What Kind Of Animals Will The 224 Valkyrie

A game-changing caliber for long-range predator hunting

By Matthew J. Breuer

In late 2017, Federal Premium once again went above and beyond, and created an all-new round with a catchy name stamped on it. The 224 Valkyrie was announced in December and there are already a ton of gun nuts picking upwards every tidbit of info they can. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of the initial runs of the flagship 90-grain Gold Medal Sierra MatchKing, and ran them through the ringer. As the additional rounds came into play, I tinkered with each until I landed on the lx-grain American Eagle Nosler Ballistic Tip, which was designed with predator and varmint hunters in listen.

Early Wintertime
In Minnesota's Due north Country, winter strikes early, and predators are active and hungry. Early in the flavour coyotes are however relatively ignorant. They're notwithstanding curious, haven't seen a lot of pressure, heard a lot of calling, or been educated to the audio of a burglarize shot. Plus, there are pups, lots and lots of pups. Early season calling tin be absolutely fantastic, and this year the conditions have been perfect.
Sub-zero temperatures and a foot of snowfall cruel correct around the time that Federal announced the release of the 224 Valkyrie. I scrambled to find a gun to push the ammo downrange, and was lucky enough to try out a few different guns over the course of my testing.

The Hunt
After a long stretch at the range testing the new cartridges, I quickly switched gears and was camo-clad with the FoxPro Fusion lx yards in front of me and a barbed-wire fence off my right shoulder. As much equally I love punching paper, I was truly in my element, my happy place.
Much similar most of the stands I make, I started off mid-volume with some Baybee Cottontail to meet if annihilation was nearby. I never desire to handcuff myself past starting off with coyote sounds, as a trick or true cat could be nearby. Later on about four minutes I started to book upward and slowly showtime my progression toward a strict coyote routine. At the ix-minute mark, I switched to Coy Pup Distress iii and a big, lighter colored coyote with beautiful guard hairs emerged from the far pine edge. He was locked on to the FoxJack decoy atop the Fusion and wasn't stopping for annihilation. He charged difficult until my buddy mouthed off a yip. The coyote stopped, I squeezed, and the coyote dropped in the fresh white snow at 123 yards.
Any time I'thou able to accept down a coyote with some daylight left, I'grand anxious to see how it looks. I dearest walking dorsum to where a predator came from, looking at my setup to come across what the animal was seeing. I'm too broken-hearted to get photos and motility on to the side by side location. On this night, it proved to be a mistake, equally we heard a coyote yipping in the distance equally we were taking photos. We were hoping to become a glimpse at it to see how far we could stretch out the 224 Valkyrie, but the coyote eluded us… this time.
We made a few more than sets, communicable a glimpse of one coyote that hung upward in the castor, simply never had the chance to fire another shot. This totaled to 50 shots at the range, one bullet sent in the field, and 1 beautiful coyote in the fur shed. Mission achieved.

The Ammunition
The all-new 224 Valkyrie from Federal Premium was designed for AR platform rifles to exist the new long-range dominator. The 224 Valkyrie is based on a 30 Rem./6.eight SPC example necked down to .224 caliber. Information technology offers dramatically improved trajectories over all other AR-fifteen cartridges, including the 22 Nosler, .223 Rem. and 6.v Grendel, with roughly one-half the recoil of larger cartridges offering comparable ballistics, such every bit the 6.five Creedmoor.
Initial numbers from Federal boasted 2,700 fps at the muzzle from a 24-inch barrel with the bullet even so being supersonic at 1,300 yards. When shot through a chronograph I found anywhere from three,260 fps to 2,280 fps through iii dissimilar rifles. The bolt gun provided the fastest fps out of the muzzle.
The 224 Valkyrie offers over 125 inches less drop and near seventy inches less current of air migrate at 1,000 yards than the .223 Rem and other brusk-action calibers like the 22 Nosler and 6.5 Grendel. Plus, its ballistics are comparable to much larger, harder-kicking calibers similar the 6.5 Creedmoor, with equally little as one-half the felt recoil. While I was unable to stretch the bullet out that far, I trust that this truly could be the showtime 1,000-yard cartridge for modern sporting rifles.

Federal offers the round in 4 configurations:
one) The 90-grain Gold Medal Sierra MatchKing will be the flagship circular. The bullet design has been shot to win more matches than whatever other, thanks to a uniform jacket that ensures consistent, long-range accuracy, and a sleek boat-tail that maximizes ballistic coefficient. Precision and long-range shooters will love this round. And, nosotros know it'll take downwards coyotes to boot.
ii) The 60-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip volition be my go-to predator and varmint round. A lighter bullet with unmatched speed volition be a favorite for people hunting prairie dogs and predators beyond the land. At iii,300 fps out of a 24-inch test butt, this round will be blazing fast, and holds speeds upward to 934 fps at 1,000 yards.
three) The 90-grain Fusion will be the mid-sized game cartridge. Fusion already has a name for itself amongst deer and other mid-sized game hunters from coast-to-coast, and in 224 Valkyrie it'southward going to be a deer-hunting dream. With half the recoil of calibers with similar ballistics, this will be the perfect deer cartridge for the entire family.
4) The 75-grain American Eagle TMJ will be the entry level, low-cost circular in 224 Valkyrie. At simply $13.95 per box, this will take plinking to a whole new level, and volition exist a favorite amidst three-gun shooters and casual shooters alike. With the low entry-level cost, you lot won't be disappointed in its speed or accurateness. It's nonetheless thumping shut to 3,000 fps out of the muzzle. And, at an MSRP of $13.95, consumers should see this going for around $11 a box at retailers, making it a potent competitor with the popular .223.
The timing of this round is admittedly perfect, as the gun and ammo market is stable and prices are reasonable. The fact that you can get into a 224 by just purchasing a new barrel, bolt, and magazine for your existing AR lower makes it an affordable setup from the kickoff.

