I bought my new bride a new Malin 39A to introduce her to firearms but I've become quite taken with the firearm. I shoot hundreds of bullets with it each week and there is no doubt that in is contributing to my successful shooting with my Marlin centerfire rifles. I have it scoped just like my CFs and with the weight of the rifle... things are just the same.

I have found the Remington High Velocity Golden Bullet to be extremely accurate. The bullet is described as a "Plated Lead Round Nose". Is this just a lead bullet with a copper plated core? Has anybody been shooting the Remington Hi-Speed Thunderbolt with just the lead round nose bullet? Both of these are 40-grain bullets that my rifle seems to like.

Do you have any small game hunting experience with these offering from Remington?
High Velocity Golden™ Bullet Plated Hollow Point
Hyper Velocity Yellow Jacket® Truncated Cone Hollow Point
Long Rifle (High Velocity) Hollow Point

My primary use for the rifle is varmit control. Coyotes, skunks, racoons, and the feral critters specified as being eliminate in by my wildlife management plan. I've been shooting these critters in the chest cavity and they succumb rather quickly on their feet. Most of the critters I shoot weigh between 10 and 30 pounds. I was making head shots but then I've got to drag them out of the road. The chest cavity shots make them just as dead but I don't have to handle the critter.

I don't have many choices where I live but all this ammo is available locally at Wal-Mart.

I quite shooting the Remington stuff because of a bunch of misfires. I was buying the Remington bulk ammo. I found the Winchester Bulk ammo both more accurate and did not experience any misfires in my CZ 452 and the Ruger 10-22.

Yesterday my granddaughter and I went out to our plinking range and I took part of a box of the Remington bulk plated hollowpoints I had around for several years. I took a Rossi revolver and my taurus 41 mag Tracker to plink with.

The Remington ammo has been around for a long time and some of it was green and fuzzy if you know what I mean. I wiped it off and thought I might as well shoot it up. Must of been a couple of hundred rounds of that nasty stuff.

My Grandbaby made short work of it and it was shooting pretty good groups. I did not have any misfires except one.

As far as shooting that 39 I have found that lots and lots of practice with a 22 of the same persuasion as the big bore you shoot game with is the best practice you can do be it a pistol or rifle.

I tought and coached pistol and rifle teams in the service for years and found that the fellas that put lots of small bore rounds downrange carried that accuracy to big bore competition and hunting. Shooting is a hand eye coordination type of thing and practice with a non-recoiling weapon makes anyone a better shooter.

Nice talking to you Ranchdog, I enjoy your Texas hunting stories a bunch

Remington .22 Ammo is hard to find around here. I did use a pile of Yellow Jackets on gophers and they really tear them up at close range. They aren't much better than regular HV hollow points once the range gets out to 100 yards. Accuracy wasn't as good as Federal Classic HV HP, which I use now.

The subsonic HP seems to hit harder than it should. The bullet seems softer than regular HP, and may be optimised for the lower velocity. Accuracy is excellent.

Big raccoons are too tough for a .22. If the .22 is the only gun handy, I keep shooting until they stop wiggling.

Bye
Jack

So far, in my quest to find the best cartridge for my new 39A, it looks like Win. Super X High Velocity Solids are in the lead. They consistently shoot 5-shot 50 yard groups in the one inch range. Of those 5 shot groups, there are normally 3 or 4 clustered within a half inch. A flier or two account for the final group size. Most all the Remington offerings I've tried thus far (Which consist of both the solid and hollow point version of the "Golden Bullet" as well as "Yellow jacket", and "Viper" Hyper-velocity loads group a little over an inch at 50 yards. I should stress that all these tests are with the factory sights. I suspect they'll tighten a bit when I mount my receiver sight. Still, any of these loads should work well with the critters you're shooting at.
HRF

The subsonic HP seems to hit harder than it should. The bullet seems softer than regular HP, and may be optimised for the lower velocity. Accuracy is excellent.


I too have found the accuracy of the Remington Subsonics to be excellent. I have two rimfires that shoot it better than anything else. It will even cycle the bolt on my papoose most of the time.

I don't know about game bigger than squirrels and rabbits but I would suspect that they could be effective with good shot placement. Absolutely lethal on bushy tails and bunnies.

