Is the .224 Valkyrie dead???

[Pastor Gun.zales]

I was recently given a 20" 1:6.5 Wilson Combat .224 Valkyrie barrel, so naturally I built a rifle around it. It shoots just fine and I can get decent enough groups, so is the Valkyrie dead or do us gun people just like to hype up a cartridge and say it can do more than what it really can?

From what I can tell this will be an amazing coyote/varmint gun, and with these 88gr ELD-M I would even let my kids use it for whitetail around here. It is super easy to load for, and Starline makes brass for it, so I can't see why people toss it aside, unless we are finicky people who quickly jump on the newest brightest shiny toy that comes out of SHOT Show every year LOL.

I have plenty of AR's and even have a 7mm Valkyrie from MDWS that I love, but I never try to make anyone of them the end all be all gun. So what about y'all... do you like it or hate it?

Valkyrie Build

 

[Bob Wright]

I'm tagging in to find out. I have 223 and 22-250. No complaints there.
What speed are you getting in the 88's or lighter?

 

[Pastor Gun.zales]

I'm tagging in to find out. I have 223 and 22-250. No complaints there.
What speed are you getting in the 88's or lighter?

The factory 70gr Hornady Blacks were listed as 3000fps. I loaded some 60gr VMAX but slowed them down to 2900fps, and the 88gr ELDM I slowed to 2700ish. If I used LEVERevolution then I could speed these up a bit more, but I used CFE223 because I have a lot of it and LEVER is precious to me lol

 

[backwoodsshooter]

I was recently given a 20" 1:6.5 Wilson Combat .224 Valkyrie barrel, so naturally I built a rifle around it. It shoots just fine and I can get decent enough groups, so is the Valkyrie dead or do us gun people just like to hype up a cartridge and say it can do more than what it really can?

From what I can tell this will be an amazing coyote/varmint gun, and with these 88gr ELD-M I would even let my kids use it for whitetail around here. It is super easy to load for, and Starline makes brass for it, so I can't see why people toss it aside, unless we are finicky people who quickly jump on the newest brightest shiny toy that comes out of SHOT Show every year LOL.

I have plenty of AR's and even have a 7mm Valkyrie from MDWS that I love, but I never try to make anyone of them the end all be all gun. So what about y'all... do you like it or hate it?

Valkyrie Build

View attachment 567919View attachment 567920View attachment 567921

this is my opinion and just what i've gotten from reading around over the past years. i'm a little bias as Harrison from AR15 Performance had the 224 predator (223 projectile, 6.8 brass) that was a decent shooter but even he knew what it couldn't do at distances. i wanted one but he stopped making barrels for it a while back

honestly, i think it was overhyped and "under delivered", but it also came out during the hype of the 6.5 creed. everyone wanted to have the accuracy of the 6.5 creedmoor but it just couldn't do it.

i do remember there was an issue when the first batch of barrels came out, they didn't give it enough twist to stabilize the heavies. that left a bad taste in a lot of folks mouth.

On top of all that it was finicky to load for, factory ammo done ok

then the 22 creedmoor came out, and honestly i think the 223 AI out shoots it also.

Not saying this is the gospel but a poor attempt to form coherent thoughts on info i've forgotten over the years.

 

[Pastor Gun.zales]

this is my opinion and just what i've gotten from reading around over the past years. i'm a little bias as Harrison from AR15 Performance had the 224 predator (223 projectile, 6.8 brass) that was a decent shooter but even he knew what it couldn't do at distances. i wanted one but he stopped making barrels for it a while back

honestly, i think it was overhyped and "under delivered", but it also came out during the hype of the 6.5 creed. everyone wanted to have the accuracy of the 6.5 creedmoor but it just couldn't do it.

then the 22 creedmoor came out, and honestly i think the 223 AI out shoots it also.

Not saying this is the gospel but a poor attempt to form coherent thoughts on info i've forgotten over the years.

Exactly... One of the worst things you can do in this industry is overhype and under deliver. If people were honest and simply said what it did and nothing more I think less hate would be thrown its way.

