At the range today, I ran 200 rounds of the stuff through my trusty Ruger MkIII. 18 duds !! I thought I must have broken the firing pin. So, just to be sure, I fired about 150 rounds of bulk Remington Thunderbolt . Zero duds. What the heck !!! Anyone else experienced less then stellar performance with the CCI ammo ??

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John

I could not comment on the CCI issue, but IMO there is nothing in this world worse than a Remington Thunderbolt for reliability and extreme leading. Key holing included.

Just my .02

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I have experienced the same as you. Lots of misfires with Thunderduds. Last year I bought a 550 count of Winchester HP ammo. Never had such horrible results. Many different firearms and about 1 in 6 failed to fire. Absolutely horrible. However, since I have shot up 2 other 550 count Winchesters with excellent results. Just a bad batch.

My Ruger is a garbage eater. My comparison is meant to show the CCI problem; if Thunderbolts work fine, then what's up with the CCI stuff. And yes, I agree about the Thunderbolts in general.

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John

Regret to report that I’ve had Duds in my new Ruger LCP 22.
The little Ruger performs near perfect except for the Fails to Fire.
The Dud Ammo does include several CCI flavors.
And I’m a Big Time CCI Fanboy!
Don’t think I’ve had any with the over the top Federal Punch, 30 cents a round.
But have only fired 20-30 in the Ruger.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I recently tried some of my newer stock of CCI Mini Mags (the 100 round boxes with the new graphics) during a plate shoot. With the new stuff I had all kinds of FTF and jams in both my pistol (model 41) and rifle (10/22). When I switched back to the old stock everything worked again. Both were the 40 grain 1235 fps round nose.

Out of curiosity I tried rounds from several different boxes from two different cases of the new stuff with the same result. Tried the same with old stock and had no issues. Maybe the increased production is causing QC issues at CCI.

I shoot Steel Challenge RFRO and RFPO about once a month and .22LR CCI Mini Mags is about all I ever use. I've never had a dud yet using them.

Now Herter's and Federal Auto Match ammo have let me down.

I do believe that cci quality control has gone downhill in the past few years. I’d rather grab up some of the older cci like blazer in the silver and black boxes or the standard velocity in the navy blue boxes than the newer light blue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Last time at range had same FTF with CCI. First time ever with CCI. Wont buy Win. or Rem. anymore as they are Terrible. Glad I have enough old stock to last.

I use a fair bit of both the CCI Stnd Velo & the Mini Mags and can't say that I've ever had any problems with either. I hope it stays that way.

Don't have any of the new label Mini-Mags. Seen them but have enough older stock on hand that I haven't bought any. Don't recall any failure to fire with the Mini-Mags previously. Only have one .22lr semi-auto pistol, a Ruger SR22, and it is not picky with ammo. M&P 15-22 and Marlin Model 60 are not picky. All other .22s I have are not semi-automatics.

By the way saw some Federal Bulk at Walmart today. 325 rounds for around $21. Already have a couple of boxes so didn't buy any. Hopefully it will go to some deserving kid for Christmas.

Now I'm scared. My family recently did a 5K bulk buy of new production Minimags. I've got 2500 on the shelf.

I've still got over 3K of old stock so I haven't shot any of it yet. I don't get to the range much during hunting season.

I will shoot some asap and post a range report.

I recently had similar results with Mini Mags. I had just installed a reduced-power striker spring in my G44 and attributed it to that. They didn’t fire with a second strike, and the first strike didn’t look that weak. Maybe it was the ammo. About 2 or 3 of 100 didn’t fire.

To those folks experiencing duds, I’d be interested to learn what you find if you tear them down. No powder? No primer? Partial primer? Contamination?

The ammo industry has been consolidating recently. Vista Outdoors, the company that owns CCI also owns Federal, Remington, Speer and possibly some other brands I forgot. I was hoping they would be a hands off parent corporation but maybe they are pressuring CCI to reduce their costs and quality is suffering.

Best case is Vista is a hands off parent company and this is a fluke due to high demand and labor shortages.

Worst case would be Vista using the same production line that makes Thunderduds to make "CCI" MiniMags.

Let's hope for the best.

I shoot a fair bit of CCI Std Vel, and haven't noticed any issues with the newer production stuff.

I just shot 100 rounds of this CCI Mini-Mag 40-gr solid "Target" ammo (and a bit more than that of other ammo) through a new Ruger LCP II .22 a week and a half ago, and experienced one failure to fire on the first or second strike. It fired on the third strike.

That improperly primed round struck both me and my friend as unusual from CCI. I actually have a photo after the first two strikes didn't work.


During the firing of the second 100 rounds that afternoon, I also had a failure to fire on the first strike of a round of Aguila Super Extra - this round fired on the second strike.

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Now go make God proud...

