Remington Thunderbolt -- Observations and comments

M

Meroh

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TSC has these on sale $30.00 for 500. I picked up a box to try in my new Norinco JW-15; cheep ammo to break it in.

The rifle is settling in very nicely with about 300 rounds through it, sight and trigger adjustments, and a minimal amount of polishing with a very fine diamond hone. Bench-rest, open sights at 20 meters; groups under an inch; despite the ammo issues:

So far, one out of ever 5 or 10 shots is noticeably quieter than the rest (no effect on accuracy).

Three shells out of the 300 at random intervals has blown hot gasses and soot in my face through the bolt. I examined the casings, and they are intact, not ruptured. I am wondering if it could be that these casings before being shot are undersized, and that the hot gasses are bypassing around these few undersized shells; past the bolt-face, and up the firing pin hole and straight out the back of the bolt.

I wear glasses, and am an old welder so I'm used to getting hot crap blown in my face; but this is the first time with a rifle!

Any similar experiences?

Mark
 
I bought a 500 pack a few years ago and ended up giving half away. Had quite a few FTF. Even took those and tried in 2 others and still duds. I also found them very dirty. Were jamming my M60 fairly quickly and did notice the sound difference you were talking about. Accuracy wasn't terrible but definitely not good enough to outweigh the cons for me.
 
Garbage ammo. At 50m those "quieter" shots definitely will have an effect on accuracy. The blow back is worrying, try some reputable ammo like CCI. If you still get blow back with that, then may be an issue with your rifle.
 
I have found little to no difference in accuracy due to those "quieter" shots over the past 2000-2500 rounds. Granted, im not shooting an Anschutz or cz and may not be able to see the effect.

I highly recommend thunderbolts for use in a semi auto 22. The round nose bullet feeds well and high velocity cycles actions reliably. Even the "quiet" ones still cycle the action.

I have fired up to 1000 rounds of thunderbolts through my old semi auto marlin 89c without cleaning, maintaining 5 shot groups of 1" or slightly less at 50 yards with a 3/4" tube 6x scope, and experiencing maybe 3 failures to fire. No failures to eject or feed.

In a bolt action, there is definately ammo that will give better groups. But how much better depends on the rifle.

This is my opinion of thunderbolts formed with my experience. Shoot a brick of it and come to your own conclusions. Conversely, Remington golden bullets are the worst 22 ammo I've ever experienced, followed by Winchester Wildcats.
 
Meroh said:
TSC has these on sale $30.00 for 500. I picked up a box to try in my new Norinco JW-15; cheep ammo to break it in.

The rifle is settling in very nicely with about 300 rounds through it, sight and trigger adjustments, and a minimal amount of polishing with a very fine diamond hone. Bench-rest, open sights at 20 meters; groups under an inch; despite the ammo issues:

So far, one out of ever 5 or 10 shots is noticeably quieter than the rest (no effect on accuracy).

Three shells out of the 300 at random intervals has blown hot gasses and soot in my face through the bolt. I examined the casings, and they are intact, not ruptured. I am wondering if it could be that these casings before being shot are undersized, and that the hot gasses are bypassing around these few undersized shells; past the bolt-face, and up the firing pin hole and straight out the back of the bolt.

I wear glasses, and am an old welder so I'm used to getting hot crap blown in my face; but this is the first time with a rifle!

Any similar experiences?

Mark
Click to expand...

I have noticed three consistent issues, none of which will stop me from picking some up when it is on sale.
About 1 in 50 goes click with no bang.
About 1 in 100 has either a dented casing or crookedly seated bullet and should be tossed.
It's dirty, so I end up cleaning sooner than if I am shooting something like CCI.
 
I bought 10000 for 700 in November. I feed my m&p22, ar15 22, single six, silverboy and a rascal. I've had one dud in about 4000 rounds.
At 7 cents a round I can't complain.
 
I've now tried and compared a bunch of stuff. So far, it's accuracy in the Norinco is on par with Federal Auto-match.

I also had one more blow-back, and that shell I examined very closely with a 10 power Jewelers Loop; there was a small crack at the firing pin strike point. The Norinco has very sharp edges on the firing pin, I'm sure that the heavy strike, these sharp edges against the soft brass are likely the root cause. If the case fails at that location, it stands to reason that high pressure gas could escape around the pin and through the bolt.

If it happens again, I will remove the pin and use an ultra-fine diamond hone to lap the edge, just enough to break the sharpness; however, time and wear-in well should remedy this as well.
 
Do search for "remington thunderbolts"... you should see a pattern emerge... they are garbage... often referred to as "thunderturds" or "thundercrap"... I have run through several bricks in various guns at various times... and thankfully I finally ran out of them... they couldn't give them to me free... my shooting time is more valuable than to waste it with garbage ammo.
 
I find them dirty but I clean my guns after every outing anyway so it's no big deal to me. My GSG 1911-22 likes them. I won't touch Winchester anymore, they are the true junk ones!
 
hoytcanon said:
Do search for "remington thunderbolts"... you should see a pattern emerge... they are garbage... often referred to as "thunderturds" or "thundercrap"... I have run through several bricks in various guns at various times... and thankfully I finally ran out of them... they couldn't give them to me free... my shooting time is more valuable than to waste it with garbage ammo.
Click to expand...

