Remington Thunderbolt ammo jamming 10-22 magazines

[Old and grumpy]

This may be a little drift. Leading the bore is probably from lack of a good lube. This would be a lot of work and may gum up chambers but what about diluting Lee Liquid Alox and dipping the bullet in it? Could use the plastic plate that holds them in the box and dip a entire box at one time. Then put it back in the box to dry for a week?

 

[Sam Summey]

Having experienced 10/20 magazine failures due to granite fines (sand) and remedying the cause by taking the magazines apart by hand, I recently invested in a Tandemkross disassemble tool.

 

[Cyrus]

I have a boatload of older Thunderbolts from the late 90's and I've been lucky because I'm a single shot rifle and revolver guy now and feeding is a non-issue. My Winchester Low Wall (Miroku) is a tackdriver and has a heavy hammer spring so misfires are rare. Accuracy for me has always been decent. All I'm saying is they work for my particular setup.

 

[kmoore]

Did anyone point out about priming and rim thickness differences? of rimfire cases. I used a rim thickness gauge made in Germany on match ammo. Tenex back than was great, US ammo not so consistent. I didn't waste time measuring rims of just blasting/plinking ammo.

 

[GasGuzzler]

so I bought some Aguila 60 gr. (which was the heaviest I could find).

I used those in my old OMSS 5.5" and in my Marlin 60 as a single shot on squirrels. You'll like them I think.

 

[the_leper_colony]

I did exactly that a decade or more ago. I shot the 60 grain Aguilas in some ARs with .22 conversions, both 1:12 and 1:7 barrels. They all functioned fine, but I got NO appreciable increase in accuracy over common bulk junk, so didn't think they were worth the higher price.

My most lasting impression of that whole session was the amazing STINK of Aguila ammo!

I'll be interested hearing how your tests go. Please post the results!

Well, I finally got the .22 FrankenCarbine with Bushnell red dot out to the range, to try with some different types of .22LR 'heavy bullet' ammo (because it has a 1:7 twist 5.56 AR barrel). The Aguila 60 gr. SSS ammo did produce the best groups (still nothing to brag about), but it wouldn't cycle reliably - I think the best it managed was five consecutive rounds without a jam. The CMMG conversion kit is almost new, so maybe the 60 gr. will function better after the .22 adapter breaks in.

I also tried three types of 45 gr. ammo, and those all cycled 100% - I think the CCI hollow points produced the best 5 rd. group, with the Federal copper-plated RN producing fairly similar results. I will need to get back to the range & shoot some more groups to see if there's any real difference between the 45 gr. loads in that rifle.

Everything I tried shot well enough for plinking; lots of fun hitting steel plates with that red dot sight! My wife hates shooting paper targets; she gets bored & shoots the clips holding the target to the target stand, so she can watch the paper fall off and blow away. But she might like this setup for knocking steel targets around!

As always IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

 

[the_leper_colony]

Update on the Aguila 60 gr .22 ammo ( @Snake45 @GasGuzzler ) - turns out the reliability issues were in part magazine related. The CMMG mags that came with the conversion kit look like they're very well built, high quality mags, but they were a loose fit in my FrankenCarbine mag well (not CMMG's fault, obviously one size never fits all). I recently bought some Black Dog Machine 25 rd mags on sale, which fit the mag well without wobbling. Guess what? The 60 gr ammo functions reliably using the Black Dog mags, despite the less-than-energetic ejection. Guess I will have to buy more of the Aguila 60 gr SSS ammo when I see it - filthy-dirty stuff, but it's worth shooting with the Black Dog mags!

EDIT: Maybe this is an example of somebody (me) who blamed the ammo (Aguila 60 gr) for problems that were really caused by something else (mags/mag well)!

As always IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

Update on the Aguila 60 gr .22 ammo ( @Snake45 @GasGuzzler ) - turns out the reliability issues were in part magazine related. The CMMG mags that came with the conversion kit look like they're very well built, high quality mags, but they were a loose fit in my FrankenCarbine mag well (not CMMG's fault, obviously one size never fits all). I recently bought some Black Dog Machine 25 rd mags on sale, which fit the mag well without wobbling. Guess what? The 60 gr ammo functions reliably using the Black Dog mags, despite the less-than-energetic ejection. Guess I will have to buy more of the Aguila 60 gr SSS ammo when I see it - filthy-dirty stuff, but it's worth shooting with the Black Dog mags!

EDIT: Maybe this is an example of somebody (me) who blamed the ammo (Aguila 60 gr) for problems that were really caused by something else (mags/mag well)!

As always IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

Glad to hear it. Like I said, never a problem in my stock LCP II. Aguila is known for some of the best rimfire ammo around. DISCLAIMER: I am not connected to Aguila in any way. Just love them in my .22 LRs