.224 Valkyrie, Anyone else?

[igotta40]

I recently built this rifle, it has a Ballistic Advantage stainless fluted barrel. I also have a Savage 110 Prairie Hunter. Both have a 22” heavy barrel. Both have 1:7 twist rate. Both are relatively heavy rifles. I’m still getting used to them. I’m trying a variety of factory ammo. Federal & Hornady, 75, 88, & 90 grain, but I’ll soon be hand loading for both rifles. Results so far are about average, at 100 yards (for me) target shooting with the factory ammo. Is anyone else shooting this caliber? Opinions?

 

[HJ857]

I like the Valkyrie a lot. Easy to load for and easy to shoot. I did find that a good muzzle brake helps a lot when shooting distance.

Mine is a Bear Creek, 24" fluted, stainless, 1:7. Best 260 bucks I've spent. So far. The only thing I did to this upper was removing the barrel and truing the receiver face.

I single load only so I can load the bullets long. Using the 75 grain ELD-M and H4895 and Federal AR Match primers. Currently using Federal brass and may switch to Starline someday, but brass life has been very good. The 75's can be loaded to mag length if you want.

Another very popular load is the 80 ELDM with H4895. I've not tested this load yet. Having good results with the 75 so not feeling a need to switch.

1000 yards is easily achievable.

I'm unsure of the forum rules on this but there had been a lot of good Valkyrie discussion on the other forum, The Firing Line. Just search Valkyrie and a lot of info will come up. However, some of it that info is dated with a few early adopters that got burned by bad chamber reamers, so be aware of that. Current barrels do not have that issue.

Another good source of info is the 68forums, which has a subsection for all variants of the 6.8 SPC.

edit; give it a couple hundreds rounds to settle everything in. Mine needed rounds before it became consistent. Maybe around 250 rounds, but I don't recall that exactly. I do recall that I have a .223 White Oak 20" stainless barrel with a Wylde chamber that didn't start grouping really well until it had 400 rounds through it.

 

[Varminterror]

I’ve played a bit with rebuilding another friend’s/shooter’s Savage Valkyrie this summer, trying to wean out whatever improved performance can be from the factory upper. Not the most accurate factory AR I ever handled, but not bad, and the ballistics are certainly impressive.

Some folks early on received bad barrels. Many more bought 224V’s under the premise they’d be an overnight 1,000 yard sensation, and then quickly learned the limitations of a 2.3” 22cal. The Federal 90 grain also has shown to be relatively terrible ammo. Barring those growing pains and misconceptions, it’s a fine little AR cartridge.

I’m debating a Black Friday purchase of a 26” +2” Valkyrie barrel, just to have one in the house, and to coax it to do something I would struggle to do with any of my 24” and shorter 223/5.56 AR’s. Cooler heads may prevail, however.

 

[saiga308]

6.5 Grendel is its competitor i see i would go with that bigger round for 2 or 4 legged animals video time 3:50

 

[horsey300]

6.5 Grendel is its competitor i see i would go with that bigger round for 2 or 4 legged animals video time 3:50

I respectfully disagree, things like 70 great gmx, 70 gr accubond, 75 gr scirocco ii, and 90 gr home loaded fusions more than level the playing field, not certain I'd use EITHER for elk, but anything on down? I ALMOST bought the Grendel just before the Valk came out but now??? As long as barrel life isn't a factor, the performance gained is definitely worth noting. BTW op we're running 75 swifties for serious game, 70 speers for fun, and at the recommendation of swift mr2000

 

[d2wing]

Interesting.

 

[igotta40]

I’ve played a bit with rebuilding another friend’s/shooter’s Savage Valkyrie this summer, trying to wean out whatever improved performance can be from the factory upper. Not the most accurate factory AR I ever handled, but not bad, and the ballistics are certainly impressive.

Some folks early on received bad barrels. Many more bought 224V’s under the premise they’d be an overnight 1,000 yard sensation, and then quickly learned the limitations of a 2.3” 22cal. The Federal 90 grain also has shown to be relatively terrible ammo. Barring those growing pains and misconceptions, it’s a fine little AR cartridge.

I’m debating a Black Friday purchase of a 26” +2” Valkyrie barrel, just to have one in the house, and to coax it to do something I would struggle to do with any of my 24” and shorter 223/5.56 AR’s. Cooler heads may prevail, however.

Yes, I had miserable accuracy with Federal 90 gr soft points.