Rem. Thunderbolt .22LR in my Marlin HB bolt action rifle

[Maven]

I happened to be walking through Dick's Sport the other day prior to buying tickets to a movie ("Sully;" Dick's and the theater are in the same mall) and saw both Federal and Remington Thunderbolt .22LR on the shelf and at an almost reasonable price. I bought 2 100 packs of the Rem. TB as I haven't tried them lately. And, I must say, after reading so many negative things about that ammo, I wasn't expecting much either. Well, I'm happy to admit that I was wrong!:) There were no FTF's and accuracy, although double that of Wolf Match Extra (i.e., double with respect to dispersion) @ 50 yd., was really quite good, particularly as the bbl. warmed up and got used to the new ammo. Clean up was surprising as well since 1 patch soaked with Hoppes' #9 removed all the fouling.

The Marlin HB bolt action detachable magazine fed rifle wears a BSA 2 - 7x air rifle scope and is the gun I used to use in my club's .22 Bench Rest matches (50 yd., but different categories & targets for bench rifles, those with high mag. scopes, etc.) and was tuned by a local gunsmith, Bill Monell. Once the gun settled in with the Thunderbolt ammo, I tried 10 rounds of Wolf Match Extra. The latter grouped into ~ 3/4" (by eyeball), although it has done better (5 into a U.S. dime). The Thunderbolt, OTOH, grouped into ~1.5" (also by eyeball) for 2 30 round strings, also @ 50 yd.

While no one should mistake the Remington ammo for match ammo, it was reliable and accurate enough for a casual plinking session.


P.S. All shooting was done from a Hoppes front rest and a rear bag with the scope set on 7x (max) magnification.

[Dimner]

I have had the same experience with thunder bolts. My 10/22 and savage 24 22/20ga love the thunderbolts. Oh and my Henry Ar-7. They are nearly as accurate as CCI's mini mag CPRNs. They are also very similar ballistic wise. So I use the TB's for practice and the Mini Mags for hunting. So now it turns out that I'll pick up TBs and the mini mags when ever i see them. I have quit trying different ammo. (I don't shoot in matches, or I would probably find a match bullet too)

[marlin39a]

Somebody will chime in how it is just junk. I have several bricks from 1996-1998 that I paid $7.99 each on sale. Always goes bang and hits what I aim at. Jackrabbits don't stand a chance.

[fecmech]

Maybe they've gotten better or maybe you just got some good ones, who knows. I do know when I last tried them (about 10 yrs ago) you could actually hear the difference between shots. Sometimes a pop and sometimes a bang. I chrono'd a 10 shot string with a 300, yes 300 fps exteme spread! I haven't bought any since. They didn't get the nickname "Thunderduds" for no reason.

[Forrest r]

I actually like the ammo, it does extremely well for blammo ammo. The issues I've encountered with it in the past is the alloy they make their bullets out of. Used to have a 22/45 that loved the thunderbolts, shot bugholes with it. As everyone knows 22's can be picky even between lots of the same ammo.

Several years back I was at a local shop and they had different lots of tb's sitting out being sold by the box. I picked thru them buying several different boxes/lots to test. I also had an old (1957) k-22 that likes certain lots of thunderbolts also. The old k-22 has seen allot of use but still make 1 heck of a range plinker. As luck of the draw would have it I ended up taking the k-22 to the range 1st to test the different thunderbolt ammo. Nothing fancy just standing, 2 hand hold @ 50ft. OK, testing the different lots, their putting holes in the paper until I got to the next to the last lot. Loaded 6 rounds and shot a target. WWWOOOOWWWW!!! The groups really opened up compared to the rest of the ammo. Loaded 6 more from the same box and got a table and shot the next 6-shots from a rest. Nothing was on a 12" x 12" target from a rest @ 50ft. Ok, not good. Looked down the bbl and saw why.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/tboltlead.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/tboltlead.jpg.html)

That's what came out of the bbl when I ran a tight patch down it. It only took 12 shots to do that. I've had the same thing happen with thunderbolts and other firearms in the past. I will not be having any problems with thunderbolts in the future because I'm not going to buy anymore of them.

