.224 Valkyrie bolt guns?

K

kilotanker22

New member
So I have been looking at this cartridge for a minute now. I would really like a bolt gun chambered for this. Question is who makes one? Savage did, but no longer list it. If I can't find one from the factory, what other cartridges share the .420" bolt face? Maybe I can buy a donor rifle for the action.
 
AFAIK, 6.8 SPC (the Valkyrie parent cartridge) is the only other option for that head diameter. But if Savage made it, they probably still have some of their bolt heads available for it, so that if you took a Savage short action you could change the bolt head and get a custom barrel chambered for it. Savage can tell you what they used originally.
 
Funny enough Kilo, I have an axis I recently bought for 350 legend--a cartridge which I have come to detest--and the 224 valk would make a superb bolt gun cartridge I would think. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.:D:D
 
stagpanther said:
Funny enough Kilo, I have an axis I recently bought for 350 legend--a cartridge which I have come to detest--and the 224 valk would make a superb bolt gun cartridge I would think. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.:D:D
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My thoughts as well.

I looked today online. No one is currently chambering a bolt gun for 6.8 spc or 224 Valkyrie except for Mossberg.

I need to decide if I want to rebuild a Savage from the ground up or shoot a Mossberg.....
 
Tough call that. I have a patriot and it's extremely well-made for the money. The valk--everything depends on how well made the barrel is. I view it as an exercise in buying the right barrel.
 
If I rebarrel a Savage or buy a Mossberg it will be either a preferred barrel or Krieger. If I get a Mossberg I will shoot the factory barrel for awhile
 
I.mean aside from soft brass and those Sierra matchkings spinning apart, what problems has the 224 Valkyrie had as a cartridge?
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I'm testing some federal fusion 90 gr factory seconds in my valks right now--you may want to take a look in the hand-loading/casting thread below.

When the valk was first rolled out the "final" SAAMI specs were not "agreed" upon--in fact chamber reamers were being used by some barrel manufacturers who in some cases not even knowing what the tested parameters were for the barrels they were making. Early adopters--myself included--became essentially wildcatters depending on the chamber dimensions. I'm not familiar with any barrel recalls; but Harrison Beane of ARP was one of the few (only?) who had the integrity to offer to take back the long-freeborn barrels (which also had chamber ID tolerance issues) and replace them with correct SAAMI-spec compliant barrels. I just recently went through the same kind of thing with a 350 legend barrel that was cut "out of spec."

In an auto-loader, those long thin pointy bullets are subject to damage or misalignment if things aren't tuned "just right." The really high BC/SD bullets probably have a majority of their secant ogive consisting of nothing more than drawn- out thin copper--highly prone to deformation IMO.
 
If I can't find one from the factory, what other cartridges share the .420" bolt face? Maybe I can buy a donor rifle for the action.
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If you know anyone who is a machinist, you can have any 223 bolt (.380") opened up to .420" bolt face.

I am not overly impressed with the 224 Valkyrie. I built a Remington Model 7 in 224 Valkyrie for a customer. He was going on about how it's faster than a 22-250 (it's not, according to my chronograph), how it's more accurate than a 223 (again, not according to tests), and how it has the ideal case volume for 22-caliber bullets (whatever that means). He bought into the heavy hype when the cartridge was introduced. It shot well, launched 69 gr SMKs at 3200 fps (not bad but not super fast). I think it's an AR-specific round, designed to give a little more velocity than a 223/5.56 within the 2.230" OAL limitation. I don't know that I would go out of my way to build a bolt rifle in 224 V, I already have a 22-250 that launches 50 gr V-Max at about 4,000 fps into 1/4"-3/8", so I have velocity and accuracy covered. But, hey, go for it. It's no different than guys who built 22PPCs 20 years ago. It's an odd bolt face size, but that's only an issue if you decide to do something else with it.
 
If you know anyone who is a machinist, you can have any 223 bolt (.380") opened up to .420" bolt face.
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I've heard the same--pretty easy to do from what I hear, if you have the right gear.

I think you're also right the primary attraction of the valk lies with the auto-loaders with COL limitations common to the 5.56 BUT if you already have them--like I do--then a bolt rifle seems like it would be a fun conversion to do to see "what if." If you didn't already have them and your goal was the top performance of .224 in a bolt gun, yeah, I could see looking elsewhere. It is still a very good design--even if there are better ones. The same argument could be made against the utility of a 7.62 x 39 bolt gun considering the abundance of 308 win rifles.
 
Scorch said:
If you know anyone who is a machinist, you can have any 223 bolt (.380") opened up to .420" bolt face.

I am not overly impressed with the 224 Valkyrie. I built a Remington Model 7 in 224 Valkyrie for a customer. He was going on about how it's faster than a 22-250 (it's not, according to my chronograph), how it's more accurate than a 223 (again, not according to tests), and how it has the ideal case volume for 22-caliber bullets (whatever that means). He bought into the heavy hype when the cartridge was introduced. It shot well, launched 69 gr SMKs at 3200 fps (not bad but not super fast). I think it's an AR-specific round, designed to give a little more velocity than a 223/5.56 within the 2.230" OAL limitation. I don't know that I would go out of my way to build a bolt rifle in 224 V, I already have a 22-250 that launches 50 gr V-Max at about 4,000 fps into 1/4"-3/8", so I have velocity and accuracy covered. But, hey, go for it. It's no different than guys who built 22PPCs 20 years ago. It's an odd bolt face size, but that's only an issue if you decide to do something else with it.
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My thinking was this.

Being able to seat those bullets further out of the case than with a .223. And way better barrel life than a 22-250.
 
I would like to get an 80 grain matchkings to 2800 fps or better. I can do 3200 in a 22-250 with that bullet. But my concern there would be barrel life. The Valkyrie or 223 Rem should give me 4000-5000 shots. I have been told the 22-250 is toast after about 2000
 
I've loaded thousands of valk cartridges--it's a great cartridge but a "touchy" one that requires you do some digging to find the right load. I didn't find the 80 MK nearly as compelling as the 88 eld (the hornady bullet "jumps well" to the lands and is also going to get you past 1000 yds supersonic)--but I did find a remarkable 95 MK load for my "long free-bore" 20" valk. You're right about the latitude in seating the bullet depths. Another "hidden" attribute about the valk--it's very well-behaved in felt recoil, to me it feels less than even 5.56--meaning it's simply fun to shoot even for long sessions and easy to keep on target. Pushed hard--I got the 95 MK's to just a hair under 2700 fps, so 2800 with the 80's should be attainable I would think, especially in a longer tube.
 
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Does anyone have a good estimate of barrel life from a 22-250? I do already have a rifle I can donate to that cause. If I went that route I might consider a 1:8 twist or 1:7.
 
Scorch what powder are you using in the 22-250?
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W760, WLR primers
My thinking was this.
Being able to seat those bullets further out of the case than with a .223. And way better barrel life than a 22-250.
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It would do that. So will a 22BR.
Does anyone have a good estimate of barrel life from a 22-250?
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That depends entirely on how you load it. If you shoot scorcher loads with light bullets, maybe 2,000 rounds if you're lucky. If you load heavier bullets at reasonable speed, maybe 5,000 rounds. My last barrel I got about 3,800-4,000 rounds through it. When it quit shooting it went from 3/4" at 100 to 5" at 100 in about 10-15 rounds.
 
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