Get the most from the world’s longest-range, flattest shooting MSR 15 cartridge by shooting it through a 1-in-7-inch twist barrel. Sitting on my bench was the new Real Avid Master AR-15 Armorer's kit. .224 Valkyrie 20” Paladin complete upper assembly, shoots amazing with a guaranteed 1" MOA. Part of the joy of reloading is plunging into the unknown, and for this reason, I continue on with my Federal Premium 224 Valkyrie project that is becoming nothing less than a saga. You might recognize some brands on this list, and some might even surprise you! This .224 Valkyrie barrel is an epitome of precision and design for the ultimate shooting experience. This .224 Valkyrie Chambered, Honed, 1:7 RH Twist M4 barrel is 22" long, Fluted, Black Bead Blast and Passivated 416 Stainless steel. This gave us great conditions for a head-to-head test of the 88-grain Hornady ELD Match and the 95-grain Sierra MatchKing. However, the four shots that I know didn't have any issues all landed sub-MOA, and that is good enough for me! While rate of twist is certainly very important, it looks like different powders are going to have more of an accuracy impact for the 224 Valkyrie in particular. While they're a new player on the market, it appears that they have figured out how to produce an excellent product that can run with the big dogs. To my dismay, it ruined the group completely. 18" Rock Creek arrived from Rainier Arms. Many high-end barrel manufacturers will tinker with twist rates and advertise 1:7, or whatever for whatever caliber, while the barrel … Lead time on threading/painting is 3 weeks. While Federal was having ammo issues with the Valkyrie, gun makers were having their own issues, too. That being said, I might as well research which powders will get these bullets moving a little faster while I’m at it. The weight will factor into which twist rate is appropriate for you. However, Federal’s designers submitted the .224 Valkyrie to SAAMI — the governing body that approves and publishes standardized cartridge specs — with a twist rate of 1 turn in 7 inches. Opened it to click number 7 and started velocity testing. 224 Valkyrie fight! It appears that the sizing dies squeezed the neck down just a hair too tight, and this particular bullet got shaved off a bit. Rainier Arms offers the great selection of .224 Valkyrie Barrels. Range day was comfortable (for once) and gave us a warm, 65-degree day with no wind at all. These are the barrels we offer on the website for online ordering right now. Choose your desired barrel contour above. This number is used along with other inputs to determine the stability and related trajectory metrics. This Barlein barrel from Craddock precision is work of art. We have optimized our match-grade barrel twist for the best long-range performance with match bullets. At that point, you've found your node. I control pressure by using a 20" Bartlein gain twist barrel starting at 1:13 and ending at 1:6.5 at the muzzle. FMJ-BT, 20/Box, 1911 Magazine, 10mm, Full-Size, 9 Round, Standard Base Pad, Spring/Follower Kit, Wilson 8 rd. I am impressed enough with the 224 Valkyrie that I want to build one on the AR15 platform. If you don't see a caliber that you want please don't hesitate to call us @ 731.625.7777 and get a custom order started. Shooters can expect best-in-class long range ballistics, supersonic flight past 1,300 yards and extreme long-range accuracy from this cartridge. Please note, the presumption here is you don’t need the payload to kill a bull Moose at 300 yards. Typical value … I guess I get to start the 224 Valkyrie reloading thread! Stainless unfinished blanks. )After the launch of the 224 Valkyrie, a 1:6.5-inch twist rate barrel was introduced into the market in efforts to better stabilize longer (heavier) bullets and increase accuracy. We also need to do a little bit of work with the brass prep as well. | Federal AE223, 55 gr. Top-rated 224 Valkyrie Barrels Review 2020. Other than the barrel, the rifle was completely unchanged from our previous two rounds of testing.We tumbled our 224 Valkyrie brass in a Lyman Products Turbo Twin Tumbler until it looked like jewelry. One thing's for sure though. Nothing in my life is ever wasted, and anytime we can go further and push harder, we do. by Frank Melloni - A lot of Anderson Manufacturing complete rifles are coated in their proprietary RF85 lubed finish. (You can read the first part of the 224 Valkyrie handloading story here. The entire point is to shoot 80-95 Grain bullets in an AR15 platform because a 223 or 5.56 CANNOT SHOOT THAT (in normal magazine, like P-MAGS) because of magazine length, and OAL, Ogive, etc. I tried to get more info but my sales person didn't know anymore. 