Hopefully you have better luck than I have with thunderbolts.

[Earlwb]

The problem is that the .22 semi-automatic pistols tend to be very picky about what ammunition will work or not work in them. Some pistols tend to only shoot one or two kinds of rounds and another may be less picky and shoot lots of different types. The single shot, bolt action, revolvers, etc aren't really picky in that same sense. Thus you can usually shoot most anything out of them OK. Now then absolute accuracy can differ still. Some brands tend to offer better accuracy than others do.

[Dimner]

The problem is that the .22 semi-automatic pistols tend to be very picky about what ammunition will work or not work in them. Some pistols tend to only shoot one or two kinds of rounds and another may be less picky and shoot lots of different types. The single shot, bolt action, revolvers, etc aren't really picky in that same sense. Thus you can usually shoot most anything out of them OK. Now then absolute accuracy can differ still. Some brands tend to offer better accuracy than others do.


Exactly right. My semi autos mostly hate hollow point ammo. I have two 22 semi rifles. One will feed almost anything except winchester 555 pack hollow points. This fail to feed one in 6. The other semi I have will not feed any hollow points that I have tried except CCI minimags.

But even with those shortcomings they both do great with round nose ammo. Besides, I never have seen the need for HP ammo for my purposes.

[Maven]

fecmech, Forrest r, As I wrote in my 1st post, I wasn't expecting much from the TB ammo based on what I read here. Perhaps I was lucky and got a better lot of it, but I was surprised and pleased with its performance. Also had good luck with a ~350 box of Win. Dynapoint HP's years ago. None of this is match ammo, but it certainly was good enough for bunnies, squirrels, cans, and 1" red dots @ 50 yd. (LOL)

[tazman]

fecmech, Forrest r, As I wrote in my 1st post, I wasn't expecting much from the TB ammo based on what I read here. Perhaps I was lucky and got a better lot of it, but I was surprised and pleased with its performance. Also had good luck with a ~350 end. box of Win. Dynapoint HP's years ago. None of this is match ammo, but it certainly was good enough for bunnies, squirrels, cans, and 1" red dots @ 50 yd. (LOL)

That's just plain old good fun shooting. The thunderbolts work perfect for that.
I have had both good luck and poor with the thunderbolts. Mostly good. I only had one box that wanted to lead like what happened to Forrestr. None have done it since.

[fiberoptik]

I always liked federal & dynapoints. Rem bulk was always known for the "click, click syndrome". Even when cheap was never a deal.


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[Ola]

Here we have a joke (might also be the truth, who knows?) about Remington Thunderbolts:

"Do you know how they measure the powder at the Remington factory? Well, they have the casings standing on a tray and an old lady throws the powder with a snow shovel.."

[odfairfaxsub]

Too funny ola

[imashooter2]

I actually like the ammo, it does extremely well for blammo ammo. The issues I've encountered with it in the past is the alloy they make their bullets out of. Used to have a 22/45 that loved the thunderbolts, shot bugholes with it. As everyone knows 22's can be picky even between lots of the same ammo.

Several years back I was at a local shop and they had different lots of tb's sitting out being sold by the box. I picked thru them buying several different boxes/lots to test. I also had an old (1957) k-22 that likes certain lots of thunderbolts also. The old k-22 has seen allot of use but still make 1 heck of a range plinker. As luck of the draw would have it I ended up taking the k-22 to the range 1st to test the different thunderbolt ammo. Nothing fancy just standing, 2 hand hold @ 50ft. OK, testing the different lots, their putting holes in the paper until I got to the next to the last lot. Loaded 6 rounds and shot a target. WWWOOOOWWWW!!! The groups really opened up compared to the rest of the ammo. Loaded 6 more from the same box and got a table and shot the next 6-shots from a rest. Nothing was on a 12" x 12" target from a rest @ 50ft. Ok, not good. Looked down the bbl and saw why.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/tboltlead.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/tboltlead.jpg.html)

That's what came out of the bbl when I ran a tight patch down it. It only took 12 shots to do that. I've had the same thing happen with thunderbolts and other firearms in the past. I will not be having any problems with thunderbolts in the future because I'm not going to buy anymore of them.

