Post by GLSHOOTER on Apr 18, 2019 6:49:28 GMT -8
As many of you know the 224 Valkyrie made its debut shortly before SHOT in 2017. It was touted as long range offering shooting up to the 90/95 grain area. It is a shortened 6.8 SPC case with a volume that holds about one grain of water more than a 223. Due to this shortening it can shoot the big bullets at magazine length. All well and good for punching paper as nice high BC bullets are a plus for that endeavor. Unfortunately the downside of this is that the aforementioned case volume hobbles it somewhat in the speed department.
Federal came out with the ammunition after doing a lot of work prior to release bringing out the 90 SMK loadings all the way down to 55’s. The first bullets for the paper guys and the second for the warm targets like PD’s and coyotes. They have fleshed out the range between the two with various offerings in multiple weights. On introduction the advertising started out not as a trickle but as a full blown roaring torrent. Several guns in the hands of the “experts” were circulating and everyone was waxing ecstatic over the long range performance. Most had a twist rate of 1:7 even though for years those of us wanting to shoot a 90 in a 223 bore had always opted for a 1:6.5 minimum. My assumption is the thought pattern was that enough speed was on tap to make the slower twist rate work. Like many ragged edge attempts at bullet stabilization sometimes chicken and sometimes feathers thanks to the vagaries of barrel variation and environmental factors. It became apparent that the 6.5 twist was a better deal and many manufactures started making them. Along with the twist issue the 90 SMK that Federal used is currently undergoing a redesign in an attempt to get better results though that is still in progress AFAIK.
I obtained a barrel last year and quite literally had to delay testing as I was involved with testing other products. Mine is a 24” 1:7 twist BHW 3 land polygon. It was mounted up on an AERO upper and a forearm from Chandler Hardwoods was called to duty. The gas block is an adjustable unit from Tactical Ammunition that I am now using on my builds thanks to the pricing and the small size that actually fits under these skinny forearms. The BCG is a Young Manufacturing set up with the enhanced bolt that I had input on and got to Beta test. The scope choice was my old Leupold 24X target version.
Why 1:7? At the time the 1: 6.5 was not getting any production play plus I wanted to shoot it warts and all from the get go. The current offerings are still mostly 1:7’s if my Google review is correct. I reviewed everything I could prior to getting this one going and with my interests being a bit varied I knew going in I would probably not shoot many 90’s with the 80’s being my heaviest pills. I also realized that if this one took off the industry would respond with newer slicker bullets to stuff in it and this assumption has proven to be correct. I knew that when I have a 224 I want a rifle that will shoot the 50-70’s well and with the intent of the manufacturers with this one I want the ability to shoot the big boys even though I have other choices for that task.
The lower used was my usual designated for testing with the Giselle High Sped Match trigger, a basic A2 stock and a few Magpul and Wilson enhanced operating surfaces. I use this one because I get to work with the same feeling in take up and release every time. I shoot this on everything from .17 up to .45 when I can though I’m not averse to using the others that happen to be available from Timney or BTE.
Enough abbreviated history and on to the rubber meeting the tarmac. A shot of the test bed in question below. This is as barebones as you can get and the $$’s spent are on the low end and didn’t break the bank thanks to acquiring stuff over the years.
I rarely shoot factory ammunition in any of my rifles due to the fact that 75% are wildcats and I am basically set up to save quite a bit through my handloading endeavors. As this was a new whiz bang offering from the industry I went ahead and ordered up 100 rounds of the most basic ammunition that Federal is producing. These were the 75 grain FMJ American Eagle offering. Price was one concern as many people don’t feel the need to dump a lot of coin on making holes in paper. The plus side also was that I would acquire a nice batch of brass along the way. Speaking of brass, Starline started producing Valkyrie brass from the get go and I had several discussions with their chief ballistician as it came online. I had them send me a small bag to test for longevity in comparison to the Federal offering.
