Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Remington Golden Bullets - Price Decrease!

I have been busy Varmint Hunting all month and I have not had a chance to post much.
But here is a bit of GOOD news on the American made rimfire ammunition front.
Last Christmas time (late December 2,016) I went in to my local small gunshop and there was a "bucket" of Remington 22 L.R. hollowpoint ammunition (1,400 rounds) for sale - the price was $99.99 for the bucket.
I bought one bucket in anticipation of this years Ground Squirrel Hunting season.
I personally prefer and use Federal 36 grain hollowpoints from their 525 and 550 bulk packs or the Winchester 40 grain Power-Points for my guns but I bought the Remingtons in anticipation of letting the VarmintKids and VarmintGrandkids shooting them up.
Well a week or so later the store owner asked a favor of me and that was to sell that bucket'o bullets back to him as a favor for a friend/relative of his - I complied and he bought it back for what I paid for it.
Then in the next few months I saw the buckets of bullets selling elsewhere for $99.00 to $105.00!
Advance to yesterday and my same gunshop gets in a shipment of the Remington Golden Bullet buckets and they have been significantly reduced - the price is now $86.00 per bucket of 1,400 rounds!
I asked the owner about the price reduction and he siad he was not sure of the reason but he double checked the wholesalers price and he priced them at retail to maintain his normal profit margin.
A bit of good news on the rimfire ammunition front I thought!
Plus in general shelves I see around the west are very much more full of American made hollowpoint offerings.
Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend everyone.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

After shooting a couple of hundred of them a week ago they would have to pay me more than that to take them. I hope I am never desperate enough that I have to buy them again. I have never shot a dirtier bullet than they were, they left so much carbon fouling in the rifle that I had to scrape it out.

drover

They were $56 a bucket at Big R one day before SH.
They were overpriced then.......

I don't know about dirty but they shoot worse in my Marlin bolt than any other 22 ammo I have shot through it in the last 30 years.

Yellow Jacket, Thunderbolt and Subsonics are fine though. Guess the rifle just doesn't like the Golden bullet.

you can have all of my American 22's they suck

Each to their own. I am a "cheapo" 22lr ammo guy. I ask very little from it. 99.9% is very informal plinking. Once in a blue moon I will throw in some Stingers,Vipers or Yellow Jackets for rabbit. But for me, this is the ammo I grew up on. Actually the "Thunderbolt". I am happy with what some will call dirty crap. Hate paying a premium for rim fire. On the other side of the coin, I don't blink at 30-378 Weatherby Magnum prices. Or my 500 Nitro Express. $20 a pop in Kynoch. I scrub my 22 so I don't mind some junk. Actually I have always known the junk. Never shot the premium for casual shooting. When you mowed lawns in the Houston Texas summers as a sweaty dude, those Thunderbolts were just fine to blast water moccasins. Same with my vodka. Don't need something made from a virgin glacier at the center of the earth before the dinosaurs were around. My back hurts after a long day at work and i would like a stiff drink. Would be cool though to have the time,money,access to all flavors of 22 ammo for a week of comparisons.

Remington would have to pay me to use this ammo. I run a youth 22 shooting club and this ammo is one that gives us the most trouble. Alot of misfires, light powder charges which results and low fliers. Federal Auto Match was giving us problems before with certain lot numbers where we were getting squib loads but they seem to work that out now we use it now. When I was a kid 50 years ago I used remington golden bullets and killed piles of grounds hogs with them, this new stuff sucks.

The Remington Golden Bullets are very inconsistent in velocity and accuracy. Bang, bang, pffft, bang, pffft.

Man, I miss the days of $15 bulk brick Winchester Dynapoints and 40 grain Federal lead roundnose.
Even the $11.97/550 Federal bulk stuff from Wally World shot fine.

Was it really that long ago the 22lr was both good and inexpensive?
Lately I've.tried some Winchester HV roundnose (goes bang but not.accurate), some new Federal Match (not impressed - my old stuff shot much better) and even some current production CCI SV didn't shoot so hot.

