.22LR ammo advice needed

[202]

Another vote for CCI MiniMags here.

[Failure2Stop]

I've never bought or used Thunderbolts because they have such a bad reputation.
I have a bunch of misc. "match" and standard and subsonic .22lr for bolt guns, and a bunch of high-vel stuff for the semi-autos.

Please explain this to me...
How did the leading manifest itself?
And are you saying that the Thunderbolts somehow damaged your barrels so that they now lead more easily? How could that have happened?
FWIW, I rarely/never clean the barrels of my various .22lr rifles. I just shoot 'em and then shoot 'em some more.

I have always been a "shoot em and leave em alone" guy when it comes to .22 LR.
I only went to scrubbing previously when good ammunition would not give me what I was used to seeing.

With these pistols, I was experiencing some function problems as they were getting cumulative round count, but most significantly, accuracy went completely out the window.
It was so bad, I assumed initially that the sight or mount went wonky, but then I confirmed that both guns had gone erratic.
When I got home to inspect, the bores were visibly packed to the extent that rifling was completely obscured with a rough surface.
It was so thick I could not drop a .22 cleaning rod through. I had to attach a brush and slowly work my way down the bore, "drilling" my way through the lead build-up.
When I could finally pass the brush and rod through the bore, I started scrubbing, resulting in a literal pile of lead chunks and powder with each barrel.

I don't think that I fully removed the lead from the bore in that first cleaning session.

The next time out, I first verified that the zero returned (it did), that accuracy was what it was previously (it was), and that there were no function issues (there were not).
I then ran through a couple of hundred of rounds on each, and by the end, I noticed that accuracy was getting worse again and zero had shifted right by about 2-3 inches at 25 yards.
Inspection revealed lead accumulation in the last half of the bore.
I once again attacked with brushing, but this time was pulling out long strips of lead early in the brush process.

I bought some Bore Tech Rimfire Blend, and it definitely pulled out some more lead streaks.

Following uses seemed to result in *less* lead accumulation, but I still pull out way more lead from these pistols than any other rimfire I have ever owned.

[Coal Dragger]

Jack’s experience with Thunderbolts mirrors mine pretty closely. In addition to mediocre long term accuracy without frequent cleaning, they have proven to be unreliable in my .22LR semiautos.

The advice to try a CCI standard velocity or Green Tag is solid, I shot quite a few NRA Collegiate pistol matches and made Nationals in 2003 shooting a particular lot of CCI Green Tag through my Benelli MP95e. Good consistent ammo, very good accuracy, reliable feeding, and extraction through a tight match grade chambered Olympic grade target pistol. I never once had to shoot an alibi string using that ammo. CCI Standard velocity is largely the same ammo, I suspect that Green Tag comes from test lots of Standard velocity that show low standard deviations and above average precision.

I can also heavily recommend any of the Eley products or any with Eley priming such as Aguilla offerings that use it. For inexpensive ammo Aguilla has given me some fantastic accuracy in my Cooper M57, and has done well in the Benelli as well.

Some of CCI’s other offerings are pretty solid as well, Mini-Mags and Velocitors have been very good too. Velocitors have racked up an impressive (for me) run of consecutive head shots on rabbits. Plus they are reliable.

I’ve also played a bit with CCI Pistol Match and it works really well in the Benelli. Same for Lapua Midas, in the Benelli, Cooper, and my Kimber 82 Govt’.

I can also report nice results with RWS Target Rifle.

If I had to give advice on what to look for to give the best chances of reliable function and good accuracy it would be a quality 40gr offering, non plated, and heavily lubed with a good wax bullet lube. I really like the generous amount of lubricant on Eley and Lapua offerings to maintain long term consistency without frequent barrel cleaning. The lube really cuts down on leading and seasons the bore, to the point you can go a ridiculously long time without cleaning.