I prepared for the range trip by grabbing the factory ammunition and loaded up fifty pieces of the Starline. For my handloads I used 50’s, 55’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The factory being 75’s made it a nice stair step test though I will fill in the blank with some 65’s down the road. Powders ranged from TAC, CFE 223, Big Game and RL17. All rounds were loaded per book recommended COL’s for the initial trial. I chose to shoot three shot groups for this time as I wanted numbers and a general feel for what the cartridge would do. If it shoots three well then there is a good chance it will do well for more. If it doesn’t handle three then it might be due to shooter error but a quick revisit will usually clear the fog on that.
I had just put the scope on the upper so my first stop was at the 50 yard line at my club. I spent ten minutes getting it all ready to go as I waited for the line to be clear. I dropped one of the 75’s in the tube and pulled the trigger and found I was ½” low and ½” right. I spun the turret four increments clockwise and put the rifle back in the case and moved to the 100 yard line. It is pretty normal to go from one upper to the next with these scopes and be within 2” of center but the 50 yard shot to verify is something that I can’t break myself of.
Once I got set up at 100 yards with my target down range and the rests set up I dialed in the LabRadar and prepared for a pleasant day. It is April so I wanted to get in on one of our spring days. First shot fired was at 87 degrees and the last shot fired was at 93. It wouldn’t be a day on the range for me if I wasn’t hitting some in the 90’s.
As I had some factory ammunition to try I used it for sight in and my first group work. Initially I shot fifteen rounds for getting close to my dots and to see just how honest the factory claimed numbers were. Remember this is a polygon barrel and routinely they run a bit fast. Claimed per Federal was an even 3000. The LR said that they were being modest, at least for this rifle, and I managed a first batch of 3098. The velocity was a nice pleasant surprise to say the least that I smiled at. I shot another ten rounds at the end of the day at 93 degrees and found an increase in velocity to 3106. Eight FPS is not much different but at that point the tube had a few rounds down it and this may well have contributed to the minor variation. Fastest shot was 3140 and the slowest was 3076. Standard deviation for the batch hovered right on 17 and that is not bad at all for factory fodder in my experience.
Now speed is one thing but groups are definitive as we all know. Being factory ammunition and FMJ to boot I was not holding out for bug holes and I was not to be proven wrong there. Five groups shot a 1.278 average with none getting below an MOA although a 1.109 was getting scary close. Target evaluation was mostly vertical so that tells me it wants to shoot but needs just a hair more on the gas pedal. Being factory it is what it is so I’ll have to live with it. This is all twenty five rounds for this offering. I might note that I did see some extractor and ejector markings on this brass with primers starting to flatten out about like a good stout commercial load usually shows. As it was Federal brass I expected it to be a bit soft and I was not disappointed in that expectation.
As you can see not overly impressive and not a wallet size group you would drag out at the water cooler. I’m quite familiar with factory ammunition not being stellar but I also know that it is not a 1:1 correlation in how good they are going to shoot with some reloading bench TLC. One thing to remember this chamber was optimized, so they say, to shoot the long heavy bullets so the throat is very long to accommodate them. That in turn leaves the little short pills wanting on occasion. Bullet choice, profile, comes in to play here as some will tolerate a huge jump and others not so much. Generally across the board the .223’s will jump whereas the 6 MM’s tend to be a bit more problematic. I figured in a few hours I’d know.
Starting light with the Sierra 50 Spitzer (HV) I had loaded up three levels of CFE 223 and settled in for some work. No wind, yet, with no mirage and things were looking good after my second big coffee of the morning. I know coffee is bad but after twenty plus years of playing nurse and working long hours I think I have more caffeine in me than hemoglobin. The first three looked decent and actually hit my aiming point which is unusual as I avoid that when possible. The next looked good and the last few started to give me hope.
At home I was pleased with this first effort. The CFE behaved as I expected in the velocity department putting the 50’s out at 3730 with no signs of pressure. This powder while viewed as “dirty” by some really puts out the velocities in all these 6.8 based cases I’ve been shooting. Interestingly on this one the speed was 197 FPS faster than projected in the manuals. I’ve worked with it enough in various cases that I was satisfied I wasn’t pushing anything to the maximum. The edges of the primers were still nice and rounded and not a single mark was noted on the case heads. The Starline brass appeares to be handling the pressures nicely. I had adjusted the gas to be slightly on the low side to aid in case longevity and accuracy. Throughout the day I found that the brass was shaking off that 55,000 PSI with aplomb. Here’s my first effort at pushing the little pills on this one. The first two groups were identical and the last was a tad better. If I could get a talented guy to shot these I suspect it would be eye opening.
I moved up to the 55’s next using the Sierra Game King HP’s. It looks flat nasty and would be a great fur bullet. This is the only bullet I shot with two powders. I shot both TAC and CFE 223. The CFE was the only five shot handload I shot for the day and it shows great promise. It was loafing along at 3503 with nice round primers. This one could easily take another 0.5 and I believe might even shoot a bit better. I’m sure I’ll find out in the very near future. It did on the plus side exceed the projected speed by a very nice 179 FPS staying with the trend of CFE performance. The three in one hole dead center on the dot gives me hope for the load and the shooter.
TAC is an interesting powder in the .223 bores. It is never uber-fast but it seems to always have some potential with a bit of a tweak. In my rifle I had a projected speed of 3300 and the clock showed 3324 for my top combination. The faster this one went the bigger the groups but I feel it might be worth playing with too. I only saw a spread of 68 FPS over the 0.6 grain increase. Oddly enough the middle powder shot 1 FPS lower than the first batch so I do want to see what that’s all about.
I’ll just show what the CFE did and the best of the TAC groups. The TAC shot an average of exactly 1.00 inch..LOL
Inching up in weight to a 60 grain Sierra Varminter I found that the velocities were holding and true to form this barrel like all my polys likes it hot , hotter and hottest. Once again I defaulted to CFE but the length is only 2.140 per the book. Long jump here for this one but it shook it off and endeavored to persevere. The first three didn’t inspire me too much but then I don’t sweat the early returns and I’ll decide once all the votes are in. Being hugely vertical I had a hunch that things would improve shortly. Not to be denied the CFE got on the stick and showed me a modest increase of only 38 FPS over the book on this one hitting 3188. It still has some left on the table and I’ll be pursuing this one as the 60 is an excellent warm target performer. Here’s is a sterling example of what happens per the text book as we pour more on in many cases. I could have covered the last with a dime but feeding these rifles leaves me without a lot of coinage. Either of the two last groups would make me happy on PD’s and I’m not so sure if the steerage wasn’t as fault on number two. Three group aggregate of 0.864 is not bad at all.
I now moved up into the realm of specialty bullets that I don’t normally play with. The new Nosler RDF has been out for a while but I had never tried them. The BC on the 70 moves up to 0.416 and that is respectable provided one can put the velocity behind it. It will not match the 168 SMK in 308 that runs a 0.468 but a shorter TOF will make a huge difference as this round leaves that good old boy at the gate. I do know I swallowed a bit hard when I paid the ticket on these but I had a fellow out in Virginia urging me to give the RDF a try. See that’s where my dimes went!! I rarely shoot anything above a 65 in the 22’s but these 6.8 variants allow me to get my toe over that line a bit.
Powder choice was Big Game for these pills. I don’t use a bunch of it but it does get rave reviews in the 17’s and I happened to have some on the shelf. I figured in for a penny in for a pound with a new bullet and a different powder what the heck did I have to lose? The first three looked A-OK to me and I figured I might have a good go to round if things panned out. The LabRadar crept up nicely and I was smiling a bit as my 0.6 grain off book MAX was already within five FPS of the book top. I ended up 50 FPS over the book value and I attribute this to the rifling once again. No pressure signs were noted and the 70 at 3137 is no slouch with that BC working for it. The three group aggregate on this was a 0.614 that I find acceptable in most guns with the top sped pushing in to 0.540 I would not hesitate to take this one after PD’s or even into an F-Class foray.
Final testing for the day of my home rolled was the Sierra 80 SMK that boasts a BC of 0.471. This one pushed hard is a favored bullet for the 600 yard line in DCM Hi Power in the 1:7 twist. I decided to try RL 17 as I had done well with it in some 6X6.8 and LBC loadings but results were inconclusive to say the least. The wind had come up in after the previous batch and I suddenly had gusts hitting 25 MPH on my hands to deal with. Dispersion was inconsistent and the swirl was a bit problematic. The speed was there but the use of so much real estate on target was not something to bring joy and accolades from the surrounding shooters. By far the worst performer with an aggregate of 1.666 it is capable of much more.
Of the three groups shot only one was even close to acceptable and it barely so. I have another 40 of these pills on the shelf and I am going to wring this bullet out on the next trip if only to prove to myself I can get it to run well. I will probably load longer than the book 2.260 if I have room but I just have to know what’s cooking here. I can say that on the last three shots at 3060 I saw very slight markings on the head from the ejector that lends me to believe that a different powder is certainly in order here. The primers overall looked like the factory 75 Federals so I believe that’s all she wrote for the RL 17 on this one. I may try some 19 if research shows it is applicable. The one good group out of three that resulted in tossing these down range that is a tiny tiny little glimmer off on the horizon. Time will tell.
So there we have it for my first trip out and about with the 224 Valkyrie. Speeds were up over the book across the board in every aspect. Accuracy was pretty good. If I exclude the 80’s, cheating you know, the average group size was 0.810 over thirteen groups. Adding in the disastrous 80’s for sixteen groups I still averaged 0.970. Factory 75 FMJ averaged 1.28 for five groups and when added in to the others an aggregate average of 21 groups was 1.045. Just slightly less than one MOA for such a wide dispersion of weights and loads did make me feel hopeful that this will turn into a PD worthy gun. The 80’s are definitely an issue and as I mentioned they will get some serious attention. I happen to have a box of 90’s also and I might toss a few of those down range. The 77 grain Nosler CC’s will also be tried as I have a grundle of those and they are dirt cheap to boot with a good BC.
This one was long but I’ve been promising a shakedown evaluation for a long time. I can say that I believe the Starline brass is well made and I’ll let them know this week about my assessment after one more firing on it. I have not run the numbers to compare this with a hot 556 NATO load but I knew that in the light bullets there is not much difference. I suspect that up until 69/70 that I can get as much out of the old standby and I will make up a comparison chart down the road on that issue.
Greg
Federal came out with the ammunition after doing a lot of work prior to release bringing out the 90 SMK loadings all the way down to 55’s. The first bullets for the paper guys and the second for the warm targets like PD’s and coyotes. They have fleshed out the range between the two with various offerings in multiple weights. On introduction the advertising started out not as a trickle but as a full blown roaring torrent. Several guns in the hands of the “experts” were circulating and everyone was waxing ecstatic over the long range performance. Most had a twist rate of 1:7 even though for years those of us wanting to shoot a 90 in a 223 bore had always opted for a 1:6.5 minimum. My assumption is the thought pattern was that enough speed was on tap to make the slower twist rate work. Like many ragged edge attempts at bullet stabilization sometimes chicken and sometimes feathers thanks to the vagaries of barrel variation and environmental factors. It became apparent that the 6.5 twist was a better deal and many manufactures started making them. Along with the twist issue the 90 SMK that Federal used is currently undergoing a redesign in an attempt to get better results though that is still in progress AFAIK.
I obtained a barrel last year and quite literally had to delay testing as I was involved with testing other products. Mine is a 24” 1:7 twist BHW 3 land polygon. It was mounted up on an AERO upper and a forearm from Chandler Hardwoods was called to duty. The gas block is an adjustable unit from Tactical Ammunition that I am now using on my builds thanks to the pricing and the small size that actually fits under these skinny forearms. The BCG is a Young Manufacturing set up with the enhanced bolt that I had input on and got to Beta test. The scope choice was my old Leupold 24X target version.
Why 1:7? At the time the 1: 6.5 was not getting any production play plus I wanted to shoot it warts and all from the get go. The current offerings are still mostly 1:7’s if my Google review is correct. I reviewed everything I could prior to getting this one going and with my interests being a bit varied I knew going in I would probably not shoot many 90’s with the 80’s being my heaviest pills. I also realized that if this one took off the industry would respond with newer slicker bullets to stuff in it and this assumption has proven to be correct. I knew that when I have a 224 I want a rifle that will shoot the 50-70’s well and with the intent of the manufacturers with this one I want the ability to shoot the big boys even though I have other choices for that task.
The lower used was my usual designated for testing with the Giselle High Sped Match trigger, a basic A2 stock and a few Magpul and Wilson enhanced operating surfaces. I use this one because I get to work with the same feeling in take up and release every time. I shoot this on everything from .17 up to .45 when I can though I’m not averse to using the others that happen to be available from Timney or BTE.
Enough abbreviated history and on to the rubber meeting the tarmac. A shot of the test bed in question below. This is as barebones as you can get and the $$’s spent are on the low end and didn’t break the bank thanks to acquiring stuff over the years.
I rarely shoot factory ammunition in any of my rifles due to the fact that 75% are wildcats and I am basically set up to save quite a bit through my handloading endeavors. As this was a new whiz bang offering from the industry I went ahead and ordered up 100 rounds of the most basic ammunition that Federal is producing. These were the 75 grain FMJ American Eagle offering. Price was one concern as many people don’t feel the need to dump a lot of coin on making holes in paper. The plus side also was that I would acquire a nice batch of brass along the way. Speaking of brass, Starline started producing Valkyrie brass from the get go and I had several discussions with their chief ballistician as it came online. I had them send me a small bag to test for longevity in comparison to the Federal offering.
I prepared for the range trip by grabbing the factory ammunition and loaded up fifty pieces of the Starline. For my handloads I used 50’s, 55’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The factory being 75’s made it a nice stair step test though I will fill in the blank with some 65’s down the road. Powders ranged from TAC, CFE 223, Big Game and RL17. All rounds were loaded per book recommended COL’s for the initial trial. I chose to shoot three shot groups for this time as I wanted numbers and a general feel for what the cartridge would do. If it shoots three well then there is a good chance it will do well for more. If it doesn’t handle three then it might be due to shooter error but a quick revisit will usually clear the fog on that.
I had just put the scope on the upper so my first stop was at the 50 yard line at my club. I spent ten minutes getting it all ready to go as I waited for the line to be clear. I dropped one of the 75’s in the tube and pulled the trigger and found I was ½” low and ½” right. I spun the turret four increments clockwise and put the rifle back in the case and moved to the 100 yard line. It is pretty normal to go from one upper to the next with these scopes and be within 2” of center but the 50 yard shot to verify is something that I can’t break myself of.
Once I got set up at 100 yards with my target down range and the rests set up I dialed in the LabRadar and prepared for a pleasant day. It is April so I wanted to get in on one of our spring days. First shot fired was at 87 degrees and the last shot fired was at 93. It wouldn’t be a day on the range for me if I wasn’t hitting some in the 90’s.
As I had some factory ammunition to try I used it for sight in and my first group work. Initially I shot fifteen rounds for getting close to my dots and to see just how honest the factory claimed numbers were. Remember this is a polygon barrel and routinely they run a bit fast. Claimed per Federal was an even 3000. The LR said that they were being modest, at least for this rifle, and I managed a first batch of 3098. The velocity was a nice pleasant surprise to say the least that I smiled at. I shot another ten rounds at the end of the day at 93 degrees and found an increase in velocity to 3106. Eight FPS is not much different but at that point the tube had a few rounds down it and this may well have contributed to the minor variation. Fastest shot was 3140 and the slowest was 3076. Standard deviation for the batch hovered right on 17 and that is not bad at all for factory fodder in my experience.
Now speed is one thing but groups are definitive as we all know. Being factory ammunition and FMJ to boot I was not holding out for bug holes and I was not to be proven wrong there. Five groups shot a 1.278 average with none getting below an MOA although a 1.109 was getting scary close. Target evaluation was mostly vertical so that tells me it wants to shoot but needs just a hair more on the gas pedal. Being factory it is what it is so I’ll have to live with it. This is all twenty five rounds for this offering. I might note that I did see some extractor and ejector markings on this brass with primers starting to flatten out about like a good stout commercial load usually shows. As it was Federal brass I expected it to be a bit soft and I was not disappointed in that expectation.
As you can see not overly impressive and not a wallet size group you would drag out at the water cooler. I’m quite familiar with factory ammunition not being stellar but I also know that it is not a 1:1 correlation in how good they are going to shoot with some reloading bench TLC. One thing to remember this chamber was optimized, so they say, to shoot the long heavy bullets so the throat is very long to accommodate them. That in turn leaves the little short pills wanting on occasion. Bullet choice, profile, comes in to play here as some will tolerate a huge jump and others not so much. Generally across the board the .223’s will jump whereas the 6 MM’s tend to be a bit more problematic. I figured in a few hours I’d know.
Starting light with the Sierra 50 Spitzer (HV) I had loaded up three levels of CFE 223 and settled in for some work. No wind, yet, with no mirage and things were looking good after my second big coffee of the morning. I know coffee is bad but after twenty plus years of playing nurse and working long hours I think I have more caffeine in me than hemoglobin. The first three looked decent and actually hit my aiming point which is unusual as I avoid that when possible. The next looked good and the last few started to give me hope.
At home I was pleased with this first effort. The CFE behaved as I expected in the velocity department putting the 50’s out at 3730 with no signs of pressure. This powder while viewed as “dirty” by some really puts out the velocities in all these 6.8 based cases I’ve been shooting. Interestingly on this one the speed was 197 FPS faster than projected in the manuals. I’ve worked with it enough in various cases that I was satisfied I wasn’t pushing anything to the maximum. The edges of the primers were still nice and rounded and not a single mark was noted on the case heads. The Starline brass appeares to be handling the pressures nicely. I had adjusted the gas to be slightly on the low side to aid in case longevity and accuracy. Throughout the day I found that the brass was shaking off that 55,000 PSI with aplomb. Here’s my first effort at pushing the little pills on this one. The first two groups were identical and the last was a tad better. If I could get a talented guy to shot these I suspect it would be eye opening.
I moved up to the 55’s next using the Sierra Game King HP’s. It looks flat nasty and would be a great fur bullet. This is the only bullet I shot with two powders. I shot both TAC and CFE 223. The CFE was the only five shot handload I shot for the day and it shows great promise. It was loafing along at 3503 with nice round primers. This one could easily take another 0.5 and I believe might even shoot a bit better. I’m sure I’ll find out in the very near future. It did on the plus side exceed the projected speed by a very nice 179 FPS staying with the trend of CFE performance. The three in one hole dead center on the dot gives me hope for the load and the shooter.
TAC is an interesting powder in the .223 bores. It is never uber-fast but it seems to always have some potential with a bit of a tweak. In my rifle I had a projected speed of 3300 and the clock showed 3324 for my top combination. The faster this one went the bigger the groups but I feel it might be worth playing with too. I only saw a spread of 68 FPS over the 0.6 grain increase. Oddly enough the middle powder shot 1 FPS lower than the first batch so I do want to see what that’s all about.
I’ll just show what the CFE did and the best of the TAC groups. The TAC shot an average of exactly 1.00 inch..LOL
Inching up in weight to a 60 grain Sierra Varminter I found that the velocities were holding and true to form this barrel like all my polys likes it hot , hotter and hottest. Once again I defaulted to CFE but the length is only 2.140 per the book. Long jump here for this one but it shook it off and endeavored to persevere. The first three didn’t inspire me too much but then I don’t sweat the early returns and I’ll decide once all the votes are in. Being hugely vertical I had a hunch that things would improve shortly. Not to be denied the CFE got on the stick and showed me a modest increase of only 38 FPS over the book on this one hitting 3188. It still has some left on the table and I’ll be pursuing this one as the 60 is an excellent warm target performer. Here’s is a sterling example of what happens per the text book as we pour more on in many cases. I could have covered the last with a dime but feeding these rifles leaves me without a lot of coinage. Either of the two last groups would make me happy on PD’s and I’m not so sure if the steerage wasn’t as fault on number two. Three group aggregate of 0.864 is not bad at all.
