened a 525 round bulk box of Rem Golden bullets I put away about 6 years ago and found almost all of the plating (ostensibly brass) had flaked off the bullets and they were oxidizing. Needless to say I was not overly thrilled! I have .22 ammo that dates to the turn of the last century that is still prefect so didn't expect this, an email to Remington did not elicit any response :evil::neutral:

I ran these through my Lyman tumbler with white rice, this effectively removed the engaging loose plating and all the oxidation.

I am thinking of sealing/lubing the bullets by dipping in melted Johnsons paste wax, good plan? Or is there something better to use or a better way to do it? I don't want anything that will be sticky or come off easily and make a mess.

Jeff

[sparky45]

How bout just dipping them in BLL? I swear, the BLL is the best lube out there.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Another testimonial as to Remington rimfire ammo quality.Robert

[swheeler]

Remington as a whole has been "flakey" for decades now.

[Ickisrulz]

Remington rimfire has had problems for as long as I have been shooting. I avoid it. I'd rather just keep the 22s in the safe than buy Remington 22 ammo.

[ShooterAZ]

Yep, the Golden Bullets are pretty much the bottom of the barrel. I have had more duds with it than any other ammo combined. I had a small stash of it I just gave away to friends who couldn't find any 22LR during the great 22LR drought. I have been able to replenish my stash with brand new CCI Standard Velocity. Good stuff.

[Hogdaddy]

Well I'm just the opposite, I've had great luck & accuratcy with them,, mine are a little older but got one box 8 years old (Yungest) gonna try em out here soon ; )
H/D

[lefty o]

no doubt remingturd had chemistry problems when they plated them. done properly the copper is bonded to the lead. if your really set on shooting them, maybe a light wax grease on your fingers then spin the bullets thru your fingers.

[imashooter2]

I've only ever had a single brick of Golden Bullets and it will be dire straights before I give them cash for another.

Noticeably different report and recoil shot to shot. Accuracy was poor. Dirty, and left some weird hard crud on the end of my barrel. It looked like a lube star, but I needed Chore Boy to get it off. More duds than I've ever had before or since. And finally, a rim blew out and peppered my trigger finger with brass bits.

My package was marked "improved." Hard to believe that they could have actually marketed something that was worse than the absolute dung they sold me.

[leeggen]

How about just dipping them in paraphine wax heated to liquid state. A quick dip should seal for LONG time.
CD

[Hardcast416taylor]

Several years back I had given a `tricked` out 10/22 complete with heavy barrel, volquartsen trigger work, synthetic stock and a nice scope and mount package to a buddy that had stepped in once saving my life as a sort of poor payment to say thanks. Last year he complained about not finding his favorite .22 ammo to put thru the Ruger, Remington Golden Bullet H.P. where he lived in Northern Michigan at about the `Big Mac` bridge area. I scrounged up every round of Remington ammo I had and gave him all 1,700+/- rounds I had. Now he is saying he gets a dud every so often, just can`t seem to please some people I guess.Robert

[GhostHawk]

Another vote for BLL here, and Remington is my least favorite of all brands of .22lr.
I will only spend money for them if there is nothing else available and I am out.

Which has not happened for some decades.

Federal Auto match in the 325 round boxes is my current favorite. My Rugers love that stuff.
I also have 3 bricks of Armscor that has given me zero problems. Was a pretty good price back when .22lr was nonexistent and selling for over a dime each. YMMV

[JKH]

For just blasting and plinking the Rem Golds worked fine, certainly not stuff to shoot in my Kimber but okay for all my other .22's, a few duds here and there never bothered me for informal stuff. It's just strange that this happened, even Federal bulk box stuff never gave me fits.

What pray tell is BLL? I have some paraffin, that would be more resilient than Johnsons would it not?

Where I live the only .22 you can buy is from scalpels at the very few gun shows we have, and one gun shop that is so full of ammo its rediculous, reason being is they want $75 for a 500 round brick and they have a guy inside the local Walmart so .22 never ever hits the shelves. So that's why I'm making sure I can use this ammo, otherwise I would have given it away ��

[NyFirefighter357]

I never liked them, each shot sounded different. Some I've had to check to make sure they exited the barrel. I always try to shoot CCI's

[Schrag4]

I bought a bunch of Rem GB since my Advantage Arms Glock Conversion's manual states that CCI MiniMags and Golden Bullets are what work best in it. I tried every kind of 22LR I could find, and sure enough, those 2 are the only ones that would work reliably (at least without some serious polishing). The CCIs are superb, but expensive. I shot the snot out of that thing before 22LR dried up a few years ago, and I would have gone broke if I had shot nothing but CCI. For half the cost, it was fair to deal with the occasional dud or very loose bullet. Rem GB worked most of the time, and that was more than good enough for plinking all afternoon long.

[shoot-n-lead]

Don't buy Remington .22 ammo...very simple.

[Artful]

BLL

Ben 's liquid lube

[Preacher Jim]

BLl and give them to the kids to burn up then buy good ammo

[GhostHawk]

BLL ie Ben's Liquid Lube = 60% Lee alox + 40% Johnsons One Step Liquid Floor wax mixed together.