On the other hand, I'm having great luck with $29 per brick Aguila standard velocity, and I've seen it online for less.
Personally, I would buy that over any other bargain ammo I can think of these days.

Great ammo when they work, to many misfires.

Here's a sign..........

Guys: My rancher friend who is a life long Montanan (but not very gun savy!) just dropped by to tell me how happy he is with my efforts at diminishing the Ground Squirrels on his place and to show that appreciation he forced me to take two cartons (1,000 rounds) of C.C.I. "Quiet Sound" 750 F.P.S. 22 ammunition. These are round nosed bullets and I will have to trade them for something I can use.
Oh well I am NOT looking a gift horse in the mouth but I don't want to use this ammo on the Gophers - first off I am not sighted in with it and more importantly it probably would not be very lethal/reliable on Gophers past 50 yards or so and thats where I start having fun.
Anyone want to trade some Federal bulk pack 36 grainers for some CCI quiet sound stuff?
Oh I agree that the Remington Golden bullets are not what they used to be (decades ago).
I just opened an old back of the ammo locker bulk pack of Federal hollow-points (550 pack!) that still had the price tag on it $11.50!
Thats about 2.1 cents per round!
I don't think we will be seeing that price ever again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

2.1 cents a piece, as the raven would say, never more

They are not my favorite, but far ,far better than WW 333 ammo..

WyoCoyoteHunter: Yikes I have several bulk pack boxes containing 333 of the Winchester hollow-points - I have not shot any of them as yet and again have them on hand for a rainy day and/or trading stock.
What is the problem with these Winchester rounds?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Bought them in AZ. for my pistols... in 50 or so rds they had so much lead in the bore you couldn't hit a pop can at 10 '... I threw them away, but sometime later bought some more.. Same thing.. Dumped the rest down a prairie dog hole.. I had shot some before that were fine.. Hope your 's are good.

I have been impressed with both the thunderbolt and the golden bullet HP loads from my 22's. I don't think its the cleanest burning stuff out there but its shoots pretty darn good. I tested 6 different types of 22 lr yesterday and the golden bullet hp was one of the best shooting. I have shyd away from anything remington the last few years but, the 22 lr is good stuff. I wonder what happened to their yellow jacket loading? varmint guy, I hate to break it to you but with my dealer discount I can get that bucket of 1400 rounds from graf's with my dealer account for $69.

