Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Thunderbolt Quality?

Has it improved with recent production?

I know that for awhile it was considered crap, and I'm aware of at least one manufacturer that warned against using it in their guns.

Paul

As far as I'm concerned, it's still crap. I avoid it for use in autos.

Always has been and always will be... Hint..

IME it's still inconsistent.
Shoots OK in bolts, single shots, etc., when it will go off.
Sometimes you have to turn the cartridge to get the primer compound to work.
Not reliable enough to consistently cycle semi-autos.

In general, I'd still rate it as crap............................

i still have probably 20 bricks of the stuff from 10-15 years ago. i used to get it for $5.99/br on sale and would pick up 2 or 3 at a pop for plinking out of my semi's. it was good for 2-3 FTF's per mag. but for 6 bucks a brick i wasn't too worried.

It's always varied alot from lot to lot. Some lots are terrible with lots of duds and squibs and some lots ain't too bad. I bought two bricks of it last summer when .22 ammo was almost impossible to find. Shot one brick of it so far and only had two duds out of the whole brick. It was also pretty accurate for cheap plinking ammo and would consistently group 5 shots under 3/4" at 50 yards from a couple of my rifles.

Kept Thunderbolts too long and they would not function in the semi-autos, bolt actions and used them up in a revolver.

GARBAGE!

i don't shoot them out of my revolvers. they leave sheets of lead in the barrel and start keyholing after a few cylinder fulls. on my ruger's anyway. my s&w's only get federal or goldens.

crap

For what it's worth-

Out of Ruger American I did not have a FTF or squib in about 250 rounds.

The WORST ammo I've come across is the new Winchester M-22. Could have been an issue with the lot- but I'd say about 1/30 would FTF or the bullet would hit the ground about 30 yards down range. I still have a box of 500 from that 1000 pack. I think I'll pull sole bullets and see if some are missing powder.

Yes it is crap ! Ten years ago I would not have wanted thunderbolts at any price. But not now.

It's very dirty.

I recently spent up some a couple hundred rounds I bought two years ago. The last of it actually. Dirty as hell. I still have a winchester 333 box left and some cci. I will say I just bought some more tbolts a week ago to try again. I bought one 525 brick, but haven't tried any yet. Plan on it this Saturday or Sunday. Will post results.

It's the only ammo I could get locally and I just bought my wife a new marlin xt

Thanks to all who shared their experience and opinions.

I bought a bulk carton of 500 at SW because they had it and I wanted some cheap available ammo for close up pistol practice. FWIW, I shoot serious rifle competition with match ammo up to the top grade imports, but this wasn't my purpose here.

I ran about 100 rounds through a Ruger SR22 with nary a failure. Carbon fouling seemed minimal, but, as others reported, it left strips of lead in the barrel.

So, I'll shoot up this batch and won't buy more, if only because I don't want to have to bother with extreme leading.

Paul

Well, at least you confirmed that Thunderbolt has kept it's "quality" consistent over the years.

I don't mind cheap dirty ammo IF it actually fires. I will go into it knowing I'll need to do some cleaning when finished. In years past though leading wasn't an issue because the round needs to fire to be able to cause leading.I would work the rifle range at our boy scout range during summer camp when I would be down there with our troop. In that week time we would go through a ton of 22 ammo. On several years the ammo of choice(because it was what was given to us) was the Thunderbolt stuff. FTF where like clockwork. I am under the impression though that Remington has revamped their rimfire mfrg and hopefully the FTF will go away. Time will only tell as new stock gets used and actual results get noted.

Yup, I don't think I ever made it through 100 rds of thundercrap w/o 2-3 FTF's. On the flip side we've gone through 1000's of Fed bulk 22's in the 550ct boxes and I don't recall any FTF's.

It fail me to understand why any manufacture would want to put out that kind of junk with out a lot of effort, they could make it good stuff. Raising the price a few cents a box would not be a problem because from CRAP to good people would still buy. Why would you like to be known as manufactures of pure crap//

While I wholeheartedly agree with your comment, it's all about the money.
Right now, they can sell crap, if it's the only crap on the shelf. It doesn't much matter, if it's the only stuff on the shelf, and Remington has banked on the rep of the 700s and 870s for years, while turning out crap .22s, ammo AND guns, for a long while.
Winchester's not any different, they are getting an awful reputation for their rimfire ammo, too, depending on which loads you're talking about. The old SuperX stuff, and Power Points, are still revered, but the promo loads and bulk ammo are suffering badly, too.

Go over to rimfirecentral and you'll find folks who badmouth both brands.
Federal and CCI seem to have kept their good reputations so far, but the "rimfire shortage" is effecting everyone one way or another.

Update:

Since firing about 80 rounds out of the aforementioned carton and getting leading strips in my SR22, just for the helluvit I hand lubed a batch with SPG. I fired off about 100 rounds today and got zero leading. Unlike the first batch with no FTF, I got about three that needed a second hit to fire.

This experiment indicated that the leading problem is from inadequate lube in factory production.

Needless to say, I won't be buying any more Thundercrap.

Paul

It's called the Walmart mentality. Bubba will buy the cheapest 22rf ammo he can find and Remington is more than willing to sell the cheapest 22rf ammo in mass quantities.

My Anschutz 54 sporter doesn't like ANY ammunition made by Remington. With other brands it varies from one load to another. But with Remington it has never shot a group less than .75 at 50 yds. usually much larger.

I've got a couple of those 550 boxes I picked up during Obamascare 2008, and FTFs are to be expected from time to time. At first, I thought it was just the timing problem I was having with my New Bearcat, but Ruger fixed that. Last week I was burning up a few in my 22/45 and had one FTF out of about 140. It went off when rechambered.