The one step is like adding mineral spirits but the wax and polymers in it add significantly to its effectiveness.

For your application I would thin the Alox even more as you would be dipping them.

For most applications 2 or 3 light coats of BLL can be imparted to a bunch of boolits, set them in front of a fan for half an hour and they can be ready to load. Key is to not use too much. 3 thin coats works much better than 1 thick coat.

BLL users have had very good luck with everything from large slow pistol boolits to small fast rifle boolits. As long as the boolit fits correctly no leading, and very good accuracy has been the general result.

[Ickisrulz]

Well I'm just the opposite, I've had great luck & accuratcy with them,, mine are a little older but got one box 8 years old (Yungest) gonna try em out here soon ; )
H/D

You're more than welcome to my share of the Remington 22 ammo to use in your magic guns!

[JKH]

I like the sound of BLL, will get the appropriate Johnsons and mix some up. I use x-lox will that make a difference?

[Ickisrulz]

I like the sound of BLL, will get the appropriate Johnsons and mix some up. I use x-lox will that make a difference?

If you don't have the liquid wax used to make BLL you probably will not be able to find any. It has been discontinued for sometime now. There is always 45-45-10 lube from White Label.

[KCSO]

In the 70's it was Smith and Wesson 22's. We had as many as 10 duds out of a box of 50. Remingtons are what I give the kids for training bullets so they can learn how to clear duds.

[marlin39a]

I have 38, 550 packs Remington Golden Hollow points bought around 2007. I have never had a problem with any of it. Paid $9.99 for it back then.

[JKH]

Oh the good old days of $10 a brick .22 at Walmart, I've been shooting .22's since I was 3 in 1965 and never ever experienced issues getting ammo, wish now I had put away about 20K at the 2007 price, maybe some day :(

[dragon813gt]

I like the sound of BLL, will get the appropriate Johnsons and mix some up. I use x-lox will that make a difference?

X-Lox makes no difference because it's the same product. But if you don't have the floor wax you won't be buying any. Someone posted recently that a can sold on eBay for $80.

[telebasher]

I bought a case (8) on the 'bay for 120 plus 20 for shipping when I heard they quit making One Step floor wax. I'm set for life, LOL. There is another brand that will work, can't recall what it is off the top of my head.

[mrk1500]

I use the bulk 525 golden bullet in the milk carton in 5 semi autos, 2 contenders, a Wilson conversion kit for 1911 they perform excellent, group excellent and never had a miss fire or any plating peeling issues. Go figure

[higgins]

A friend had several bulk boxes of Remington Golden Bullets oxidize in good storage conditions. He called Remington and they were returned at Remington's expense and replaced with new Remington ammo. It may be a problem they had several years ago and turned out millions of rounds before it became apparent.

If you don't want replacement Golden Bullets, ask for cash refund based on current price or replacement with some other type of Remington ammo. Don't fool with trying to lube them or otherwise tinker with them - just get them replaced.

[Traffer]

I bought a 1200 count bucket o bullets (Golden Bullets) just before Christmas last year. Have shot about half of them. Not a problem. All work and seem consistent. I also have some old Remington Viper bullets from the 90's. The new ones say "new and improved" on the package. Along with,"reduced barrel fouling" The vipers are a lighter bullet and hotter load. BUT this is the clincher for me. The old Vipers are amazingly dirty bullets...I mean amazingly. My gun was such a mess after using this stuff I was dumbfounded. I have a little Mossberg 702 plinkster semi-auto. With the viper ammo even the bottom of the magazine was full of burnt powder, unburnt powder, and all kinds of crud. I was expecting the same with the Golden Bullets but to my surprise they are pretty darn clean burning. I like them. If you have Golden Bullets that you hate. PLEASE, send them to me. I would be happy to test them for you. PM me and I will give you my address.
As far as the coating on the ones that flaked, I think that any kind of bullet lube will work on these things. If you are going to put them back into long term storage I would use something a little more substantial than Johnsons paste wax though. Simply because it would tend to evaporate.

[Traffer]

Why did they quit making it? Did they find it caused cancer or something?
Which reminds me, What about acrylic floor wax? could that be used to lube boolits?

I bought a case (8) on the 'bay for 120 plus 20 for shipping when I heard they quit making One Step floor wax. I'm set for life, LOL. There is another brand that will work, can't recall what it is off the top of my head.

[dragon813gt]

I don't believe anyone who says they've never had a golden bullet dud. I usually shoot one to two bricks of 22 a week during the warmer months. Golden bullets are by far the most inconsistent. You can hear a shot to shot difference. There are usually multiple duds per brick. Only reason I buy them is because they work in almost all my 22s. The kids aren't concerned w/ push pin accuracy no matter how much I stress it. Only ones I ever bought that gave me more trouble were Winchester Wildcats.

I don't have any issues w/ oxidization as far as I know. There are still many unopened cases of them so some of them might be oxidized.