You can give them to me for free
Lol
 
People tend to rate ammo based on how well it performs in their individual firearm. Thunderbolts work great in my 2 GSG 1911 pistols. Some other higher cost ammo doesn't work as well in them but may work great in other 22's.
 
I've had what I consider to be amazing luck with them. Maybe 2 duds in 1500 rounds. For some reason they're the most reliable ammo in my CZ Kadet kit, and CCI Mini Mags were the worst. Figure that one out.
 
A couple years back I was shooting off a couple bricks of Thunderbolts, but it was the 500 round bricks with 10 individual 50 round boxes inside, not the 500 round bulk pack. About 1 in 6 was "quiet" and 3/50 wouldn't fire, even after multiple primer strikes on different areas of the rim. I swore Remington wouldn't get another dollar from me, ammo-wise anyways.

Last fall WSS had the 500 round bulk pack of Thunderbolts on for $28 and I was running low on round-nose ammo for the semi-auto's. So I bit my tongue and bought 8 boxes. There is now only 3 boxes left, and I don't think I've had a single dud in any of them, and only two shots that I can remember as being noticeably quieter. I must have gotten lucky, but I have zero complaints with the bulk-packed Thunderbolts!
 
I've shot probably 4 thousand rounds over the last 2-3 years across 7 different rifles and pistols and have no real complaints about Thunderbolts. They're not the best bulk ammo and certainly not the worst. Accuracy with them was only ever spectacular in an old Cooey 75 I had but they seem good enough for an afternoon of plinking without a ton of failures like with a Remington bucket.
 
Gatehouse said:
People tend to rate ammo based on how well it performs in their individual firearm. Thunderbolts work great in my 2 GSG 1911 pistols. Some other higher cost ammo doesn't work as well in them but may work great in other 22's.
Click to expand...

I rated the Thunderduds based on how they functioned and grouped in several firearms as compared to the function and grouping of a dozen other brands and loads... they were easily and handily the worst... more FTF's, more FTE's, WAY more squibs... and poor accuracy to boot. Ended up just loading them when the kids were doing plinking at "fun" targets like clays, eggs, toy soldiers etc...

Bottom line, I don't recommend them. With bulk ammo, CCI 50/box Blazers have been best overall. Federal bulk has been decent. Mostly I shoot CCI SV's and SK St.+ when not shooting for serious groups.
 
Meroh said:
I've now tried and compared a bunch of stuff. So far, it's accuracy in the Norinco is on par with Federal Auto-match.

I also had one more blow-back, and that shell I examined very closely with a 10 power Jewelers Loop; there was a small crack at the firing pin strike point. The Norinco has very sharp edges on the firing pin, I'm sure that the heavy strike, these sharp edges against the soft brass are likely the root cause. If the case fails at that location, it stands to reason that high pressure gas could escape around the pin and through the bolt.

If it happens again, I will remove the pin and use an ultra-fine diamond hone to lap the edge, just enough to break the sharpness; however, time and wear-in well should remedy this as well.
Click to expand...

That's pretty interesting. Rimfire brass is- of neccessity- pretty soft. So a sharp pin could certanly do what you are saying.

Like many here, I've gone through thousands of the Thunderbolts and never seen this issue. I tried plenty of differnt brands to determine what worked best in the GSG 1911's, as they can be picky and tend to like higher velocity. The super high velocity Yellowjackets were very reliable but a but expensive. Many other brands didn't work great. Thunderbolts were both accurate and reliable in those pistols. I've used them in other rifles and pistols and they work fine there too.

But never experieinced one getting peirced. Got a pic?
 
There are many shooting disciplines and types of firearms. Ammunition good for one use may be a poor choice for another. Thunderbolt is not a match grade target round for shooting tiny groups and high scores. It's plinking and possibly hunting ammunition. For it's purpose, it is not bad.

I will second the experience of having the old Thunderbolt in the brick with boxes of 50. It was plagued by fail to fires and inconsistency, aptly nicknamed Thunderdud. I bought four boxes of the loose 500 bulk packs, shot three and a half so far and I don't recall having a single dud. Still isn't target ammo, but runs in the semi-auto for a fun day of plinking.
 
Gatehouse said:
That's pretty interesting. Rimfire brass is- of neccessity- pretty soft. So a sharp pin could certanly do what you are saying.

Like many here, I've gone through thousands of the Thunderbolts and never seen this issue. I tried plenty of differnt brands to determine what worked best in the GSG 1911's, as they can be picky and tend to like higher velocity. The super high velocity Yellowjackets were very reliable but a but expensive. Many other brands didn't work great. Thunderbolts were both accurate and reliable in those pistols. I've used them in other rifles and pistols and they work fine there too.

But never experieinced one getting peirced. Got a pic?
Click to expand...

No, sorry; I left it with the dealer. Honestly, I think it was the sharp edge on the firing pin; not the ammo.
 
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