Remington Thunderbolt

[Michigan Joe]

Went out back today with two rifles - the Remington 597 and my Remington 522 I bought 40+ years ago and had not fired 100 rounds through it.

I had ordered a bunch of .22 CCI Blazer ammo and had some new Thunderbolt ammo.

The Blazers worked 100%. No jams, misfires, etc.

Then loaded up a tube of Thunderbolts in the 552. Two jams and one weak shell. Went back to the Blazers. No further problems. We shot about 200 rounds.

Remington should be ashamed for selling those. Will save them for the bolt actions.

Finally, I have absolutely no idea why I had not played with the 552 before. I have a Tasco scope on it, a 3 through 7 power and it was still sighted in!  Bought it when I was 19. Now 62. It worked flawlessly. The 597 VTR loved the Blazers also.

I imagine you other guys must have had trouble with Thunderbolts also, or was it just me?

Michigan Joe

[asmurff]

I used Thunderbolts once when you couldn't hardly find ammo and I used it in my Marlin bolt-action 925R and had several failure to fires and the rifle was filthy after, haven't bought any Remington .22 since then. I use Federal in the Marlin or when plinking with my 10/22, use CCI Mini Mags during our Tactical .22 matches at the gun club. I know a lot of people our using the Blazers, including the guy who runs our matches..

[JohnH4260]

I've used Thunderbolt in my rifles (bolt action and semi-auto) and pistols and revolvers. With the revolvers and bolt actions, no problem except for the occassional failure-to-fire (1 or 2 out of a hundred). Once my pistol or semi-auto rifle gets a little dirty (150-200 rounds), I start having failure-to-feed and failure-to-eject problems. Once I use up the remaining Thunderbolt, probably will not by again unless it's on a great sale price.

[Hoss]

Remington should be ashamed for selling those. Will save them for the bolt actions.

Michigan Joe

I wouldn't say 'ashamed'.  Obviously they're selling enough of those to do ok.  It's up to us not to buy what is basically junk ammo.   

I don't buy Remington rimfire ammo at all anymore.  It's problem prone and not accurate in my guns.  The lack of accuracy is mostly excusable, as different guns favor different ammo, but the ammo's unreliability is just deplorable.

I think I understand what's going there.  Many years ago I worked in a box factory where we made,, among others, boxes for Pennzoil and GE light bulbs.  We took extreme care with the Pennzoil boxes and and practcially no care whatsoever with the GE boxes.  As a result we could run the Pennzoil boxes at around 7,000/hour and the GE boxes at up to 27,000/hr.    GE didn't care.  The customer has to care, otherwise ....

[imschur]

Not sticking up for Remington but the Thunderbolt's have been around for decades and they havent changed much. What has changed A LOT is the delivery platforms. My marlin model 60 digests the Thunderbolts without issue with the exception of the occasional failure to fire. It also was acceptable in my various bolt action .22's

.22 semi autos have always been picky about ammo. The list of what works with my Colt branded .22 AR conversion,S&W 422 or my S&W41 is shorter then what doesn't work. Ammo cost also seems to have little effect on what ammo works in the same guns.

I was reading a few weeks ago their will be a trend in new ammo specifically meant to be fed to these new .22's.

[Michigan Joe]

What I suspect is that Thunderbolts have changed. Perhaps they cheapened the final product.

[imschur]

What I suspect is that Thunderbolts have changed. Perhaps they cheapened the final product.

What do these things cost these days anyways? I havent seen a box in ages

[ImatushiMaru]

Where I live in Wisconsin, they are 1.99/box of 50. Sometimes you can find them at 1.70 if they are on sale. They are the exact same price as Federal Champion, and more than Federal Lightning.

[Kilibreaux]

A couple of points:

I agree with Imschur that the platforms have changed over the years, and this probably has as much to do with .22LR ammo problems as any changes in manufacturing quality.  A perfect example is how FEW failures to fire I've experienced with my 25 year old 10/22 versus my much newer GSG-5 using the SAME ammo.  I've had dud hits in the GSG that went bang in the 10/22.  Not that the GSG can't be worked by a competent gunsmith to a much higher degree of reliability, but that is not what the average purchaser expects will be required.  By the same token I don't remember my P22 EVER having a failure to fire with any brand...clearly the platform has MUCH to do with .22LR reliability.

A second point is that with my basic selection of magazine fed auto-loaders I've been stocking the more expensive brands, yet with my Razorback I am forced to consider the least expensive simply because it can eat a thousand rounds in a matter of seconds.  For this reason I gave CCI Blazer a try ($1.69/box) ordered in bulk and was quite surprised at the quality and reliability, but then the Razorback was built to fire the "cheap stuff."  Again it seems the platform may have more to do with .22 reliability than the ammo.

[Michigan Joe]

It is certainly true that different guns react differently with the same brand ammo. Could the problem of what seems to be a higher number of FTF/FTE be the result of the increase in the quantity of ammo fired by the average Tactical .22 shooter over the average bolt action shooter/hunter? 

I know that I shoot more rounds in a day now than I used to in several years as a hunter. There were many days that I went into the woods and never fired a shot.

The guys who have been consistent target shooters would be better able than guys who only hunted to make the comparison between present day ammo and ammo made ten or 20 years ago.

Of course, shooting the razorback would bring any deficiencies out in the open.

[imschur]

In my youth when I didnt know any better my old man used to buy me only the Thunderbolts for my Marlin Model 60. Used to buy them by the case of 5000. I think they were like 50 cents a box. I recall there would be a few failures to fire over the course of a weekend. I would stick'em right back in the tube. I recall on occasion being shocked when they didnt fire on the 2nd trip through the action. Eventually the gun would stop functioning from the crud build up. A nut pick, tooth brush and gun scrubber and i was back in business. I think the only time it ever saw lube was when I cleaned the barrel and Hoppes  9 ran in to the action.