They have the added advantage of being very quiet in a 22" or longer barrel. Even at an indoor range I've fired off a few rounds before I realized I wasn't wearing hearing protection.

Remington Golden Bullet seems to be a good value for the money. I get them in boxes of 520 for $10 when Bass Pro runs them on sale. I wouldn't use them for anything serious, because I get 2-4 misfires per box, plus a squib or two that lands about 4 feet from the target at 100 yds.

The last time I used them, I had GB solids packed in boxes of 50. Didn't get the misfires, but one of the cases split, and I had to pry it out of the chamber with the point of a knife.

But, as I said, they cost less than #11 percussion caps. For rolling cans and such fun & games, not a bad deal.

Thanks for the replies guys!! I've had a couple of misfires with the GBs but found out that the hammer extension on my 39A was barely touching the eye-bell of my scope. Since I corrected this I haven't had any problems. It did cost me a nice shot on a large feral dog but months later, I've caught up with him.

I'll have to give some of this other ammo you guys mention a try if I can find it.

Ranch Dog, I've had a 39A for about 30 yrs. now. Way back when, we had an Ace Hardware go out of business, in my hometown. I bought 10 bricks[about 5,000 rounds] of cheap leadhead winchester wildcat ammo, for about $30. I still have about 500 rounds left[the ammo has to be at least 28 yrs. old]. I think I've had maybe 2-3 misfires in all that time. I've used this gun to kill rabbits, squirrels[over 500], coons, cats, gophers, chipmunks, etc. Probably have only cleaned the barrel 3-4 times in it's life. The ole girl has outlasted 3 scopes, and still keeps on ticking. Can't comment on other ammo too much, cause this is the stuff that has been used in it for the last 3 decades! Good luck with the new gun. I'd probably buy a box of a 1/2 doz. different brands, then wring er out at the bench.

Mad Dog

Ranchdog - I have been using Remington Thunderbolts in my 39A lately because I got a great deal on them at a local store. Funny thing is, they shoot a lot better in my 39A than in my tricked out 10/22. Go figure!

Michael, if you can find them, try the CCI Mini-Mags. Either flavor (HP or solid); the HPs generally shoot a little over half an inch in my 39, at 50 yards, with a 6x scope.

Well, went back to Wal-Mart and now all they had was Winchester ammo. They sure can make it frustrating! Anyway, I bought a box of the Dynapoint HP and they shoot extremely well. It looks like I can shoot 1" 5-shot groups at 50-yards. I shot them against the Rem GBs I've been shooting and my rifle definately likes the Win DPHPs better.

Well, went back to Wal-Mart and now all they had was Winchester ammo. They sure can make it frustrating! Anyway, I bought a box of the Dynapoint HP and they shoot extremely well. It looks like I can shoot 1" 5-shot groups at 50-yards. I shot them against the Rem GBs I've been shooting and my rifle definately likes the Win DPHPs better.

Hi Ranch hope this is of some help.
I use just about anything on sale in my 39's (all 4 of them) but I have found the mentioned Win Dynapoints to be extremely accurate. If you wam=nt to try something a little more exotic try some Dynamit Nobel Subsonic. It is very good ammo as well as Wolf Match/Target. I like the Dynamit Nobel with my suppressed 10/22. It is very quiet (like an air gun) and does a nice job on criiters that dont need to be in my trash.
Try this site for alot of good rimfire info: www.rimfirecentral.com
Hope this helps, Joe

Thanks Joe, the Dynapoints have been extremely accurate out of my 39A.

I too put a lot of winchester super X solids through my marlin and they seem to do a better than the rem 'golden bullet' ammo, which I have also shot a lot of. I have had more ftf rounds with the the remington ammo as well as many of the bullets being loose in the cases. I still use the factory sights on the rifle, but that will change once my williams fp finally gets here.

The only other .22 I shoot much is my dad's 10/22t (which incidentally allows itself to be outshot by a my 39 and his 9422 in .22 wmr. The rem golden ammo is a bit worse in it than the winchester as well.

Best ammo I've found in my Mod. 39 has been the Fedral Match. It also likes some old Winchester Wildcat Promotional stuff I've had for a few years. Too many misfires with the Remington bulk stuff. I am getting excellent short range accuracy with the CCI BB Caps. Nice part about the BB Caps is how quiet they are for short range pest control.

Lee L.