Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Is the Golden Bullet "Golden" Again?

Having been stung by Remington's rimfire quality some years back, as they circled the drain, I simply stopped buying and shooting the Golden Bullet ammo.

Time was, it was my runaway favorite .22LR ammunition. My assortment of available rimfire guns was smaller then, but I was happy with the 36 gr HP Golden Bullet in most of the stuff I shot. Then things started downhill. Seems like they went away completely for a while. Don't know if that was a result of one of the shortages, or the reorganization/sale of Remington's ammo division. I didn't miss them much at that point because of repeated bad experiences with reliability and accuracy.

A few years back, I started seeing buckets of them on sale at various big box stores. Seems like this was a while after the cyclic shortages began, and it was interesting to see bulk ammo affordable. But it was Remington, and I sorta considered that bridge to be burned, even though they'd supposedly built a new rimfire ammo facility.

Maybe the grudge faded, or it might be that it just made me feel good to have the green and yellow box on the shelf, but I bought a 525 round bulk box of them figuring to try them out at a family shooting day. A guy I work with had grandsons who squirrel hunted and couldn't find ammo to hunt. I gave them the box to see them through. That was 2 or 3 years ago.

Fast forward to yesterday at Prairie Du Chien, and Cabela's had both buckets and 525 packs in good numbers at a decent price. A couple of the boxes came home with me after supper at the Spring Lake Inn.
After lunch today I went to the range and took my .22 Buckmark with me. Still had the Golden bullets in the car so after I fired all of my pre-loaded mags of CCI I shot a couple hundred of the Remingtons.

One gun and one box of ammo doesn't really tell much of a story, but I was impressed with the accuracy and had zero issues with functioning.

For those with recent experience, what is your opinion of today's Golden Bullet?

We used to joke about Rem golden bullets. People stopped buying them, they were sticky and crappy. Then they came out with the new improved golden bullets. We always said now even dirtier than before. They work in a pinch but I will never buy them again. CCi mini mag is a great option for a dependable and powerful .22 bullet.

I will buy and shoot them. This spring in a hunter safety class I assisted, several hundred of them shot reliably in all rifles used. Single shot, autoloader, pump and bolt action. Accuracy was not tabulated because of mostly inexperienced youth.

Interesting comments.
I never used them until my 'died in the wool Remington' Son in Law talked me into trying them. Turned out to be the second most accurate bullet in my squirrel/silhouette 22, beating out a bunch of crazy expensive match ammo. I bought a couple buckets, still working on them.
I have very different feelings for the Thunderbolts as they are more dunder and wander bolts. Remington has gone through some pretty rough times, hopefully the various pieces will be turning out good products again.
Bfly

Had too many of the bad Remington 22 shells to consider buying them again

I have shot several 525 packs of recent manufacture Golden Bullets in a variety of .22's over the past couple of years and have no complaints. They have fired and functioned just fine for me.

I watched a buddy go through 2 buckets during practice and matches with very few hiccups in his Advantage Arms Glock conversion.

I wound up buying a few buckets and they work as good as any other 22 ammo out there if your gun likes them. But that’s true with every ammo brand out there.

I’m shooting them in a 10/22, Glock 44, Kimber 1911-22 conversion and a Ruger MK II. And my S&W 43c but it shoots anything.

It’s not the best ammo but worked much better than auto match.

Remington golden bullet HPs were my go-to in the '60s-'80s. Never had issues with them. But stopped using them b/c CCI Minimags were easier to get late '80s. And was getting into NFA stuff - all those guys said stick to Minimags.

Heard all the negatives about Rem, but did not have any firsthand corroboration till I ran a youth session with Rem Thunderbolts. Tried to run a youth session was more like it. The club also had some GB buckets and my experience with those was exactly opposite that with the Thunderbolts. Not only did the GBs run flawlessly over about 2/3 bucket, but they chrono'd faster than CCI Blazer in all our guns ranging from G44s to 10/22s. No cycling issues with any auto. Sufficiently accurate for all the reactive targets, and in my guns grouped about like Fed 745, if not as good as Blazer.

I don't understand how Remington can make one bulk HS .22rf load that works and another that defines abysmal. But there it is.

Thunderbolts were brought into the conversation. They go bang and hit tin cans and varmints from a Ruger Single-Six, but choke a Ruger 10/22 and are not accurate in a Ruger 77/22. You never know what rifle will take a liking to them. A Winchester 1906 likes them.

Johnw: I switched away from them 20+ years ago - going with the Federal bulk pack hollow-point ammunition as my high volume Ground Squirrel munition for slightly better accuracy/dependability.
During various shortages I have bought some of the H/P Golden Bullets in the last couple of years and they work fine - I loan them to the VarmintSons when they come out for Gopher Hunting and the VarmintGrandChildren do just fine with them plinking and practicing - I think I have bought four "buckets" of them in the last few years - have a bucket and a half still on hand.
For the money I think they are "okay" or slightly better.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

If they’re better now, that’s good, but like the other mainstays that went sour for me, I have no plans to give them another shot (NPI) as long as there are good alternatives available. Fool me once and all that……

Thats good...and thanks for your service!


I bought a couple buckets during the last drought.

If they all fired....which was very rare....a ten shot mag produced 10 different reports.

Shot though a few buckets of them over the last 5 years or so. No complaints. Pretty good in SW Victory, run of the mill in others. Priced right when it was available. I like it better than Automatch.

Won’t buy Thunderbolt’s. Tried the “New and Improved”, not so much. Maybe now that Remington has restarted production of those will get better.

Golden Bullets are the bulk of my 22 stash. I keep lots of variety, but for a plinking bullet they certainly make me happy.

Here's to hoping the new is good once again. It once was very good stuff. Vista Outdoor certainly can make it happen if they wish.

I've got a 35 year old stash of Golden 22's that have been subjected to various storage conditions over the years & what little bit I've tested of it lately seems to be better than some of the bulk stuff from the last 10-15 years.

Back in the 70's when I started buying .22 ammo, Remington golden bullets were good stuff. Don't remember exactly when it started going down hill but by the 90's it was inconsistent, unreliable junk. I've been hopeful Vista would restore some quality to Remington .22 ammunition.

We always called the Thundbolts Thunderturds. Very poor results and more duds than you can imagine. I will never buy Thunderbolts ever again. I hope the new Remington can get their act together and produce some good ammo.

Exactly. I wanted to like them because of the prices, but after dud after dud especially in cold temps, I swore the pos off!!!

I agree with Pappy on this one. ^^^ Gave them an honest try and they sucked donkey balls..

I only have a few older Goldens left. The only bulk 22 ammo I can find here now is Thunderbolt and Aquila. What can you tell me about Aquila? HP's sell for about $19/250 rounds.