[Scorpion8]

Well I'm just the opposite, I've had great luck & accuratcy with them,, mine are a little older but got one box 8 years old (Yungest) gonna try em out here soon ; )
H/D

Ditto. All of my .22's love Golden Bullet, and they've never failed me like OP has reported. I've been a confirmed Remington fan since circa 1974, and yes companies do change, but I still find them to be my preferred vendor.

[Ickisrulz]

I don't believe anyone who says they've never had a golden bullet dud.

I stopped buying the things years ago. People who claim to have never had problems must not shoot too many. I like Federal in bulk packs and that's what I buy. Duds are extremely rare. I think Federal cracked the code on how to prime rimfires.

[Postalpaul]

I shoot NSSF rimfire challenge ocassionaly now in my area , Golden bullets run like a champ in my Buckmark and 1022 ! Hell last year I was running around 1k rounds a match with hardly any failures .

[dragon813gt]

Hardly any and none are vastly different terms. I can believe hardly any duds. Most will fire on a second strike. Golden bullets aren't the only rimfire ammo w/ issues. You do get what you pay for in terms of reliability and accuracy.

[Postalpaul]

As a matter of fact I volunteered at this years State match
I picked up all the live rounds to prevent a surprise for the lawn mower guy

[Postalpaul]

CCi pickups and List of failures

[Postalpaul]

Aguilla pickups and failures 177840

[Postalpaul]

Federal pickups and failures

[Postalpaul]

RWS pickups and failures

[Postalpaul]

Remington pickups and failures

[Postalpaul]

I collected 286 rounds out of that plastic cup
not so scientific data but it's still data ��

[Ickisrulz]

You'd have to know how many rounds of each were used in order to make a comparison. As most people know how horrible Remington rimfire ammo is, there were probably only two guys trying to shoot it.

[Postalpaul]

I collected 286 rounds out of that plastic cup
not so scientific data but it's still data 🤓

[Postalpaul]

You can add the numbers up or judge by this picture of what majority of shooters were using
for the record I collected two cups of pickups same make up in both cups
would you like the failure percentages also?

We offeres sold Augilla and Minimags at the match so that was the large number of those collected ✌��️

[Ickisrulz]

I can only go by my own experience in these things. I have shot tons of Mini Mags and the failure has been almost non-existent. So there must have been a ton of ammo expended where you collected these duds.

Remington might make the best 22 ammo on earth these days, but I will never find out. I don't buy them and haven't for years and years. If others' reports are true it doesn't look like much has changed.

[farmbif]

i picked up a 1400 bucket of remington golds a few months ago at cabelas in ashville, i shot a clip full in a 22-45, they all did what they are supposed to. last week i found a 555 box winchesters 36gr 1280fps hpcp, havn't tried them yet. in the middle of shortage i got 2k of norma tac-22's and they wont even cycle a custom remington 597 target rifle. I recently got a couple hundred browning cphp 22's with velocity rating of 1400+fps looking forward to trying them the price was fair at $0.09-$0.10 each.
I guess i'm going to get to casting and load up on 22 hornet and 25-20's

[WILCO]

I like Remington rimfire ammunition. I'll keep buying it. There's a reason they're still making it.

[mrk1500]

Dragon 813 everyone has an opinion, I told of my experience with this round

[higgins]

I pick up .22 duds when I find them. I believe many of the "duds" are due to light firing pin strikes because so many of them fire without hesitation in my designated "ammo recycling" revolver.

[mrk1500]

Try cleaning your guns and see what results you get :neutral:

[shooterg]

Don't much like to SHOOT Remington .22 but I do like the empties for swaging .223 . Seems to be much cleaner inside - my unproven thought is the primer compound must burn better and cleaner - when they go off !

[ole 5 hole group]

Our family goes through a lot of 22lr over 6 months of the year. Over the past 5 years we have shot value packs of Remington, Federal and the smaller packs of Winchester. Also several buckets of the Remington golden bullets. Very few failed to fire 1st time around - 99.9% fired 2nd time around.

At 50 to 75 feet they all grouped within a nickel, sometimes a quarter, when fired from a rest with 6X scope - we would have an occasional flyer using any brand of 22lr except when using the older Remington Match 22's - they held consistent.

For the past 6 months - I haven't seen any Remington buckets but have seen a lot of Federal 325 round cartons of "target grade" 22 lr and they don't shoot any better in our rifles than the value packs of Federal or Remington.

We mainly shoot Ruger 10/22's rifles and the handguns are either the Ruger single 6 or the Mark II. When we unlimber the Winchester 75 and the S&W 41 - match grade ammo will hold tighter but since we aren't shooting for money, we find the Remington golden bullet and the others very capable of killing sparrows at 25 yards - the rifles will do the same out to 50 yards. Shooting at 100 yards, well we can hit cans occasionally and when we miss, which is a lot, we kick dirt pretty close to the can - and this is shooting offhand.;)

[imashooter2]

One in one thousand failure rate with Remington Golden Bullet. Call me a skeptic.

[Bigdave35180]

I had the same result with the Rem target 22's in 2 different target pistols, one a S&W 41 and the other a vintage High Standard tack driver, if memory serves me right, we had 19 ftfire in a 100rd box....junk ammo and never a response after repeated attempts at contact with them.