20" Stainless Heavy Barrel 1:7 Twist In .224 Valkyrie ; Competition Muzzle Brake; Rifle Length Gas System.750 APOC Low Pro Adjustable Gas Block; 7075-T6 Forged Upper Receiver; M16 9310 MPI Tested Premium Nickel Boron BCG ; 16.5" Free Float Key Mod Rail However, a few elements need to get tweaked before I take a trip to stretch this rifle's legs. Barrel can be finished at 26 inches or shorter. While rifle twist is more a function of a bullet’s tumbling characteristics than its velocity. However, if this were the case every single time, then handloading would be boring. After manufacturers geared up to create these barrels, there was some trouble with the current 90-grain offerings on the market, and a recall was issued. You can count on this barrel to last you through years of usage provided you take good care of it. Sale Price: $360.05 . Nearly two decades of building the finest custom tactical AR-15 rifles have given us the insight to develop a comprehensive line of stainless steel, match grade barrels that offer superior accuracy, reliability and longevity for your next custom AR rifle project. To note, a barrel twist like this will mean that the rifle will be super accurate. .45 ACP Full-Size Magazine. The faster barrel can undoubtedly stabilize even-heavier bullets than the 90-grain MatchKing, so without skipping a beat, we reached out to Sierra to get some of the company's new, heavy-for-caliber 95-grain MatchKing bullets for load development.Rebarreling an AR-15 is really no work at all. Later, Sierra Bullets issued a statement informing handloaders that this round will stabilize just fine in a 1:7-inch barrel, just as long as they are driven fast enough. After the launch of the 224 Valkyrie, a 1:6.5-inch twist rate barrel was introduced into the market in efforts to better stabilize longer (heavier) bullets and increase accuracy. Federal’s engineers took the 6.8 SPC case (left), reshaped … You can tell a great deal about barrels just by knowing which brand makes it. In other words, a Valkyrie cartridge at 63 grains in weight will be ideal to use if your twist is about 1:7. In this section, lets looks at how we can model the 224 Valkyrie against these selected loads. E-mail your comments/questions about this site to:ShootingIllustrated@nrahq.orgFor questions/comments about Shooting Illustrated magazine, please e-mail:Publications@nrahq.orgYou can contact the NRA via phone at: NRA Member Programs1-800-672-3888, To advertise on Shooting Illustrated, visit nramediakit.com for more information. According to Berger's twist rate calculator, at 65 degrees and 1000 ft elevation I'm giving up approximately 2% of the theoretical maximum BC (Sg - 1.45). After a few fouling shots and some time to clean and zero, we started conducting our group testing. Both rounds shot well, with the best group belonging to the Sierra MatchKing with 21.8 grains of Hodgdon Varget. I believe the 1:7 twist (or in my case the gain twist 1:6.7) will be more than enough to stabalize the 90 and 95gr projectiles. Reaching down for the fifth round, I noticed that there was a sliver of copper hanging off of the mouth of the case. The BFS 20” .224 Valkyrie 1:7 Twist is a good choice if you want to upgrade your rifle’s accuracy … For 90 grain Sierra Match King bullets, Sierra recommends a 1 in 6.5 twist or greater (faster). RADICAL FIREARMS – 22” 224 VALKYRIE M-LOK MATCH BARREL Groups have been quite good. The .224 Valkyrie is a truly extraordinary round that is designed to maximize the potential of the AR-15 platform and can compete directly with larger long range calibers such as the 6.5 Creedmoor.But of course, the performance of the .224 Valkyrie is really only as good as the barrel it’s being shot through. Get the Shooting Illustrated Reloaded newsletter for at-a-glance access to industry news, gear, gun reviews, videos and more—delivered directly to your Inbox. You can read the first part of the 224 Valkyrie handloading story here. Rainier arms .224 Valkyrie barrels bring you the ideal configuration for precision and accuracy without the extra weight of barrel contour. This test will also show us exactly how much impact we get out of that faster twist rate. Setting up on a Caldwell Stable Table Lite, we built ourselves a steady firing position. The 1:7″ twist rate of this .224 Valkyrie complete upper is going to allow for shooters to launch heavier grain weight bullets which is perfect for those wanting to stretch the legs on this cartridge. JoeBob dun saved you $19.90! I have never turned away from a challenge, and I certainly won't start now! This barrel has a rifle +1" gas system with a port size around .095". Upper is finished off with a Free Float of your choice, Ultra Slim Line Key.. For starters, I think it's only prudent to experiment with different powders to see if we could safely get the velocity up higher to help stabilize the bullet, particularly at extended range.The fact that we aren't experiencing any tumbling shows that we are well on our way. Wilson Combat Super Sniper Profile Barrels It would essentially be a better solution to the 5.56N underperformance than the Chinese 5.8mm service round. Call for us for details on finishing work. These barrels are rifled 1:7 twist which is optimal for the medium to heavy weight bullets recommended for the 224 Valkyrie. Handloading for the 224 Valkyrie is anything but boring. Faxon Firearms AR-15 24" Match Series Heavy Fluted, 1-6.5 Twist, 224 Valkyrie, Rifle-Length, 416-R QPQ Usually Ships in 24 Hours MSRP: $379.95 . The key item omitted from this article is that the Wilson Combat barrel has a 1 in 6.5 twist rather than the slower 1 in 7 twist in 99% of the manufactured .224 Valkyrie barrels. The 224 Valkyrie uses a 6.8 SPC bolt and magazine. The final measurement gave us a four-shot group that was very tight, so I believe it's safe to assume the fifth would be inside of that group in both scenarios. Match Grade Barrel, 224 Valkyrie, Super Sniper, 22", 1-6.5 Twist, Stainless, Fluted. I’ve