The Rifles
When Federal announced the introduction of the 224 Valkyrie, only a few companies were able to put together barrels and bolts in short society. I wanted an AR-platform gun for predator hunting, and a bolt gun to test the true capabilities of the load.
JP Enterprises is one of the companies that specializes in modern sporting rifles, and jumped on the 224 Valkyrie railroad vehicle early on. Based in Minnesota, JP Enterprises (www.jprifles.com) has been around for over 25 years, and their shop has a great following from shooters "in-the-know." Very pop amid precision and competitive shooters, and gaining traction with the weekend shooters, JP offers everything from full custom rifles to simple add-ons like triggers, buffer springs, and everything in between. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the JP PSC-11 in OD Greenish. It featured a 20-inch butt coated in black Teflon outfitted with a JP big contour muzzle intermission and an adjustable gas block. The adjustable gas block was a very cool feature, allowing me to fine tune the corporeality of gas that was being pushed toward the bolt carrier grouping. The rifle had a low-mass bolt carrier which was significantly lighter than a mil-spec bolt, making the reciprocating mass much lower. The gun also had one of my favorite AR accessories from JP, the Silent Capture recoil spring. The Silent Capture spring eliminates the "twang" you hear when firing many of the ARs on the market, and information technology allows you to get dorsum on target with ease. The last, merely certainly not the least important tool on the PSC-11 was the Armageddon Gear Revolution Trigger. 1 of the virtually mutual inconsistencies for precision shooters is the lateral force they employ on the trigger when they clasp, causing pulled shots. The "roller trigger", which was developed by Tom Fuller from Armageddon Gear, features a free rolling trigger that makes it most impossible to squeeze the trigger with whatever lateral forcefulness, as your finger volition gyre off to the side.
When I wanted to drive tacks, I turned to the heavy bolt gun from Buck Holly at C&H Precision Weapons (www.chpws.com). Based in Gerogia, C&H specializes in precision guns for long-range shooters. The rifle I was lucky enough to tinker with is from their Heritage Line of custom built rifles and was specifically built for Buck'due south youngest daughter Noah who is five years onetime. Due to the combination of the weight of the rifle and the depression recoil of the new 224 Valkyrie cartridge, this is the perfect round for young shooters that want to shoot long range or hunt modest to medium-sized game animals. She has fabricated first round impacts on IPSC targets at 1,000 yards and routinely makes hits on prairie dog targets between 250 and 500 yards. It features the C&H Javelin Action (fabricated by Defiance Automobile), Schneider USMC M40 profile, ane/7 Polygon Barrel at 22 inches, Area 419 Brake, SIG Tango6 5-30×56, Badger Ord Rings M40A3/A5 Rings, Grayboe Renegade stock with Wiebad Padded Cheek Slice, C&H G-Lok Runway Arrangement in Front of the stock, Badger M5 DBM, Timney Calvin Aristocracy Trigger, and a spiked Atlas Bipod. Chambering work is at C&H is done concentric to the bore once the butt bore is co-axially indicated in to inside .0002 of an inch. They so use JGS Reamers and headspace gauges for the highest quality bedroom.

The Outlook
While everything is however preliminary, things are looking bright for Federal and their new baby. The 224 Valkyrie is already being noticed, and gun manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon. Expect a lot of companies to offering the 224 Valkyrie by the time SHOT Show comes to a close in early 2018. While the listing continues to grow daily, at that place are currently less than a dozen manufacturers making barrels and bolts, or complete guns. JP Enterprises obviously has several options for hunters and long-range shooters. Other players include Seekins Precision, LaRue Tactical, MasterPiece Arms, MagPul, Accurate Mag, LMT Defence, LWRC International, C&H Precision Weapons, and by the time this article hits newsstands, Cruel Arms will have the 224 Valkyrie option available in their pop MSR-xv lineup.
Ultimately, Federal's 224 Valkyrie will unleash a new era of 1,000-m-plus accuracy and performance for gas-driven AR 15s and short-activeness commodities guns, without the hefty recoil and toll tag of larger caliber options. Thanks to the continuation of Federal'southward 95-yr commitment to excellence, shooters can expect best-in-class ballistics, supersonic flight past i,300 yards and extreme long-range accurateness from this heady new cartridge. And with the full array of high-performance projectiles available, it'south poised to evangelize on almost every shooter'south needs.
After SHOT Show, everyone and their brother should be able to discover the new loads in stores and online. If yous're like me, you'll be i of the first people in line to add a new tool to the gun safe. The 224 Valkyrie could easily be the most heady thing in the gun industry in 2018.

Source: https://www.trappermag.com/article-index/flying-high-new-224-valkyrie

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