224 Valkyrie

[MED]

Deciding on this upper; I was wondering what y'all thought of it in terms of a 223 Rem alternative for coyote and other small game.

[KS63]

I’d keep my .223Rem rather than go Valkyrie, unless you plan on 1K yard P-Dog hunts. Doesn’t make sense in that capacity for the added cost. Just my opinion.

[whitewalrus]

I just picked up an upper in 224 Valkyrie, mostly out of boredom and my buddy was getting into the caliber as well. I don't see why you wouldn't try it on coyotes, but it seems its more geared towards bigger heavier bullets, which aren't really needed. If you will just shoot a couple times per hunt, don't see why not. If you will be out all day taking down a p-dog town...then I would just stick to the 223 Rem as said above.

[Marine24]

I recently picked up a rifle in the caliber and have a fair amount of ammo in 75gr, 88gr and 90gr from Federal and Hornady. Interesting debate has been the proper twist. Early barrels were 1:7 but folks like JP were reporting inconsistent results. Some were sub-MOA rifles, while others were averaging over 1.5" for the 90 grain bullets. Seems the 1:6.5" is the most common twist for this caliber but not sure how well it would shoot the 60gr varmint loads from Federal.

I bought this as a long range target/varmint setup so we shall see. Hopefully this is one of the 1/2" rifles.

[MarkCO]

I got to shoot several of them before they were released (on game and targets) as well as being on glass for several guys pioneering them in matches. If you look at some of the first info out, Patrick Kelley was the Savage factory shooter who has been working on it, so I got some first hand, non-edited information. Also spent a few weekends with the GM of JP and we talked about it at length.

Yes, it is a better 22 caliber CF round than the .223Rem and it has an accuracy edge over the .22Nosler as well. For the vast majority of people, it won't matter. If you are shooting game animals out to 400 yards, varmints and rodents out to 600ish yards, paper out to 800ish yards as maximums, you might not see much benefit in the Valkyries. Realize that a driver of the development is the new "Gas Gun PRS series". If you want a bit more horsepower and range in an AR15 platform, yes, it makes a difference. At 1K, it carries the same energy as the 6.5Grendel and a trajectory very similar to the 6.5CM. Yes there have been arguments about bullets and chambers and twists, but 1:7 is fine for the 90s...but the 90 grain bullets, with the jumps, is the issue in my opinion.

On a squad at a Precision match with a .224 Valkyrie where it was shot (mostly against gas guns) from 87 to 1124 yards. I was on glass for many of those shots. We also had a .223Rem on the squad and the Valkyrie does things past 700ish that the .223Rem struggles with. IMHO, it is a niche round mostly for target shooting past 600ish. If you only plan to shoot out to maybe 600, probably not worth the effort. In a bolt gun, no way. Realize that 223Rem and 5.56 are not the same. If you get a proper chamber and twist, loading to 5.56 pressures, you can do quite a bit with the 5.56.

Yes, I built one, and I like it. But again, it won't replace my .223s for hunting and will likely only be shot in a few precision type matches here and there.

[Rucker61]

I thought it is a neat concept, but realized that it would be one more rifle I don't have time to shoot and can't afford to put good enough glass on for the ranges I'd want to shoot it. Plus, I've got a .223 bolt gun I could just toss a new barrel on if I wanted something like that, and I probably wouldn't limit myself with the Valkyrie at that point.

[MED]

I ordered an upper, brass, and dies so I'm going to try it out; I have 6.8 mags and the other stuff I need. I have a heavy barrel 5.56 upper on a lower with a Geissele SSA-E trigger and PRS stock so this give me another option that I can switch to when needed. I thought about re-barreling a 22-250 bolt rifle with a 24" 1:7 twist barrel, but I think I like the idea of the Valkyrie upper better since I can run either upper, and keep it all together in the same case. i should've mentioned the re-barreled 22-250 as my other consideration in the original post. Edit: I also like the idea of being able to shoot it long range for practice instead of pulling out the 6.5s.

[thedave1164]

Zombie thread, bringing this one back from the dead.

Just got a 20” 1:6.5 barrel and BCG from PSA to build an upper.

Got an Aero S-One 15” FF Rail and Aero upper.

Hopefully be able to sight it in this following week

[thedave1164]

Got it out to the range today.

Got on paper and it was 5 rounds just under an inch at 100 yards, very happy so far.

This was the Hornady 88gr ELD-M

[MED]

Got it out to the range today.

Got on paper and it was 5 rounds just under an inch at 100 yards, very happy so far.

This was the Hornady 88gr ELD-M

Glad your project is going well. I have mine put together, but I still need to get it on the range one of these days.