What's The Dirtiest 22 Ammo?

[oneeyedpete]

Thunderbolts by far! I use the Flex-Hone polishers for all my rimfire wheel guns. Works like a charm! You can make your own honing oil: Equal parts Mineral Oil and Mineral Spirits, with a few drops of Synthetic ATF for lubricity.

 

[Major 2]

THIS ...

View attachment 771839

Ditto, and Wildcat

 

[rockquarry]

For me cleaning guns is like scrubbing a toilet. It has to be done but if there was a way to avoid it or do it less frequently I would.

I'd much rather clean a gun than a toilet.

 

[Dave Lively]

I'd much rather clean a gun than a toilet.

So would I. But I don't enjoy either task.

 

[rockquarry]

Not 22 but 44mag, and everyone like pics. I had an antique (mid 60's) can of either 2400 or Unique that I wanted to use up. All went bang just fine, but some looked like I had loaded black powder by the cloud it was putting out.

I use a lot of #2400 with cast bullets in .357 and .44 mag. My guns don't look quite that dirty, but it all comes off easily with Hoppe's #9 or any other good solvent.

 

[robvious]

absolute worst ever was a box of 22lr Remington UMC.. the old mustard brown box.. leaded up every pistol or rifle we shot it in.. still have half a box somewhere.. made the barrel look like a shotgun after a couple of rounds.. amazingly bad ammo.

 

[Law-dog]

Thanks! I ordered a set in both 400 and 800 grit.

You will not be disappointed. And wonder why we all did not know about them long ago.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Aguila!
When I shoot it in short barrel handguns I get a puff of black smoke.
And it smells funny!
Never say never, but I will try to avoid it!

 

[walkin' trails]

I can't dine out any particular manufacturer as all of them have offerings that can be pretty filthy.

But the nastiest ammo I've ever fired was a "green," environmentally friendly, 5.56 from Federal, I think that was really gunky. It was as bad as or worse than firing blanks thru an M16 with blank adapter. That stuff was awful, but supposed to be safe for shooters and ranges.

 

[venomballistics]

Aguila!
When I shoot it in short barrel handguns I get a puff of black smoke.
And it smells funny!
Never say never, but I will try to avoid it!

yes ... it definitely smells funny. Oddly though, it's the most accurate of the modestly priced stuff in my Springfield 2020. even edging out the CCI MiniMag it's an obvious clone of.

 

[moparclan]

A friend and I bought 500 rounds of this many years ago. This is the nastiest and dirtiest of any ammo I have ever shot. Can't even get through 50 rounds without problems. Steel case Russian ammo, we kept trying to give it to each other and would hide in the others lunch box, coat pocket. boots or lockers. We finally gave up and threw it away except this one box.

 

[gwpercle]

The Dirty brand of my era were Remington " Thunderbolts " !
I liked the name and Remington used to make decent 22 LR ammo ... but the Thunderbolts ... sucked rocks .
I stopped buying Remington 22 LR after that experience !
Gary

 

[desi2358]

A friend and I bought 500 rounds of this many years ago. This is the nastiest and dirtiest of any ammo I have ever shot. Can't even get through 50 rounds without problems. Steel case Russian ammo, we kept trying to give it to each other and would hide in the others lunch box, coat pocket. boots or lockers. We finally gave up and threw it away except this one box.

View attachment 773426

It's funny, this stuff was super cheap when it was imported and I bought quite a bit of it. At that time there were also quite a few soviet bloc training rifles being imported as surplus and that was what I shot most of it up in. Never had any problems in those guns and it was decently accurate too. I still buy some at gun shows, it's usually still cheap because of it's reputation.

Now I did try it in various US guns and it only worked well in some older bolt actions. It was dirty and has a rather thick waxy lube. I only found one semi-auto that would function with it, an old, beat up, Hi-Standard Duramatic (cheapest auto HS ever made LOL) and that gun actually runs great with it. Why? Don't know but I still shoot some in it as well as the couple trainers I still have.

 

[Muddyboot]

Aguila!
When I shoot it in short barrel handguns I get a puff of black smoke.
And it smells funny!
Never say never, but I will try to avoid it!

Agreed, it's a very dirty ammo with a farty smell.

 

[judgecrater]

Shooting is dirty business. Like working on cars, it's often messy. I see recurring threads about clean ammo or reloading components, but I guess I'm cut from a different cloth. I like to get my hands dirty.

Other than black powder, what's the dirtiest, grimiest ammo you've found? Pictures of dirty guns and shooters are a plus!

Worst if Remington 22LR Thunderbolt ammo. So bad I gave it away.

 

[judgecrater]

I'll second Remington Thunderbolt as the overall worst ammo dirty or not that I've tried.

It is worst I have ever shot.

 

[rockquarry]

It is worst I have ever shot.

Yes, but people keep buying it.