Favorite Bulk .22lr?

[Bobbygun]

Here is the old stuff I still have.....we shot brick after brick of this stuff. I want to say we paid from $5 to $10 a brick from the 80's to the 90's.

View attachment 2227624

I've got some of that as well. It wasn't the best, but it was certainly okay.

 

[boattail]

Somewhere I have some boxes of fifty that are very old, like from the 30's....I just cannot remember where I stashed them. Maybe when I reorganize my ammo I will find it again. My stuff is too scattered about to quickly locate anything. I have never bought any high end 22 LR to try. My old Glenfield 60 did so well shooting this bulk stuff there was never a need for better accuracy. I wore that gun out after countless bricks through it. I used to dunk the receiver in solvent and cycle the action to clean it and make it function again. I never cleaned the bore.
I took it to a gunsmith and asked him to repair it and they balked a bit and told me they would clean it for me and not guarantee anything other than it was clean. Once I got it back from them I tore it apart and worked over the internals and fixed some things myself. I got it running great again but have since retired it and only shoot it occasionally for fun, it is just as accurate today as it was back in 1980 when new.

Both my 10/22's do great with bulk ammo as well. My most neglected older 10/22 shoots better than my wife's pristine newer gun.

I don't think I could ever be the guy measuring rim thickness and all the other steps rimfire competitors do with their ammo.

 

[Twodogs]

CCI std vel, Norma tac, fed champion, fed auto match, any time I can find them for 7 cents or less.

 

[dangerranger60]

I have no idea why Remington Thunderbolts get so much hate. I only shoot SA .22 rifles and pistols and it has been the best bang for buck I have ever shot.

They get a bad rap because so many don't have priming material all the way around the rim, they are dirty, and the bullets are undersized. the bullets have a hollow base that should expand to fill the bore, but they are so under powered that they don't expand reliably. this lets them rattle down the bore and leaves lead fouling. the next round fired then piles more fouling until the bore looks smooth. if you are shooting these from a semi auto the extra heat makes it worse.
One day at the range a grandfather was teaching his grandson to shoot. they could not get through one magazine without a dud. I asked what was wrong and if they wanted to try some other ammo. I gave them a box of CCI Mini Mags and a half box of federal AM. suddenly everyone was smiling. when they left I was cleaning up to go and found most of a brick of Thunderduds in the trash. I still have them on a shelf. even in times of shortage they weren't worth my time to shoot them. DR

 

[dangerranger60]

Years ago, my buddy and I broke open a brick of Thunderbolts and used them in our Colt pistols, neither of which had ever jammed before. Both of us experienced multiple failures to feed with every magazine. Being as that was the only .22 ammo we had with us, it was kind of a miserable day. I've never given them another try since. They were lead bullets as well, and I have never had so much trouble cleaning the lead buildup out of a barrel. I was literally pushing rifling shaped lead out, to the point I had thoughts of being lucky it didn't plug the barrel. So, in all honesty, my ONE experience is what led me to not recommend Thunderbolts. Maybe they have improved since then.

My experience with the CCI Mini Mags is just the opposite. If I had a gun that jammed with cheaper ammo, I would always try the Mini Mags. If it jammed with those, it was a gun problem. I (foolishly) bought one of those Remington Vipers when they first came out. That thing was a jam-o-matic. It would barely feed anything, but it would feed Mini Mags. It would also feed the equally expensive Viper ammunition. I was too cheap to spend the money back then, so I gave the Viper to a nephew. I hope I don't sound like a Remington hater, because I'm not. Some of my favorite and best centerfire rifles are Remingtons, including my most favorite 700 Classic in .25-06. The most accurate rifle I own is an old 722 in .222 Remington. I've never had any trouble with their centerfire ammo either.

The ammo I've had the biggest swings in performance with is the Golden Bullets. The packaging indicated "new and improved" for a while. I don't think it does anymore, but they seemingly recognized it had some issues. I still have some of that in the cupboard, acquired during an ammo shortage years ago. My son will likely inherit it.

In the 1980s I shot Rem Goldens as my go to ammo. it was clean, accurate, and consistent. some time in the late 90's it changed. when the New and Improved label came out I pulled a few bullets and rem had changed the priming material to the same style that Elly target ammo used. instead of a clay that was mashed into the rim the primer powder was dropped in dry , spun to push it out into the rim, and then a drop of liquid was put in to activate the powder and keep it in place. this stopped the duds that if you turn them to have the firing pin hit a new spot they would then fire.
But Rem has not improved the powder consistency. when I can hear the pop, pop, plunk of a round that's underpowered. I just know that one is a flyer.

 

[orygun]

when I can hear the pop, pop, plunk of a round that's underpowered. I just know that one is a flyer.

Shooting my Ruger Standard a lot thru the 80s n 90s it amazed me how some of the crappier ammo, like the Peters I'd mentioned, would do that quite consistently.
But most of the time still whacked the target at 10-15 yards.
Even the worst 22LR ammo I've ever had was better than the 2 boxes of Wolf 45ACP I had years ago. It's amazing that none of them squibbed. Some were so weak the bullet didn't quite make it to the target! Boom, boom, boom, fart, sizzle, boom, sizzle.
Frank and I found it hilarious.

 

[dangerranger60]

Shooting my Ruger Standard a lot thru the 80s n 90s it amazed me how some of the crappier ammo, like the Peters I'd mentioned, would do that quite consistently.
But most of the time still whacked the target at 10-15 yards.
Even the worst 22LR ammo I've ever had was better than the 2 boxes of Wolf 45ACP I had years ago. It's amazing that none of them squibbed. Some were so weak the bullet didn't quite make it to the target! Boom, boom, boom, fart, sizzle, boom, sizzle.
Frank and I found it hilarious.

I have always shot a lot of ground squirrels. They are at distances of 10 to 75 yds. if I got a Pop, pop, Fart, sizzle' two of those did not hit a squirrel.
in the 80,s I shot cases of Rem Golden's. It was great ammo. But by the late 90's something had changed. DR

 

[OutwardHound]

Ok. I'll throw in my .22 cents worth. I've had good results with Federal Champion 36 grn HP; CCI mimi mag 40 grn LRN. I've had good results with standard Aquilla, and the "Interceptor", both 40grn plated RN. I've had good luck with Remington Golden bullet's and Thunderbolts as well, which seems to run counter to the prevailing experience.

My .22 battery consists of a Henry lever action rifle and a Ruger Wrangler single action revolver. Nothing high performance or long distance, just fun guns for plinking and dinking around.

 

[Tony617]

My 10/22 I have shot Remington Ranch Hand 40gr copper plated round nose, Federal 40gr LRN, and Remington 22 Golden Bullet 22lr 36gr plated hollow point. If I had semi-automatic 22lr I would buy some CCI rounds or something. But for now my Ruger 10/22 fires all 3 types just fine and not had any rounds fail to fire so far. I shot Federal 325 count, and one 525 round golden bullet and two hundred rounds of Remington Ranch Hand.

 

[monks]

My favorite bulk ammo is cci quiet, cci standard velocity and aguilla super extra. I was a little skeptical of Mexican ammo, but my Cz 457 is extremely accurate shooting the super extra. I've killed flies at 40 yards with it.

 

[Buddy1211]

Remington thunderbolt! Is it accurate? No, is it reliable? Nah, do you get all the lead on your hands? So! It's nostalgic, I grew up poor and it was what I could get my hands on. I cut my teeth on that stuff with a single shot manually cocked Stevens. I still buy the stuff from time to time for old times sake.

 

[1911Fanatic]

Years ago, my buddy and I broke open a brick of Thunderbolts and used them in our Colt pistols, neither of which had ever jammed before. Both of us experienced multiple failures to feed with every magazine. Being as that was the only .22 ammo we had with us, it was kind of a miserable day. I've never given them another try since. They were lead bullets as well, and I have never had so much trouble cleaning the lead buildup out of a barrel. I was literally pushing rifling shaped lead out, to the point I had thoughts of being lucky it didn't plug the barrel. So, in all honesty, my ONE experience is what led me to not recommend Thunderbolts. Maybe they have improved since then.

My experience with the CCI Mini Mags is just the opposite. If I had a gun that jammed with cheaper ammo, I would always try the Mini Mags. If it jammed with those, it was a gun problem. I (foolishly) bought one of those Remington Vipers when they first came out. That thing was a jam-o-matic. It would barely feed anything, but it would feed Mini Mags. It would also feed the equally expensive Viper ammunition. I was too cheap to spend the money back then, so I gave the Viper to a nephew. I hope I don't sound like a Remington hater, because I'm not. Some of my favorite and best centerfire rifles are Remingtons, including my most favorite 700 Classic in .25-06. The most accurate rifle I own is an old 722 in .222 Remington. I've never had any trouble with their centerfire ammo either.

The ammo I've had the biggest swings in performance with is the Golden Bullets. The packaging indicated "new and improved" for a while. I don't think it does anymore, but they seemingly recognized it had some issues. I still have some of that in the cupboard, acquired during an ammo shortage years ago. My son will likely inherit it.

I bought a bucket of 1400 Golden's for 100 bucks a couple of years ago. I am only going to use it in my single actions. It was the cheapest I could find at the time. If I run across more aguila at 50 per 1000 I will buy some more. I only have about 3K rounds of that stuff at present and about 750 rounds is in the 250 round packs from Cabela's.

I have about 500 mini mags and a few hundred Stingers as well. But this aren't for general plinking.

I have a couple of boxes of win 555 and a box of win with the bunny on it that I got for 14 bucks each at BiMart. And a few 100 packs of Goldens and Win Super X. Those were all cheap, so I will shoot them off.

 

[1911Fanatic]

I had 18 boxes of Remington LRN, I think it was Thunderbolts…..along with two bricks of 1000 Fed Am Eagle .22LR. I got it and a FEG 22 pistol from my sister's things when she passed away. That was before the shortage, or rather absence, of 22 ammo.

I wasn't;t going to shoot the lead crap anyway. I gave those 18 boxes of LRN to my tax guy as payment that year, and boy was he glad to get it it. He had a couple of 10/22's up at his cabin. He would frequently shoot squirrels and make stew out of them., that all stopped during the CRUD. So he was happy and I was happy.

I also traded a couple of boxes of that 22 LR for a big pack of toilet paper when it was in short supply, 18 double rolls, so 36 regular rolls of toilet paper. Thanks sis. I still have about 1500 rounds of that Federal 22 that I inherited from her. I shoot it in her pistol once in awhile.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

In regards to Remington "Thunderbolt" and "Golden Bullet" .22 LR ammo....
Quality has been hit or miss ...pun intended.....at least in my experience.
At various times when I have bought and used it...it worked well...other times...very dirty and lots of dud rounds.

I would buy them...if there was nothing else on the store shelf
Luckily for the moment...I am well set with good .22LR ammo....that said I still look on the store shelves ...
Andy

 

[orygun]

I opened a box of Federal recently. Haven't shot much of it yet, but it does seem to be very consistent.

 

[drakeslayer]

Currently buying CCI Blazer 40 gr as it runs nice in a couple of my 22lrs. Trying to keep my stock to just a couple brands but it never seems to work out

 

[JesusIsKing]

CCI for sure. But Federal also is good