Cumminscowboy: Why on earth would you "hate to break it to me"?
I am thrilled that you (or anyone!) can get ammo at the best (lowest!) price possible!
By the way I wonder how much the shipping would be on those heavy bucket's'o bullets?
Again good for you on getting bullets as cheaply as possible.
By the way I am on the way to my bank to get some monies out - I have spoken up for "a number" of Federal 550 (five hundred and fifty) packs of 36 grain hollow-points.
About half of my heavy barrel Varmint Rifles are sighted in with these hard to find (anymore!) bullets.
Anyway I will be purchasing these bullets en masse and at a price that is very appealing to ME - $30.50 per 550 pack (no sales tax).
Thats 5.5 cents per quality American hollow-points that are accurate and lethal on Ground Squirrels and small Varmints.
Yeah, alas, the days of 2 cents per hollow-point are OVER.
I shoot right alongside MANY Ground Squirrel Hunters that do still use the Remington 22 L.R. hollow-point Golden Bullets and they are lethal and fairly accurate but do have a somewhat high FTF (fail to fire) rate - I am guessing over-all among all my friends about 5 or 6 rounds per 100 that FTF.
My Federal bulk pack 36 grain hollow-points FTF at a rate of about 2 or 3 per 100 rounds.
I am constantly amazed at how loud and vigorously my Varminting friends howl and complain about their 22 rimfire ammos failing to fire!
Its amusing to me anymore.
I say work your action and get back to shooting - stop whining!
While "we" are on the subject - I had a friend in from Ylem, Washington last week for 2 1/2 days of Varmint Hunting and he had a newly purchased Ruger 77/22 V/T (Varmint target in 22 L.R.) he was shooting Winchester 40 grain ROUND NOSE 100 pack bullets (against my recommendation) well he is left handed and was shooting from the passenger seat of my VarmintMobile when KA-BOOM one of his Winchester 22 L.R. 40 grainers "blew-up"!
I was spotting for him and saw the gas cloud envelop his face and him reel back in shock and pain (small face cut!).
We immediately assumed his barrel had been plugged by a previous bullet not exiting but I had been spotting on his previous shot (kill on a 50 yard Gopher!) and then we decided that round had been double charged?
Upon his opening the bolt there lay one of his Rifles twin extractors laying there in the breach on top of his rotary magazine!
We were mucho puzzled as between us in a combined 125 years of shooting 22 L.R.'s and 250,000+ rounds touched off had never seen a double charge blow-up like this!
Checked the barrel no bulges in the barrel and we headed for town for lunch - we were able to re-install the extractor and after lunch my friend switched over to my hollow-points and no more "surprises"!
His Rifle worked fine after our re-installation of the extractor.
I guess my point is it is unrealistic to expect "perfection" from mass produced 22 L.R. ammunition?
I used to use Remington Golden Bullets in fact - but in my search for "perfection" about 14 years ago switched over to Federal bulk pack ammo.
Thanks for your input.
Keep up the good work getting cheap ammo - and as an aside I don't mind my local gunshop making a profit - the convenience of having them being nearby is well worth it to me.
I used to have an F.F.L. and got dealer discounts on "stuff" (guns, scopes, ammunition, accessories, components etc etc etc) but it was a hassle and a worry - after 25+ years I "retired and moved and did not renew my F.F.L. to my new location.
To tell the truth I don't miss it one bit.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Interesting stuff guys, this pretty well parallels my experience w/ Rem. ammo.. I have not had an unusual amount of duds in my shooting.. I still have quite a few Yellowjackets and Stingers.. But in the future I will have to go easy on these.. Doubt I could afford to replace at these prices 😖 Did just pick up some CCI lr hp & some 22mag cci hp.. No tax in Montana..

I get dealer discount to, BUT they would still have to pay me to take there junk. Golden bullets today aren't the golden bullets of the 70's. Way to many misfires and light loads for me, even at .049 cents each still not worth it.

These Golden Bullets had a bad rap a few years ago for not firing. Some would take two or three hits to fire. Have they gotten any better. I said I would never buy them again. That was pre SH

Sad that Remington continues to produce what most know as the bottom of the barrel for .22 rf. Dirty and about 10% or more will FTF.

I bought a brick of this in 2013, at the height of the panic buying when finding .22 anything at retail price felt like a score.

I wouldn't buy another box if it were free.

I've had good luck with G.B. besides a few duds, they cycle small pistols well and hit hard from a rifle.

I have shot thousands of these, but finally ran into a bad bunch.. Been shooting them in my single sixes.. They shoot ok, but some are so tight they have to be forced into the chambers.. Cleaned the chambers, still tight.. Tried some old Federals, they chambered w/ ease..

It has been a long time since I've had a bad batch of them. I've had more trouble with the Remington Golden Sabre.
Keltec PF-9 Review

I shot a few GB's this weekend from a fairly new batch, all went off the first hit and functioned the two pistols we were using, but I noticed a couple that had a quieter report. Just the Remingtons, not the WW or Federals.

I remember the misspent days of my youth, when I would buy a box of 50 .22lr ammo and go forth to slay the jack rabbits. One day a box yielded 43 dead jacks but that was with a .22 rifle that was a bolt action.

Today almost all my .22 lr rifles are semi-auto and the kill ratio is far far less, but still fun. Back 20-25 years ago the Thunderturds were a respectable animal and the brand name on the box did not seem to matter very much. Over the last 10 years the Remington .22 ammo has taken a turn into the sewer. Like many lads here I had extremely dirty firearms, multiple misfires, and dismal accuracy. After suffering through time after time with that experience I vowed to never again use Thuderturds in my firearms.

