Remington Golden Bullets Rant

[Cholo]

I took 2 of my granddaughters shooting down the ridge where we like to go. I brought the usual:

1) Ruger Bearcat
2) Ruger MKll
3) Taurus Model 62 pump rifle

I had the same 3 guns 2 weeks ago when we went shooting, that time using inexpensive Federal Champions, not a single problem. This time I brought a brick of the Rem. GB's. because I have about 4,500 of them. It did not go well. I could hardly chamber them in my Bearcat. My little finger was worn out trying to get them to seat so I could turn the cylinder to load the next one. I finally got a clothe's pin to push them in. The clothe's pin broke. I've never had this problem with other .22 ammo.

The MKll eats everything that I feed it. Not today. Far too many "clicks" that went off on the 2nd try. The pump had multiple FTF's and has never failed me in any way whatsoever. Usually we'll shoot a brick per outing. I called it quits after about 375 today. And I have how many more to go?

I havn't bought these particular bullets since the 70's because they always came in 3rd behind Winchester Power Points and CCI Mini Mags. I never had a FTF with them back then. All in all it was only about 7% that we had problems with. My Bearcat is a gem and hits dead on. Yes, the chambers are on the tight side, but it's accepted everydamnthing I've ever loaded it with, until today. I could see maybe one out of the 3 guns might need a good cleaning, but all 3 on the same day? It's these damn bullets.

I had no FTF's in the Bearcat, but it's one tight gun! It took a hell of a lot of patience to load 6 flush. My guess is that this particular lot has either over sized bullets or cases, or both. The FTF's in the MKll and pump had non existent firing pin marks or just a tiny burr on the outside of the rim. I feel that they were that close to fully chambering and were pushed in the last .001/.002 (?) inch or so.

Can their Thunderbolts possibly be worse than this? :? This past week I watched one of Hickok45's videos from about 5 years ago where he was shooting 2 different .22 handguns. I just happened to catch him saying, very gently, that he's has a lot of trouble with Rem. GB's. He was kinder than I am. Rant off...

With all that said, I had a great day doing what I love best with 2 of my granddaughters, one her very 1st time. We made a day of it and I wouldn't trade these times for anything

 

[Jim Puke]

I don't like ANY Remington ammo...especially the .22. I have had more failures with Remington .22 ammo by multiples of 10, than any other brand of rimfire ammo.

It is junk .22 ammo GB and Thunderbolt...and here will come the flamer's that love the Core Lokt crap...but it is junk, too. I shot a good many deer with it early in my life...without a doubt, the most inconsistent bullet performance I have ever seen. You never knew if it was going to pass through or blow up. Same cheap crap that the .22 ammo is.

 

[Precision32]

Of the many 22 I have worked on I have found very few, like I can count on one hand, that had properly fit firing pins. The firing pin should be a minimum of 0.025" wide. It should have at least 0.025" to a maximum of 0.035" of protrusion beyond the breech face.

My builds shoot anything. After I tuned my first, I had the grandson out for the weekend. I beat him and made him fire 1,000 rounds through the rifle. He had a ball but NOT ONE failure to fire or eject.

I shoot GB all the time. No issues at all. I'd check your gun to make sure it meets standards. If I read your post correctly, you're reporting shallow firing pin strikes.

 

[Mobuck]

I haven't bought much 22 ammo for 5-6 years. The Remington GB(525 bulk pack) that I bought before the "mania" is consistent and accurate. In addition, I have about 1/2 of a case I bought when Dad was alive(he died in 1990) and it does as well as any of the other 22 ammo I have on hand.
The only inconsistency I see is an occasional light load-noticeable only when shooting at the 100 yard gong.

 

[Captain America]

Just bought a 1400 round bucket of them, I'll give my range report if it ever stops raining here...

 

[Fox Mike]

Never used them but will keep what you said in mind when next I buy some .22. As for the Thunderbolts... the ONLY thing that will shoot them is my Henry Carbine. They don't seem to want to chamber in any of my revolvers, PLUS, they are dirty!

 

[Kevin]

I havn't bought these particular bullets since the 70's because they always came in 3rd behind Winchester Power Points and CCI Mini Mags

Do I understand right? You are shooting 35+ year old ammo and it's causing problems? Does the age have anything to do with it?

 

[Cholo]

Precision32, it was with all 3 guns, not just one. All 3 fired everything without a single malfunction 2 weeks ago and every time before that. The only difference was that this time it was with a recent box of the Rem GB's. I wish that all my RF's had ideal firing pins. I believe that there's something out of spec. with, hopefully, that one box. I knew something was amiss as soon as I tried to load the Bearcat. Thanks for the response.

Kevin, I hadn't bought any Rem. GB's since the 70's. Then I recently came across about 4,500 of them, new manufacture, at a price I was willing to live with. The new ones were the ones I was shooting yesterday.

 

[Kevin]

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry you were having trouble. I've seen those buckets of golden bullets. I guess I'm glad I didn't buy any.

 

[ditto1958]

They work fine for me. However... they are not cheap these days, and they're not as good as CCI.

 

[Cholo]

^^^ They're def. not on par with CCI anything. Cost wise they're slightly less.

