Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Thunderbolts on sale but............

Was in a local D&B farmstore that now has a gun department and they had Thunderbolts 500 on sale for $14.95. I was sorely tempted but decided to pass on them due to previous experience with their lack of functioning and duds. I have an adequate supply of .22lr already and was thinking about adding to it but haven't bought this ammo for a long long time. Has the QC improved or are they still suffering?

Mistake or Wise move.

I'd test a brick; some batches are pretty good.

I picked up a brick from my local Wal-Mart a few weeks back for 14.58. For that kind of money it's hard to pass up.

I have a bunch of Thunderbolt 22 ammo. I have not had a problem with them not firing in any of my 22 rifles. Recently I tested a lot of ammo in the new Tikka, and the Thunderbolt ammo was the least accurate. The 10 shot groups at 50 yards had vertical stringing. I’ll use it up in the lever actions.

I've gotten a few duds out of them and they are never what I'd call real accurate but for $15.00 or less a brick, I could make do with them for plinking ammo.

Wise move. There are better bulk deals out there.
Life's too short to feed your rifle junk.
Of course, some rifles will end up liking that stuff.....

I have also had mixed experiences. Accuracy and number of duds seem to vary widely.

Not to many duds, but dang that stuff is DIRTY. Accuracy was just so so. If it was all I could find then yes, but there are too many better options.

Think I am sticking with CCI. May go back to mini-mags for the 10/22. Had one or too FtF with standard velocity but will run a few more through. gun had not been used in a while thought I had lubed and cleaned it.

I use a lot of 22 ammo, many different brands. The most reliable and best performer on coon size game and smaller is the CCI Mini Mags. There is more accurate ammo for target shooting but when I need the 10-22 or Ruger Mark 3 to function 100% the Mini mags rule.

Thunderbolts should be free. Plenty of better out there.

Redhill: My local pawn/sport shop has had them on sale for $14.25 a carton (no sales tax!) for two months now!
I bought several cartons myself - re-sold a few for profit and saving a few for the VarmintGrandChildren to plink away with.
The few expected FTF's and FTE's will be good learning experiences for them!
Indeed there ARE better more reliable 22 L.R. cartridges out there but NOT for this price - 2.85 cents per round!
Not perfect but not that horrible in my experiences.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Around the time of the great shortage, there were reports of Thunderbolts' poor quality, FTF and dirty, and in particular severe leading. Being curious, I had to see for myself, so a ran a batch through a .22 pistol and, sure enough, got strips of lead in the bore.

Now it's clear from many of the posts here that some shooters pride themselves in never cleaning their .22s, and so long as they go bang and kill squirrels and such with regularity they are fine with whatever ammo they can get, the cheaper the better. That's freedom of choice.

For me, Remington screwed the pooch when they put out poor quality Thunderbolts, and I am not going to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that current production is better. For my money there are better choices. That, too, is the free market in action.

JMO and YMMV

Paul

Paul39: Which higher velocity (similar velocity to the Thunderbolts) ammunition can YOU get for 2.85 cents per round?
TIA
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I noticed Wally World had Federal 550 count for 19.99 a month ago and bought a few boxes. It’s 36gr JHP at ~1200 fps and I have no clue how it will shoot but now I have 4,950 on the shelf. Buy it while it’s cheap and on the shelf.

Haven't seen a Ford Thunderbolt since the early 60's

Oh These are Remington thunder bolts!

I didn't say I shop for the cheapest .22 ammo available, just noted that some others do. My go-to cheap .22 ammo is CCI Blazer. I'm good at around $20 per brick.

I bought a few ammo cans full of thunderbolt. Yep, not the best stuff, but fun to plink with.

Well and away that's great for Saturday, wtf you gonna do on Sun? lol MB

I'd rather buy a box of 30 year old Tiger Cats.......YMMV