I have a lot of CCI mini mags and tactical 22LR ammo made about 3 years ago and not one bad round yet.They've worked every squeeze of the trigger.
I shot them in an S&W 15-22 25 rd mags and a Ruger SR22 10 rd mags.

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

I wonder whether Thunderbolt ammo was improved or corrected at some point. During the beginning of the latest shortage, my LGS got some in, and I bought quite a few bricks, at a good price, no less. I'm not sure that I have had any misfires, and I have had no failures to feed in any of my pistols, and fairly good accuracy, not that I am the one to test it, anyway.

??

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Formerly Model520Fan

If you were to test some of your older stock as well... That would just be
great! Be sure to see if the ones you test all happen to be in the same production lot, please!

Thanks!

I'm thinking of a Mini-Mag vs. Punch test of my own: my Bobcat has always run reliably with Mini-Mags since Day 1...

(Actually, it runs great with Aguila Super Extras as well.)

Cheers!

Another range day yesterday with Mdl. 17 and Colt Woodsman with nice sights. CCI target and Fed Match in big box. Several FTF from CCI with Mdl. 17 but rotating round in chamber all fired. None in Woodsman. Thus, leads me to believe there is less primer material in CCI’s than before. Just like when bean counters take over, little less here, little less there and they save few dollars on how many rounds???????

I shot another mess of assorted .22 LR through my LCP II .22 LR yesterday (over screens), and had no issues at all this time with Mini-Mags (but only about 20 rounds this time - not the full 100). I'd like to note that I had a yucky round of expen$ive Winchester Varmint HE 37-gr plated segmenting hollow point that wouldn't fire no matter what - I trashed it after two no-go strikes in the LCP and two in the Ruger Mk II Target.

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Now go make God proud...

I shot 200 rounds of the new production CCI Target Minimags this afternoon from 3 different handguns. I had 17 failures to fire.

Product code: 76683 00030
Lot#: D11B203

My family recently purchased 5K of this ammo. I plan to go to the range again asap. I want to see if I have similar results with rifles and to compare with older stock for both function and accuracy.

I shot a Steel Challenge match today with my Black Mamba and CCI Mini Mag Hollow Points. I had no failures at all. I switched to the Mini Mags because I was getting 2 - 3 jams per match with CCI SV ammo.

I have to disagree...Winchester .22 is the worst on the planet.

Recently had some more MiniMag Failures to fire.
This time in the Uber reliable Beretta 70s.
Federal Punch still 100% in Ruger LCP 22.
I must have bought into a Bad Batch of MiniMags!
Just wondering how many BAD I got!
Stingers working near perfect in the Problematic Automatic Beretta 21a.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I've always found MiniMags to be pretty average, far from the "Wonder 22" everyone paints them as. And I've found Thunderbolts to be ok. I don't hesitate to buy or shoot T-bolts. I do hesitate to buy MiniMags when others are available.

I open a bulk pack of ammo the other day and the very first round was a dud.

My go-to Federal range pack (large blue box) has started to fail on the recent boxes. At a steel match and 1-2 failures per every stage....absolutely terrible. The match is out the window. Switch to cci, no problems so far.

This discussion has me wondering if all of the manufacturers are trying to stretch priming material in rimfire ammo to maximize production. Whether they are using less material in each round, or 'cutting' the priming compounds to make them go further, the results could be the less reliable ignition that is being reported.

The good thing about 22 duds is..................

that they are usually not used for SD !!

Second, you usually don't loose your shirt, buying a box
like the larger caliber or rifle ammo.

I have to admit that one Winchester primer took a beating and still has the bullet...!!!
Wow.
Now that is one ugly round...............

Man, I'm sorry - that stinks. I'd consider writing CCI.


FWIW, I'm shooting the same product code, Lot # E19C104, and having a pretty good experience (fired 75 or so more through the LCP II last week with no issues).

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Now go make God proud...

I would contact CCI. A near 10% failure rate is simply unacceptable, especially for what this ammunition now costs.
It's sad to hear this. Mini-Mags have been a benchmark in rimfire ammunition for decades.
CCI Customer service:
Support

I suppose even CCI can have a bad day! In seconds I'd bet hundreds of rounds run past a station that performs an operation. I can't remember ever having a CCI dud, but I'm sure they are not immune.

I assume it's the 200ct yellow containers we all save for storage of small parts?

If so, I'd steam the labels off it, or take good HQ pics of the date/lot numbers and send it to them. A 9% failure rate is HORRIBLE for bulk ****. much less quality CCI.

I went back to the range today.

I fired 300 rounds of CCI Minimags. I used 3 different rifles.

100 rounds of the Target flavor from lot # D11B203. These were the rounds that I had problems with on Sunday from 3 different pistols. I had 4 FTFs. Not as bad as the 2 boxes I shot Sunday, but still not what I expect from this ammo. Today's FTFs: 1 from a CZ bolt, 1 from a Remington bolt and 2 from a Ruger semiauto.