 

[backwoodsshooter]

Exactly... One of the worst things you can do in this industry is overhype and under deliver. If people were honest and simply said what it did and nothing more I think less hate would be thrown its way.

oh i agree. but that'll never happen. on the flip side minute of venison is perfectly fine for me.

 

[woodsman1991]

I'm running the Hornady black ammunition through a 22 inch BCF carbon barrel AR Valkyrie and am very fond of it. Has accounted for multiple hogs and coyotes down here in Texas with me. The BCF barrel is crazy light even being 22 inches and POI does not shift appreciably over the course of a rapid 5 shot string.

 

[Justice1327]

I do have two 6.8 SPC's with about 1000 rounds of factory Hornady ammo. I use it to shoot deer, hogs and coyotes so this is just a neck down version of the 6.8. I really don't see why it wouldn't be a good alternative to the Creedmoor or 22 ARC.
But if they screwed up the barrel, twist rate like Remington has been known to do, I could see why people would get away from it

 

[K.E.C.]

22 Nosler is another one.
What happened.

 

[quigley257]

I built a Valkyrie back when it was first introduced in 2017. I used a Savage 12FV donor rifle from back when you could get them from Cabela's for $200 after rebate. It was pretty simple to open up the stock 223 Rem bolt face. Savage eventually came out with Valkyrie rifles and magazines. Since I wasn't limited by AR mag lengths, I throated the chamber so I could seat the 88 ELD-Ms with the boat tail just below the neck of the case. This allows a bit more room for powder and accompanying velocity increase. I put it in an H-S Precision vertical grip tactical stock and topped it with a 6.5-20x50 Leupold VX-3I LRP. It is a great shooter and will stack the 88s. I will probably end up building a 22 ARC on an AR platform as I'd like to have something to span the gap between the Valkyrie and my 22 Creedmoor. I have several 223 Remingtons and largely built the Valkyrie "just because".

 

[Hydra6]

I have two 224V AR uppers and when I rarely shoot a gas gun - I shoot 224V. Federal had issues initially with the ammo rollout (especially the 90s) plus there seemed to be some issues with the early reamers. Similar to Remington and the 6.8 SPC, the factory dropped the ball on product launch and support such that dedicated hobbyists had to carry the cartridge.

Hornady is a marketing machine so their introduction of 6ARC followed by 22ARC severely hurt the 224V.

In an AR, the 80 grain projectiles seem to be the sweet spot for reloading although the 88s get love too.

I am keeping my Craddock 224V upper and feeding it 80SMKs and 80ELDMs. Wish there were more and better brass options.

Also, it was sold as a long range gamer cartridge to hit steel 1000+ - problem is you can hit steel at 1000+ but cannot see the impacts and must pray it sets off flashers.

 

[amu_shooter]

I still use the 224 V as my dedicated Thermal weapon, the 88 ELDMs seem to kill everything I need to with ease and no fuss.

It may not be cool anymore but, it works well for the .224 heavies using 6.5 or faster twist at Mag length.

 

[Wild Monkey]

.244-.224 Valkyrie is the perfect AR-15 Wildcat. Big enough for Deer. I was hoping someone would produce the Barrels for it. I don't have the contacts to get this done.

 

[Pastor Gun.zales]

.244-.224 Valkyrie is the perfect AR-15 Wildcat. Big enough for Deer. I was hoping someone would produce the Barrels for it. I don't have the contacts to get this done. View attachment 568232

If you contact Bruce Finnegan at Mad Dog Weapon Systems he could make this a reality for you

.244-.224 Valkyrie is the perfect AR-15 Wildcat. Big enough for Deer. I was hoping someone would produce the Barrels for it. I don't have the contacts to get this done. View attachment 568232

If you contact Bruce Finnegan or Mark Kexel at Mad Dog Weapon Systems he could make this a reality for you. Bruce and Mark are master wildcatters who has already made something similar and its called the 24 Varminter.