Kevin, I'd try a brick before buying a bucket. Unfortunately they don't seem to agree with the 3 guns I take when I shoot with my young granddaughters. They might do fine in my Single Sixes. I just think that they don't do well with tight chambers. That was my experience with a single brick.

 

[Snake45]

Yes, the Thunderbolts are worse.

I last bought Rem GBs maybe 4-5 years ago. I shot over 20,000 of them at that time and they had a very consistent FTF rate of 1-2%. The ones that DID fire (the vast majority) usually gave good to excellent accuracy in most of my guns. They functioned fine in all my semiautos.

 

[m657]

Yesterday I had a "22LR day" at the range.

2 revolvers & 3 different auto pistols.

Variety of range fodder, including the above named; along with American Eagle, Federals of several varieties, CCIs of both SV and higher; Champion HV; all from "a few" to several years ago purchase.

Only 1 FTF in the autos, but a revolver made it go bang. There was a couple of 'tough to get INTO the cylinder' events, but it seemed to be a specific (and fouled) chamber.

Put well over a brick downrange; while sometimes I do get 'issues' from the ammo, not yesterday.

 

[timboy]

I have never had a problem with the golden bullets,thunderbolts on the other hand are total garbage imho.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

My experience with GBs has been pretty good, in two pistols, a MkII and a CZ Kadet conversion. I have shot very few TBs, and they were problematic in the Mk II. Though filthy dirty, they functioned ok in the CZ.

Since .22s have become so rare, I haven't shot many of any brand. In fact, the few I've shot went thru a 50 yr old Marlin single shot rifle. Now it gets interesting: I bought two boxes of Win 333s at the same time in late 2010 (yeah, I wrote dates on the boxes, but didn't compare lot numbers) and shot one entire box thru the Marlin over about the last year and a half. Every single one of them went off, first time. Yesterday, we went out to kill a limit of cans and I decided to go ahead and break open the second box to see if the Mk II still works. Both gun and mags were carefully cleaned and lubed before going out. Well...

I put each misfire in a pocket, some hit once, and hard, or so I thought, some hit twice, no joy. Counting up what was left in the box when I got home, I'd tried 110 rounds thru the pistol, and had SIX failures in the pocket. That made me think I'd give something of value to get the failure rate down to Snake's historic 1-2% instead of 5% plus!

So... is it possible there's that much inconsistency in manufacturing these days, especially in promo grade ammo, or should I be digging out the caliper and comparing my measurements to Precision32's suggestions? I'm not standing up for any particular brand, but now wonder if some are just becoming more sensitive to "properly tuned" firing pins or other gun-related issues?

Rick C

 

[CraigC]

Never had issues with GB's (or Thunderbolts for that matter). Back before the shortage, I was shooting 2000-3000rds a month of them. Not one or two guns but in over two dozen .22's of all kinds. My CZ averages just under a half inch at 50yds for five consecutive five shot groups.

 

[daveg.inkc]

I don't like ANY Remington ammo...especially the .22. I have had more failures with Remington .22 ammo by multiples of 10, than any other brand of rimfire ammo.

It is junk .22 ammo GB and Thunderbolt...and here will come the flamer's that love the Core Lokt crap...but it is junk, too. I shot a good many deer with it early in my life...without a doubt, the most inconsistent bullet performance I have ever seen. You never knew if it was going to pass through or blow up. Same cheap crap that the .22 ammo is.

I disagree. I've shot Remington 130 Core-loks for 37 years Ruger M77. Taken many deer I find it accurate. I did reload with Hornady 140 BT's for a while. Rem GB's work in my 10/22's 77/22 MarkII Bull and Mark II Slab-side 2 shots, 2 deer this season with 130 C-L's I'm sure I will take more in '16. the Norma 22 TAC is darned accurate ammo My Ruger family likes it too!

 

[windsearcher]

Sorry you had the issues, seems to be happening a bit more now, although there is more ammo available at reasonable prices.

had some at the range last trip out, and I also encountered several failures, not sure if it was gun or ammo caused, but since the range trip was cancelled early due to a front sight that came off, I didn't have a lot of chance to go into detailed troubleshooting.

Currently have several 550 bricks of Thunderbolts and Golden Bullets, and two or three 1400 round "bucket-o-bullets" ..... usually my Buckmark and M&P 15-22 eat anything and everything about 100% of the time. The bugs I will attribute to a new rifle, and maybe improperly loaded mags? Anyway... looking forward to getting back and trying 'em out again.

 

[SAJohn]

In over 50 years of shooting .22's, in many firearms, I have always experienced some misfires. It is the nature of the beast. 50 in a box Remington's, or any other brand, have always done well for me. All brands of loose .22's in a brick have not done quite as well. Mini-mags cost a bit more but are in class by themselves.
John

 

[Snake45]

In my experience, Ruger firearms are outstanding in being able to reliably fire just about any .22.

John

None of my Rugers is any better at firing Remington Golden Bullet duds than any of my other guns.

This is because there is no primer in them.

Most other brands, a dud will usually go off with a second strike on another part of the rim. Not so the Rem GB duds. They're never going off anywhere because they're unprimed.