I also shot 50 rounds each from 2 different lot #s of the same ammo and 50 rounds each from 2 different lot #s of the HP Varmint Minimag. 200 total round with no FTFs or any other problems.

I'll have to keep an eye on my Mini Mags. I've been fortunate lately and have got 2 Steel Challenge Matches without a FTF. I did have one my last practice session.

Unusual for Mini Mags but SV is even worse out of my guns.

I have 1000 rounds of Aguila I'll have to test next.


Good report BTW.

ThunderJokes sux.
You have to remember that the chinaflu has changed industry.
CCI hires whoever will be there daily.
I'm not particularly impressed with velocitor.
Federal automatch has been most reliable.

Federal Auto Match in the bulk boxes has been my every day go to rim fire ammo for well over a decade. When times started to get tight a few years ago and as things loosened up before the Chinese Plague I really stocked up with a dozen or so bulk boxes (a lot for me). Just lately, I’ve tried to use up some of the oldest ones, and in my 1948 K22 which is generally reliable as a freight train, have gotten a few misfires. In my custom High Standard Bullseye gun, I don’t recall any such problems.

Like somebody said, it’s a good thing I’m not depending on them for SD in my EDCs!

Froggie

I have a feeling the resent shortage has something to do with failures. Because of the rush to get more ammo out I think QC might be suffering across the board.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

I've got several hundred rounds of mini mags that are a few years old ( maybe 4 or 5?). I shot 100 rounds through a single six a few weeks ago with no ftfs. And before y'all talk too bad about Thunderbolts, I had an Adams barreled 10/22 a few years back that preferred them to all else. In actual side by side range tests, they outshot Eley Tenex, Federal Match, and a couple of other match grade offerings for accuracy. Fluke maybe, but it was real and it wasn't even real close. Go figure...

Kinda strange regarding thunderbolts. My experience is a 20" rockriver ar w/ ciener kit. Wife was at the helm and I noticed a squib.
Luckily I stopped her next shot.
Never thought about thunderjokes again.

YEP. For years, Federal Auto Match has been my favorite- most reliable and most consistent in both my old 41 and Ruger MKIII. Believe it or not, Wal-Mart had the 325 bulk boxes of Auto Match ( $21) a couple weeks ago--limit 2 to a customer; my wife and I bought 4.

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John

Last season I shot the whole run with CCI Mini-Mag hollow points in my Model 41. This ammunition was 35+ years old. Very few failures to fire.

I too have had 1 to 2 ftf in every 100 round box with the new mini mags. It used to be 100% Reliable. Disappointing.

I was just shooting a new box of Mini Mags the other day and had several FTF in my K-22 and MkIV. In the past I never had any problems with Mini Mags, this most recent batch is very disappointing.

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Wheel guns are real guns.

The most recent Mini-Mags I've bought, both HP and Target (solid) were from last summer, no misfires or other problems.
Sorry to hear that fresh stuff from CCI is not as stellar as it once was.

I used to like Federal Automatch, but new production has quite a few weak sounding rounds. Dang, and I bought 9 bricks of them a few months ago.
I also used to like the Winchester Super-X in the 100 round red plastic packs.
I was shooting them out of an accurate Winchester M 75 Sporting, and I'd have a good group going at 50 yards then several would hit way low.
Same with W-W M22, many of the rounds looked like they had been smashed with a hammer, many loose bullets in the bottom of the box, and bullets way canted in the case.

Never shot any Thunderbolts, they seem to be hated throughout the Galaxy. A few months ago Walmart had some Thunderbolts in and against my advice, a friend bought several bricks.
He said they seem a bit dirtier, but grouped decently and he had zero misfires. They were around $19 a brick of 500, and my friend doesn't regret the purchase.

People still rag on Remington Goldens, as stock from back more than a few years ago had misfire issues.
I bought a few bricks of Goldens in 2019, and have since bought and shot many more.
I've never had a misfire on any of this recent production. They are no dirtier that I can tell than anything else, and group (in all 6 of my rimfires) almost as well as Mini-Mags.



I have other ammo for hunting or target, but for plinking the Goldens are my go to.
Federal, Winchester and CCI seem to be slipping in their quality, but Remington has improved. Go figure.
The OPs experience with Thunderbolts being more reliable than Mini-Mags seems to bear this out.

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U. S. Army Veteran

The gang over on Rimfire Central has also noted recent problems with CCI rimfire Ammo.
Let us hope the problems are soon ironed out.
Best,
Gary

I recently had several FTE out of my Marlin Model60 from Federal Black Pack 1100 ct I bought right before the pandemic. Couldn't get through 2 or 3 rounds without a FTE. Spent round would hang on the bolt. Loaded a tube of MiniMags and ran 100%. The other interesting thing is the Federal Black Pack ran 100% through mine and my son's 15-22s. That whole .22s are picky thing I guess. Just bought a 325ct box of Federal AutoMatch, will see if the Model 60 will run them.