224 Valkyrie as a DMR cartridge

greentips

greentips

Administrator
Moderating Team
Rating - 100%
261   0   0
Location
Pluton
I bet everyone knows about the cartridge already. Looking at the ballistics, my guess is that it will push a 75gr bullet about 150 fps faster in 18". With the 90gr, it will probably sail out of a 18" barrel around 2550 fps ish, and will probably staying supersonic over 800m.

Right now most of the manufacturers are pushing 22 to 24" barrel to take advantage of the 90gr bullet. My thought is that, relatively soon, there will be attempts to put this in a shorter barrel format. A light weight AR15 platform with 223ish recoil to more reliably reach out to 800m, what not to like?

The revival of the MK12 SPR concept, with more reach?
 
224 Valkyrie is a poorly designed cartridge in my opinion.

The parent case is wrong. 6.8 SPC is an inferior parent to other options like 6.5 grendel in the AR platform in every way.

22 Grendel (6.5 Grendel parent) has more case capacity at a shorter case length than 224 valkyrie (6.8 SPC parent). So you can push it harder, and be closer to the lands with wider variety of projectiles than with 224 Valkyrie.

6.5 Grendel brass is also widely available from Lapua, and can be converted to 22 Grendel with just resizing dies.

I fully intend to make a long range 22 build in my SLR, because the new 22 projectiles that are coming out are crazy. The new 22 SMK is .620 G1 BC, 95gr. That almost better than the 115gr DTAC in 6mm!

But I think 224 valk is just not the right choice. It has hype because Federal is behind it. But no one has really evaluated the alternatives.
 
JaredP said:
224 Valkyrie is a poorly designed cartridge in my opinion.

The parent case is wrong. 6.8 SPC is an inferior parent to other options like 6.5 grendel in the AR platform in every way.

22 Grendel (6.5 Grendel parent) has more case capacity at a shorter case length than 224 valkyrie (6.8 SPC parent). So you can push it harder, and be closer to the lands with wider variety of projectiles than with 224 Valkyrie.

6.5 Grendel brass is also widely available from Lapua, and can be converted to 22 Grendel with just resizing dies.

I fully intend to make a long range 22 build in my SLR, because the new 22 projectiles that are coming out are crazy. The new 22 SMK is .620 G1 BC, 95gr. That almost better than the 115gr DTAC in 6mm!

But I think 224 valk is just not the right choice. It has hype because Federal is behind it. But no one has really evaluated the alternatives.
Click to expand...

I will beg to differ that it’s on a poorly developed cartridge because of the 6.8. On the contrary that is one of its strengths as many wildcats are based on this brass. I along with many others find everything about the 6.8spc outstanding.
 
Sqr said:
I will beg to differ that it’s on a poorly developed cartridge because of the 6.8. On the contrary that is one of its strengths as many wildcats are based on this brass. I along with many others find everything about the 6.8spc outstanding.
Click to expand...

So what is your case then? What are the strengths of the 6.8 parent?

I've listed several advantages of the Grendel as a parent. The only advantage I can see of the 6.8 as a parent is capacity. But that is not as much of an issue in Canada.

The 22 Grendel will outshoot the 224 valkyrie by 150-200 fps in every scenario, while being more configurable to the lands of your rifling.
 
greentips said:
A light weight AR15 platform with 223ish recoil to more reliably reach out to 800m, what not to like?
Click to expand...

Should be able to reload Valkyrie for about same price as 223. Waiting on load data but should be close.
Having an AR15 that can reach out to 7-800 meters with no extra cost, the same rifle you use now, with the same recoil.

Whats not to like ?
 
speedjunkiesracing said:
Should be able to reload Valkyrie for about same price as 223. Waiting on load data but should be close.
Having an AR15 that can reach out to 7-800 meters with no extra cost, the same rifle you use now, with the same recoil.

Whats not to like ?
Click to expand...

I'll say it will cost double the price to reload. New brass of a new cartridge = chaching, More powder = more chaching, heavier bullet = more chaching.
 
I like 224 Val because Federal is behind it, this means ammo will be of reasonable price. They are already going to offer an American Eagle in 75 TMJ for practice.

There are other wild cats of probably better ballistics, but winning the logistic war is a big part of it.

Since this is going to an AR, this means it will be shot a lot. Reloading is too slow, a successful widely adopted cartridge always have cheaper practice ammo to back up the package.
 
I think they are, despite Luke warm reception of 6.8.
If Canadians could use ARs for hunting, I think there would be more up here.
I would check around and maybe with Irunguns to import some. I’d also check to see if XCR 7.62x39 pistol mags would feed reliably.
 
I think the more AR-15 rifles out there showing up in some of these different calibers including the wildcats, the less stable the foundation for their argument.

Most of these calibers are being born from a desire to increase the ARs performance in competition or hunting.
Since we can’t hunt with them, that leaves competition.
More people taking up competitions where ARs are used strengthens the continued recreational use of ARs overall.
 
I can see people bringing 224V to service rifle already. You won't even be able to tell if they are using 224V because the rifles are just regular AR and the holes are the same size. And practically there won't be any disadvantage in rapid fire, especially if they use brakes. My bet is that the cheap practice 75gr TMJ in 224 V will beat any 5.56 mass production ammo in raw precision. It will also beat many match ammo from 300m and up in value for dollar. The 75gr TMJ has a BC of 0.4 at a higher velocity than typical 223 with 7Xgr bullets, but at 52 cents a round out of the box! Why am I even bothered to reload?

And it is going to be popular in PRS, especially amongst new shooters with AR15. All it is needed is a new upper. Also, Comparing factory 224V vs 6.5CM match ammo, Federal 90gr 224V is about 25 per 20 and Hornady 140 ELD is about 29 per 20. The practice ammo for 224 V is only 52 cents per round, vs 6.5CM the cheapest ammo I can find is about a dollar per round. The 6.5CM match ammo price had gone down over the years, so 224V will be much cheaper - I will say a dollar a round is not unforeseeable, as Federal is selling their 5.56 77gr match at less than a dollar a round now in the US now.
 
Last edited:
I can certainly see it being very, very popular. As well detailed above, it will allow ballistic performance that was previously unattainable in the AR15 platform. Also, the value points raised above are spot-on in terms of practice ammo, but I'd be very surprised if handloading still didn't wind up being the best option for low-volume long-range civilian shooters looking to wring the best performance out of it.

I like it. But as devil's advocate, there's ALWAYS a tradeoff.

There's apparently no data available yet, but judging from the ballistics the chamber pressure has got to be on the high side. That could mean trouble for DI gas systems, for example. Plus you have all of the established drawbacks of overbore cartridges.

As for the viability of the cartridge on its own merits: The 224V is evidently a significant boon for the AR15 platform. Which is terrific if you're married to the AR15 platform, and irrelevant if you're not. Outfitting an AR15 to maximize the benefit of this cartridge might well put it close to the size and weight of a lightweight AR10 chambered in a better-performing cartridge, for example.

It certainly makes the AR15 a better DMR platform, but does that make the 224V a great DMR cartridge?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom