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  #1  
Old 12-01-2013, 09:58 AM
Sammy75 Sammy75 is offline
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Default New and Improved Rem GB

I was pretty excited to buy a bucket of the "New and Improved" .22lr, Remington Golden Bullets, yesterday morning at my local Gander Mountain. Although the store handed out coupons to us waiting in line, and then reneged on its promise of a two-bucket maximum purchase (they did not honor their newspaper ad), limiting everyone to one bucket, I was still pretty thrilled to pick up 1400 rounds for $69.99!... The thrill is pretty gone after testing the new ammo. The "new" stuff is filthy, often discharging a cloud of smoke like a black powder weapon. I put about 125 rounds through my M-63 revolver and had incidents where the cylinder would lock up, unable to advance to the next cartridge. The crimp on the rounds is so light that the bullets can be readily spun around in the neck of the cases. The accuracy of the rounds was unimpressive, although I did not have a single misfire or light load (which is an improvement over past experiences I've had with Golden Bullets). Still, my 63 looked like I'd fired hundreds of rounds through it, afterward. The filthy residue was everywhere. I would not have put away the revolver without an extensive cleaning... I'm not so disappointed about the second bucket, now. In a word, the new Golden Bullet is a disappointment. Although it may perform better in some of my other .22 arms, when I have time to try them, the quality control and filth rule out any future purchases.
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Old 12-01-2013, 06:13 PM
JeepinSoldier JeepinSoldier is offline
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Thanks for the review.

I have some of the previous Golden Bullets from around 2008. They will not function in the Ruger 10/22 or most of my other semi autos. They even gunk up the Model 18's cylinder after only a few rounds. (CCI and Federal Bulk do not do this.)

They had pretty much been relegated to my older son's bolt action .22 rifle and a single action Colt New Frontier revolver. I did discover to my delight that not only do they run fine in my Browning Buckmark - but they are accurate as well!

Once they are gone I intend to stick with CCI and Federal.
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Old 12-01-2013, 07:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeepinSoldier View Post
Thanks for the review.

I have some of the previous Golden Bullets from around 2008. They will not function in the Ruger 10/22 or most of my other semi autos. They even gunk up the Model 18's cylinder after only a few rounds. (CCI and Federal Bulk do not do this.)

They had pretty much been relegated to my older son's bolt action .22 rifle and a single action Colt New Frontier revolver. I did discover to my delight that not only do they run fine in my Browning Buckmark - but they are accurate as well!

Once they are gone I intend to stick with CCI and Federal.
Me too!!!!!
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Old 12-01-2013, 08:22 PM
Smitty357 Smitty357 is offline
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The only thing improved is the sticker on the bucket.

Stick to the old reliable Federal Champion (blue box or brown box). Or the CCI mini-mags.
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Old 12-01-2013, 08:30 PM
ditto1958 ditto1958 is offline
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Well, in my opinion, they look crummy, and yes, the bullets do wiggle around a lot in the cases, but I've never noticed them to burn particularly dirty, or to be noticeably inaccurate.

They cycle fine in my 10/22, as well as in my Henry lever gun. Not my first choice, far from it, but when they're available, and cheap, I do buy them.
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Old 12-02-2013, 12:11 AM
Robotech Robotech is offline
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Two things the Rem Goldens have going for them. They're better than the Remington Thunderbolts, and they've been available in bulk more often around here.

They're "adequate" for plinking and .22 Cal. pin-shooting if your gun likes them. I don't recommend them for Bullseye or rifle target shooting as they're too inconsistent.
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Old 12-02-2013, 12:16 AM
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Ive been using them in a pair of Rugers and a Remington with no problems.They aren't ccis but they work for plinking.
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Old 12-02-2013, 06:05 PM
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I went through quite a few of the golden bullets. They worked well enough, but were not the most accurate, and I felt they were very dirty. For plinking, they were just fine.
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Old 12-03-2013, 10:10 AM
Sammy75 Sammy75 is offline
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My problem with Golden Bullets, or any other low rent .22 rounds is that I own handguns and rifles which sell for many hundreds of dollars. The weapons are capable of functioning reliably with admirable accuracy. To suffer with cylinder binding, misfeeds, fail to fires, extensive fouling, etc., is unacceptable. The industry does manufacture high quality ammunition that makes shooting/plinking/training a pleasure. I'm not going to be frustrated with poor performing, cheap rounds that spoil the enjoyment of my firearms. There is quality rimfire ammo available. I'm through wasting my shooting time and money on inferior products.
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Old 12-03-2013, 10:20 AM
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So I guess the "new & improved" refers to the fact that they will actually fire. Other than that, Remington is just as bad (if not worse) than ever!

The only reason they are still getting away with their poor quality is the current .22 ammo scarcity and price gouging. It's just disgraceful and quite obvious that none of their Company Officers read or care about any of the feedback on Forums or customer complaints.
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Old 12-03-2013, 10:20 AM
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So new and improved equals less ****** from Remington. Good to know since they also new and improved Marlin.
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  #12  
Old 12-03-2013, 10:29 AM
Sammy75 Sammy75 is offline
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I think I read a news release, some months ago, that Remington had reworked its powder, or primers and would be releasing its upgraded Golden Bullet in the near future. The bucket I bought has the "New and Improved" language on its label. I guess I'm just another sucker for clever marketing. They got my $70.
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Old 12-03-2013, 04:29 PM
pownal55 pownal55 is offline
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I consider my 22's to be serious firearms just like my center fires. I use carefully tailored hand loads in all my other rifles and handguns and would load 22 ammo if I could. Since I can't I try to stick to CCI for most of my shooting along with some of the better European made target stuff for accuracy testing and precision shooting.
I stopped using most Remington products 25 yrs ago.
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Old 03-07-2014, 09:33 PM
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Default An ACTUAL Improvement...Finally!

Well, I "scored" today playing the game of "Ammo Hunt." My local Dunham's Sports received a shipment of Remington Golden "Bucket O' Bullets". Three cases - 12 buckets. They lasted about 30-minutes.

I called another club member when they were wheeled out, and between her, her husband and myself, we accounted for three of the buckets. This was quite a relief for her, as she'd been reduced to scrounging what few 50-round boxes of Thunderbolts we could find. Now maybe we can help some of the other club members who have been facing not being able to shoot our weekly matches for lack of ammunition.

I haven't seen these 1400-round bulk packs for months, and the price is $5 higher than last Fall.

I haven't had a chance to check reliability of this batch yet, but there is a definite improvement in manufacturing quality! The bullets fit the cases much more tightly, with a HUGE improvement of the case crimp.

The bullets aren't "wobbling" in the case, and while you can still manage to spin the bullet in the case with your fingers, it's now no worse than any other brand, with quite noticeable resistance. This batch is also better in this area than the 525 bulk pack I managed to get last month, which had a better crimp than the ones from last year, but were still spinning pretty easily.

While there is no guarantee that Remington has made the needed changes and adjustments across all of their .22LR manufacturing lines, and maybe I just got lucky with a good batch, this is an encouraging development.
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