heard some rumors of some new 224 Valkyrie loads we might see later this year, or perhaps in 2019. I was ordering barrels today from Green mountain and was told they are planning to offer a Valkyrie barrel soon. This prepped us for some fast range work, as there were only four safe increments of powder to work with. The barrel of this gun is a 20-inch long barrel with an impressive barrel twist ratio of 1:7. This would give us an accurate head-to-head comparison, as after this experiment, we will have tested each safe load in each barrel. We then resized it using the same set of RCBS dies from our original handloading piece. That final measurement of the four shots was just about 0.25-inch outside of MOA, which is not much of an improvement from when we shot the 18-inch 1:7-inch barrel from ER Shaw.Going from a 1:7-inch to a 1:6.5-inch wasn't exactly a game changer with the 88-grain ELD and Varget powder. However, for cartridges like the .224 Valkyrie that can push them over 2,650 fps muzzle velocity, a 7-inch twist barrel will stabilize the bullet correctly.” All About the Twist. Left to right; 224 Valkyrie, 223 Remington, 223 Ackley Improved, 6.5 Creedmoor, 308 Winchester, 300 Winchester Magnum. Saturday, May 4, 2019. However, I have some questions regarding barrel twist. Order the EDCX9S, EDC X9 & X9L/Accessories, Order Beretta/Wilson Collaboration Pistols, Beretta/Glock/SIG/Misc Firearm Accessories, 1911 Magazine, .45 ACP, Full-Size, 8 Round, Standard Base Pad, 1911 Elite Tactical Magazine, .45 ACP, Full-Size, 8 Round, ETM Base Pad, Shok-Buff® Recoil Buffers, 1911, Package of 6, AR Style Magazine, 5.56 NATO, 30 Round, Polymer | Lancer L5 AWM, 1911 Elite Tactical Magazine, 9mm, Full-Size, 10 Round, ETM Base Pad, Silicone Cleaning Cloth, Gray, Wilson Combat Logo, .223 Rem. Ready to install with M4 feed ramps barrel extension and locator pin included. ... 2000 yd range close by and will post details on accuracy once i get it. I became privy to this information as I stared down at a brand-new, 22-inch, medium-contour 224 Valkyrie barrel from Tactical Kinetics, bored with a 1:6.5-inch rate of twist that just arrived from UPS. They did make a run of 6.5 twist AR15 barrels in .556 . Rumors circulated that this twist rate was required to stabilize the 90-grain Sierra MatchKing bullet. Women On Target® Instructional Shooting Clinics, Volunteer At The Great American Outdoor Show, Marion P. Hammer Women Of Distinction Award, Women's Wildlife Management / Conservation Scholarship, National Youth Shooting Sports Ambassadors, NRA Outstanding Achievement Youth Award Presented by Brownells, National Youth Shooting Sports Cooperative Program. The entire point of 224 Valkyrie is to shoot long range, and it has almost "ZERO" advantage under a few hundred yards as compared with normal .223/5.56. Starting with a twist rate about half the final, desired twist is ideal and this is the same that has proven effective with 90s in.223 Remington and .22 Nosier. With the 88-grain ELD Match bullet, we saw some really good results, but again a fifth shot got some jacket scraped off and found its way out of the group. Thus, if the US/NATO were to go over to .224 Valkyrie they would improve their small arms, combat effectiveness 150%. Typically, when you arrive at the range with a set of handloads that you've carefully researched, you'll see reasonable accuracy that will get increasingly better until it hits a point at which groups start to enlarge. We may need a set of bushing dies to reduce neck tension just a hair. I've run them for some time in a .223 Rem at ~2850 fps from a 7-twist barrel. I think just a little more velocity will get us where we need to be. The Moriarti Armaments AR-15 .224 Valkyrie 18″ black nitride upper assembly comes complete with a 18" 4150 CMV Barrel, low profile Steel .750 Gas Block with Nitride Finish and a Stainless Steel Mid Length Gas tube. I am torn between ordering a 7 twist barrel that is available now versus waiting for a 6.5 or 6 twist in a few months. So, we have a list eight options. In just about 15 minutes, we had the new barrel on and headspaced it with the included torque wrench. 224 Valkyrie AR-15 Barrels for Sale at Joe Bob Outfitters! How to Prepare Your Rifle for Home Defense, 17 Affordable Concealed-Carry Guns Under $300, First Look: Anarchy Outdoors Threaded Bolt Handle & Scope Base, First Look: Rival Arms R-22 Precision Chassis System, © 2020 National Rifle Association of America. The new Tactical Kinetics barrel is on par with ER Shaw which really says a lot about the high-quality barrels coming out of Tactical Kinetics. This was a bit disheartening, but we still reached some conclusions. 224 caliber (7.5 - 6.722) LH gain twist. Privacy Policy   •   Contact Us   •   Warnings   •   FAQs   •  © 2020 National Rifle Association of America. Using the same CCI benchrest primers and Hodgdon Varget powder, we loaded up the new Sierra offering. 224 Valkyrie Barrel 18" Mid-Length 1:7 Twist Medium Contour Although load development with the 224 Valkyrie has been some of the most-finicky work I have ever done, I am not giving up on this round, especially since we are reaching minute-of-angle or better accuracy in most cases. So, stay tuned for a Part Three! Either that or some light chamfering of the case mouths to get bullets seated without damage.