Hopefully you have better luck than I have with thunderbolts.

Same experience with a 617. The same ammo works well in a semi auto, but I have never seen so much lead in a barrel as it left in the 617.

[wv109323]

At my hunting camp, I was reading an article on bargain 22 ammo from 1991. I have several old magazines that have been there forever. The TB actually outshot the std. vel. target Remington ammo.

[lefty o]

rimfires are picky about which ammo they shoot best, but the reason remingturd ammo gets its bad rap is remingturd has bad QC, thats why from lot to lot you never know what your going to get. this applies to their centerfire ammo as well. its a crapshoot.

[Lloyd Smale]

its better then nothing.

[GhostHawk]

Up until the mid 90's I was a Remington fanboi. I prefered their brand of everything.

Then they changed their lube on .22lr, and I don't believe on just one product. I used to buy the premium rem in 100 round square box. Then suddenly my Ruger 10/22 was having failures to feed. Mags were gumming up. So I spent an hour and took them all apart and cleaned them all with alcohol.

Rifle worked right for less than 2 weeks and I was back into troubles.

Did Remington learn their lession? Perhaps. But trust is lost, and is not easily regained.

Trust, is Federal Champion auto match. 1200 fps and my Rugers all love it.
100% no issues, no ftf, only get a failure to eject when my Ruger Mk III 22/45's need cleaning.

So feel free to buy the remington if you like. But my opinion is I prefer Federal.
When I can can find them at 6 cents each I buy in bulk, like 2k rounds at a time.
That keeps my 30-50 rounds a week habit fed nicely.

[sparky45]

Ya know what I'd do with those; I'd pour about a fourth inch deep puddle of BLL and individually lube 'em. Bet they'd perform great and NOT lead the barrel. However, I have all the time in the world to do something as tedious as that.


Same experience with a 617. The same ammo works well in a semi auto, but I have never seen so much lead in a barrel as it left in the 617.

[imashooter2]

Ya know what I'd do with those; I'd pour about a fourth inch deep puddle of BLL and individually lube 'em. Bet they'd perform great and NOT lead the barrel. However, I have all the time in the world to do something as tedious as that.

What I do is shoot pretty much any other make from the myriad of .22 LR in my stores.

[sparky45]

Waste not, want not.

[Mytmousemalibu]

I have had a lot of FTF's and also noticed large variance in the report from what I assume is the powder charge weight being all over the place. The rim thickness is all over the place too. I'm not nit-picking these with a gauge, its how they chamber in my bolt guns. Some the bolt closes on fine and others it's really difficult because the rim is so much thicker.

I also have a couple clear plastic sleeves of Golden Bullets that have a lot of loose powder in the bottom and some the crimp is terrible, with bullets wiggly loose in the case. Buddy got a new 870 as a gift (which he was thankful for) from his brother. The fit & finish was terrible and it didn't want to run worth a carp. Look at the R51, version 1.0 was utter garbage and the "new & improved" re-release by initial reports, still doesn't work. Make no mistake, Remingturd wouldn't know what Quality Control was if slapped them upside the head...

Shame, I really used to like Remington but they are still dragging bottom of the barrel.

[fiberoptik]

Remingclick IS a waste of time. Prefer ammo that goes Boom [emoji95]!


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[fiberoptik]

DynaPoints or MiniMags!


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[sparky45]

Of those I've had a problem; I pull the bullet off and have found there's ALWAYS a powder charge, it's the priming compound that isn't there or just partially there.

[merlin101]

I've got an old Ruger MKI that absolutely loves the old T bolts, I've still got a couple of bricks set aside just for the ole girl.