I now moved up into the realm of specialty bullets that I don’t normally play with. The new Nosler RDF has been out for a while but I had never tried them. The BC on the 70 moves up to 0.416 and that is respectable provided one can put the velocity behind it. It will not match the 168 SMK in 308 that runs a 0.468 but a shorter TOF will make a huge difference as this round leaves that good old boy at the gate. I do know I swallowed a bit hard when I paid the ticket on these but I had a fellow out in Virginia urging me to give the RDF a try. See that’s where my dimes went!! I rarely shoot anything above a 65 in the 22’s but these 6.8 variants allow me to get my toe over that line a bit.
Powder choice was Big Game for these pills. I don’t use a bunch of it but it does get rave reviews in the 17’s and I happened to have some on the shelf. I figured in for a penny in for a pound with a new bullet and a different powder what the heck did I have to lose? The first three looked A-OK to me and I figured I might have a good go to round if things panned out. The LabRadar crept up nicely and I was smiling a bit as my 0.6 grain off book MAX was already within five FPS of the book top. I ended up 50 FPS over the book value and I attribute this to the rifling once again. No pressure signs were noted and the 70 at 3137 is no slouch with that BC working for it. The three group aggregate on this was a 0.614 that I find acceptable in most guns with the top sped pushing in to 0.540 I would not hesitate to take this one after PD’s or even into an F-Class foray.
Final testing for the day of my home rolled was the Sierra 80 SMK that boasts a BC of 0.471. This one pushed hard is a favored bullet for the 600 yard line in DCM Hi Power in the 1:7 twist. I decided to try RL 17 as I had done well with it in some 6X6.8 and LBC loadings but results were inconclusive to say the least. The wind had come up in after the previous batch and I suddenly had gusts hitting 25 MPH on my hands to deal with. Dispersion was inconsistent and the swirl was a bit problematic. The speed was there but the use of so much real estate on target was not something to bring joy and accolades from the surrounding shooters. By far the worst performer with an aggregate of 1.666 it is capable of much more.
Of the three groups shot only one was even close to acceptable and it barely so. I have another 40 of these pills on the shelf and I am going to wring this bullet out on the next trip if only to prove to myself I can get it to run well. I will probably load longer than the book 2.260 if I have room but I just have to know what’s cooking here. I can say that on the last three shots at 3060 I saw very slight markings on the head from the ejector that lends me to believe that a different powder is certainly in order here. The primers overall looked like the factory 75 Federals so I believe that’s all she wrote for the RL 17 on this one. I may try some 19 if research shows it is applicable. The one good group out of three that resulted in tossing these down range that is a tiny tiny little glimmer off on the horizon. Time will tell.
So there we have it for my first trip out and about with the 224 Valkyrie. Speeds were up over the book across the board in every aspect. Accuracy was pretty good. If I exclude the 80’s, cheating you know, the average group size was 0.810 over thirteen groups. Adding in the disastrous 80’s for sixteen groups I still averaged 0.970. Factory 75 FMJ averaged 1.28 for five groups and when added in to the others an aggregate average of 21 groups was 1.045. Just slightly less than one MOA for such a wide dispersion of weights and loads did make me feel hopeful that this will turn into a PD worthy gun. The 80’s are definitely an issue and as I mentioned they will get some serious attention. I happen to have a box of 90’s also and I might toss a few of those down range. The 77 grain Nosler CC’s will also be tried as I have a grundle of those and they are dirt cheap to boot with a good BC.
This one was long but I’ve been promising a shakedown evaluation for a long time. I can say that I believe the Starline brass is well made and I’ll let them know this week about my assessment after one more firing on it. I have not run the numbers to compare this with a hot 556 NATO load but I knew that in the light bullets there is not much difference. I suspect that up until 69/70 that I can get as much out of the old standby and I will make up a comparison chart down the road on that issue.
Greg