[AndyLate]

I bought a brick of Thunderbolts not too long ago because they were ridiculously priced when bundled with a different brand of 22 lr at a LGS. I don't remember the price, but it had to be cheap for me to buy them, given my dissatisfaction with the ammo previously.

My son, his wife, and I shot the whole brick through my 10-22 one morning with a single malfunction caused by not seating the mag completely. We used the 10 and 25 round Ruger mags.

I still don't trust it and prefer Minimags.

[Failure2Stop]

I bought a brick of Thunderbolts not too long ago because they were ridiculously priced when bundled with a different brand of 22 lr at a LGS. I don't remember the price, but it had to be cheap for me to buy them, given my dissatisfaction with the ammo previously.
My son, his wife, and I shot the whole brick through my 10-22 one morning with a single malfunction caused by not seating the mag completely. We used the 10 and 25 round Ruger mags.
I still don't trust it and prefer Minimags.

I have a few bricks of the Thunderbolt remaining that I'll hang onto in case of dire need.
Frankly wouldn't feel right selling it to anyone else.

The worst thing about my experience with is is that during the final stage that we shot, when I was moving gear back from the line to the staging area, one dude pointed to my "Thunderbolt" labeled ammo container (I re-purpose the CCI 100-round plastic containers and label with masking tape and marker), and said, "That's your problem right there."
Of course, I defended the ammo, saying that I put a couple hundred rounds of different type through the guns from what I had in sufficient volume at the house, and the Thunderbolt was great (at least as accurate as the CCI Mini Mags).
Once I looked through the bore I realized how abjectly incorrect I was.

[kerplode]

I found a brick of Thunderbolts in my stash recently...I literally threw that shit away. Not literally like in the ironic figurative sense, but literally in the literal sense that I put them right in the garbage can where garbage goes and closed the lid.

The cost of that brick is inconsequential compared to the ass-ache of having to spend hours chipping long slivers of lead out of a barrel.

[Uni-Vibe]

And yet Thunderbolt seems good stuff compared to the hideous Winchester Xpert 36 grain in the gray box. I bought some of that dreck during the Shortage. I threw about 750 rounds of the awful stuff into the barrel at the range. Not worth trying to shoot.

[Eurodriver]

That is nuts. I have 1050 rounds through my 22/45 and probably 1/2 are Thunderbolts.

I’m now more worried about my suppressor than the rifling. Especially since it’s aluminum and I can’t dip it.

[Bimmer]

The problems all came on the 25 round Ruger banana mags, with no problems using the standard 10 round mags...

I'll certainly be doing more shooting and testing, but I wonder, is it normal to have 5-10 out of 250 misfeeds, double feeds, failure to extract, etc. in the .22 rimfire world? I would have thought no with such a high end rifle, but my only other real experience with .22 is with an old Marlin Model 60 I've had since I was a kid, but that thing never fed properly.

Like the others said: You have a magazine issue, not an ammunition issue.

I don't have a 10/22, but I have a couple Ruger American Rimfires that take the same mags, and if the tolerances between the stock and the mag release hardware and the mag itself, then they won't feed correctly and/or the mags aren't retained correctly. (I'm on RimfireCentral, too.)

I then ran through a couple of hundred of rounds on each, and by the end, I noticed that accuracy was getting worse again and zero had shifted right by about 2-3 inches at 25 yards.
Inspection revealed lead accumulation in the last half of the bore.
I once again attacked with brushing, but this time was pulling out long strips of lead early in the brush process.

Wow, this is intense... I had heard urban legends about this kind of thing, but this is really impressive.

Did you go back to shooting Thunderbolts the second session? Or was it another ammo that leaded up the barrels again so quickly?

[Failure2Stop]

That is nuts. I have 1050 rounds through my 22/45 and probably 1/2 are Thunderbolts.
I’m now more worried about my suppressor than the rifling. Especially since it’s aluminum and I can’t dip it.

The brakes on my pistols are aluminum, and while they accumulated a pretty decent amount of lead spall, it was easily removed with a tool by hand.