To date nothing in the reports of fellow shooters has led me to believe that the quality of that ammo has been upgraded, so I pass on them even if they are the only brand on the shelf.
I was fortunate enough to stock up on bulk ammo from Federal and Winchester when the Wally World prices were at the $10/550 amount.

Please alert me when the quality improves on this ammo.

I just burned through 100 pack of CCI minimags and had 4 duds. I took one dud and retried it 3 times. Never used to happen with CCI of old.

Dla: I host between 12 and 20 high volume Ground Squirrel shooters/Hunters a year, virtually all of them bring along 22 pistols and 22 Rifles and a myriad of appropriate and inappropriate 22 L.R. ammunitions.
I have done these high volume shooting Hunts for 20 years now.
It never ceases to amaze me that these Hunters virtually universally (in the past 20 years there have been at least 60 different "Hunters" in attendance) have had misfires, failures to extract, failures to eject and this year for the first time an explosion of a 22 L.R. cartridge. I am constantly amazed at the indignation, surprise, incredulity and anger displayed by ALL these folks over these "dud's", a failure to extract or a failure to eject!
Often times I laugh at them over their various emotional manifestations.
Its been 40 plus years since I realized and accepted that 22 L.R. ammunition is not perfect!
There are going to be failures with this mass produced ammunition - that's just a fact of life.
A little more on that "explosion" that occurred this year - my friend from Yelm, Washington was shooting a new Ruger 77/22 V/T and had been shooting Winchester 40 grain Super-X round nose ammunition (inappropriate!) in it.
He was shooting out the passenger side window of my VarmintMobile (he's left handed) and I was spotting for him and directing his fire when an explosion event took place at his shot!
I felt the blast in my face and my friends face was cut by something!
We were both stunned and immediately began to try and analyze the event.
He suggested the previous shot had left a bullet in his barrel I said no I had spotted that previous shot and it hit a Gopher!
I suggested inspection of the barrel and bullet casing.
He opened the bolt of the Ruger 77/22 V/T and there in the breach lay one of the Rifles extractors - it had been blown out of the bolt!
Inspection of the spent casing showed more than average powder burns but no ruptures?
We were completely puzzled.
I suggested he not shoot that ammo anymore - and he concurred.
We repaired (re-installed!) the extractor and with MY ammunition (Federal bulk pack 36 grainers) he continued to shoot.
There was no bulge in his heavy barreled Ruger no barrel blockage - thankfully.
Again my point (and probably dla's point) is, 22 L.R. is NOT perfect and failures and incidents will happen - thankfully rarely.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

^^^^i am of the same thoughts as you. I have always "factored" in a few duds when shooting 22LR. That's just the way I've always been. It ain't like I am staring down a charging ele or buff. Maybe at worst a rogue Jack-a-lope. Too bad about Thunderbolts. They were my childhood bullet. I just bought a brick of Aguila for $29 at Cabela's. That ammo is good. Mexican ammo better than American? SMH!!! But its true. Wake TFU Remington!!!

I used to avoid buying .22 LR in loose bulk packs regardless the brand because many claimed to have experienced more duds and squib loads in bulk packs than they did with regular 50 and 100 round individually packaged ammo.

Joken2: You may have a point there but I also shoot large amounts of Winchester 40 grain Power-Point hollow-points (these come in 100 packs and are expensive!) in several of my most accuracy capable Rifles and pistols like my heavy barreled Remington 40-X, Kimber 82-G, Kimber Model 22 H/S (Hunter/silhouette), Ruger 77/22 V/T and Sako P94S and on occasion these bullets fail to fire and fail to extract (out of spec brass?).
But you are right as far as I know the various bulk packs have a bit higher percentage of failures - I don't know why but my guess is production demands/speed?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It was a brick of 500. In small 50 round little boxes. I also don't like the paper boxes or cardboard "milk cartons" that they dump them into. I know Aguila is good stuff. Used some of their heavy 60gr. And hyper velocity stuff..