At the same time I picked up the 550s, I als got some Winchester white box and later silver box bulk. I don't recall any trouble with those and the accuracy has been good enough for pistol practice.

In the future, I'm sticking with CCI, RWS, and Aguila. Accurate and reliable and available online often enough to keep me ahead of the demand curve.

I will play it safe and will never buy anything, anything with the Remington name on the box.

Those junk artists cannot even make a gun wipe, or any other wipe for that matter. It boggles the mind, cleaning kit, any gun product, certainly not a gun, good for nothing company.

I had a yellow/white plastic dispenser with oil treated gun wipes that pull up from the center of the tube. I needed more. It seems this company was bought out and now comes in a green Remcrap container. How bad can it? Right? I buy a tube, $10, no less. Go home, pull one out. No oil, little oil, worthless - junk. My last wipe (siting for a week) from the old pack still does 10x the job of a new Remington wipe right out of the can. The Rem rags dry enough to use on my private parts. I guess they can make those kind of wipes after all.

I tried the newly manufactered thunderduds today along with some winchester 40 grainers,federal 40 grainers, cci 40 grainers and reminton goldens 36 grain hps.

MHO, thunder duds still suck, winchester ammo was next to the bottom, 3rd was the cci next was the fed and the best groups came from the remington goldens. I somehow forgot to take the one 50 count box of stingers I still have left. Plus I have a 50 box of subsonic winchester that was left behind. I would like to ad having been a longtime fannof marlin bolt rimfires, this bolt on this brand new xp is crude at best? Rough as hell and alot of ejecti n g problems and load jamming problems. Still decently accurate, but nothing like my older 22 mag883 or 882 or the 917v. Maybe the crappy Bushnell rimfire scope

I seen this first hand and all to common an experience. Those who dont know or care,may keep the product line alive - does it matter?

As far as thundercrap/dud (Ha I like that) shooting poorly or dirty or misfires, vs golden looking good. That is just a snap shop and nothing I would take to the bank. If you see the name CCI on the box you can expect reasonable quality. That is a big difference, gun individual preferences aside. I would not even be interested in sampling any ammo in a green box.

For 36 hP hunting loads, the minimags seem to do well across the board (with friends and club members) and quality appears to be very consistent. You can buy with confidence, unless Remington aquires that brand and then watch out.

At this point, I would rather see "China" on a box than "Illion NY". What a shame.

fourbore,

Remington's rimfire ammo has been made in Lonoke, Arkansas for quite a while now, which may or may not be part of the problem.

What the heck? If all one was doing was plinking tin cans in the back yard, wouldn't el-cheapo ammo that gave an occasional misfire or dirty-ed up the bore be ok? In that respect this ammo has a place somewhere in this world. If empty beer cans at 50 feet were the targets du jour I sure as heck wouldn't waste premium ammo on them by shucking it through an old pump gun- so what if a few don't go off, and I'll be cleaning the gun at the end of the day anyway. Aspirins at 50 yards with a target rifle are a whole 'nother story...

I'm not defending Remington's sloppy QC. Shame on them for permitting crap like that to be foisted on us. Still, there's a place and a time for everything.

Miserable stuff. On my never buy again list along with Winchester wildcat, most Remington UMC ammo.

I've seen old Thunderbolt that was exposed to our extreme heat,....it goes really WEIRD, and exudes a very acidic and vile liquid.

Than and again, maybe MOST powders would ?

GTC

I too have had trouble with Remington bulk .22lr ammo. Aside from burning dirty, they achieve inconsistent velocities and I find that many have the projectiles only loosely held in the casing. I have had few FTF's, but the other problems I have had more than make up for that. I am currently trying to shoot up the ones I have left and do not plan on buying any more. In the big box I prefer Federal, followed by Winchester 36gr hp's. CCI's work right most (99+%)of the time and function flawlessly, so they get eaten by the semi-autos.

I've seen it appear on a shelf in the LGS now and then, mostly then and usually there is only one box. I pass on it due to some of the same experience noted here. Crap stuff especially in autos.

Around here, Thunderbolt ammo is called "Maypops". The early morning Walmark crowds seem to enjoy very much. I have a couple of grandsons that actually dislike the stuff.....and I dislike them having to phucaround with reloading or repositioning the ammo in the chamber. All things considered, it ain't cheap.

Here's my follow up to this thread that I started. I've gone through most of the original carton. consistent with others' experience, I got significant leading. Just as an experiment, I then hand lubed a batch with SPG, and another with liquid alox. That cut down the leading significantly. I haven't had many failures to fire, and I can't speak to accuracy because I've fired them only in a Ruger SR22. I wouldn't think of shooting them through a decent rifle barrel.

Bottom line: They're a major PITA, but can be made to work. I'd have to be pretty desperate to buy more.

Paul

I would never mention Remington and quality in the same sentence. Like another poster said, I will never buy Remington crap again.

Found a partial box of Thunderbolts in my stash from pre-hoarding days and tried them in my suppressed Buckmark to see if they would be subsonic out of the 4" barrel. One ten round magazine produced 2 failure to fire, both fired on the second try, and one fail to eject that sounded like a squib load. I checked the barrel to make sure it exited & it did, but I could tell a distinct difference in the report even with the suppressor.

Dirty and they corrode quickly. Might try coating what I have left as a previous poster suggested to see if they can be made to shoot.

Thunderbolt and quality equals oxymoron.

A girl came to the range by herself today. She had a Glock 26, Glock 43, and SR22. All hers. I was impressed. She was shooting Thunderturds out of her SR22. Gave her some tips on where and how to buy some real ammo.