If you haven’t heard about the newest Federal premium round, you may be living under a rock. Released in December of 2017, the .224 Valkeryie is slowly gaining traction with long-range precision shooters. The cartridge is based on an .30 Remington/6.8 SPC case. The cartridge will work in your typical bolt-action rifle but it will also work in an AR.
Federal Premium .224 Valkeryie is available in multiple grain weights. We tested the 90-grain offering.
Overview
As of right now, several manufacturers have stepped up to the plate and begun offering factory rifles. Savage is offering its new lineup of Savage 224 Valkeryie MSR, which we spent time on at the range at SHOT. Other noteworthy manufacturers are bringing rifles to market are LWRCI and It’s true that the cartridge is .224 and will fit in your AR-15, but it’s imperative that you note that the case is bigger. This means you’ll need to change the barrel and the bolt to use it in your beloved AR-15. Or, you can buy a new upper and call it a day.
Federal has produced a cartridge that may come close to a 6.5 Creedmoor, in terms of ballistic performance, but fits inside a .223/5.56 package.
Current.224 Valkyrie’s Offerings:
- 224 Valkyrie 90-grain Gold Medal Sierra MatchKing / $31.95
- 224 Valkyrie 60-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip / $26.95
- 224 Valkyrie 100-grain Fusion MSR / $28.95
- 224 Valkyrie 75-grain American Eagle TMJ / $12.95
SPECS— Savage 224 Valkryie MSR-15
- MSR 15 Recon platform built around the new 224 Valkyrie, which offers the best performance of any MSR 15 cartridge
- Elite Series Cerakoted upper & lower
- Two-stage trigger
- Hoge pistol grip
- UBR Gen 2 Buttstock
- 18-inch barrel with 5R Rifling
- Adjustable Gas block
- MSRP: $1,499
Federal’s new MSR15 Valkeryie. MSRP: $1,499
The Savage 224 Valkeryie MSR-15 features an aluminum stock, Hogue pistol grip and the barrel is made of carbon steel.
Impressions
Savage’s claim is that the .224 Valkyrie is the first supersonic 1,300-yard MSR-15 cartridge. So far is our initial review and testing on the range was positive. I’ve got several uppers set to arrive at my home base while we’re on the road covering SHOT.
I look forward to seeing how far we can push this cartridge and how accurate it remains. If this cartridge performs as advertised, it may just give the .22 Nosler a run for its money. It’s nice to see innovative cartridges coming to market, this may be a real game-changer for long-range precision shooters and AR-15 aficionados.
Check out our full review and range time of the .224 Valkyrie.
For more information about Federal ammunition, click here.
Why did the world needed another peashooter cartridge?…i have no idea. i have not shot it but how many people will go to the extra length to invest in another cartridge only .001 bigger than 223? This should have been the 243 Valkyrie. we needed 6mm as a viable alternative to 556 since the 6.8spc never took off. still alive but expensive. we have 6mm creedmor(expensive) and 243 win(toobig) but as far as upgrading the 223/556 in an AR platform and to meet the needs of NATO, i think 6mmx45 hits the sweet spot. as for me… hopping on the 6.5mm Grendal bandwagon! cheaper to shoot than all of the above except 223 now that wolf gold is making 6.5Grendal.
segway to now to get political. I cannot even order ammo online in CA anymore. this state has gotten ridiculous. with all the gun laws here in CA we still had more mass shootings in 2018 than any other state. gun control kills innocent people. you wont hear the corporate entertainment media talking about that. they just show crying uneducated teenagers who know nothing. it will only get worse here with Gavin Newsome as governor bc he is largely responsible for these new laws. its going to be a long 4 years. wish i could leave CA.
This might be the wonder weapon for punching paper but I was very disappointed when I heard that deer had been taken at 175-200 yards with this little cartridge and it seemed to me that it was quite acceptable to do such a thing. I Farmed 800 acres of corn bordering a wildlife refuge in North Dakota and I am an avid hunter. The 22-250 (which is quite a bit more rifle than the valkyrie) was locally used for predators and deer hunters were told that it would work for deer. I would harvest the corn in November just after the Deer hunting season. Every year I had people that would come to me and ask if they could find there wounded deer in my corn field after shooting them with an under powered cartridge like the 22-250. Most of the time they were not success full. During the harvest I would find these deer, Some still alive and suffering badly from the wound. The wounded deer would get up in front of the Combine and just stand, it seemed as if they would ask me to put them out of there misery so I generally did just that. I also replaced or fixed tires at least four times per year because of alters stuck in the tires. And it was not fun to cut a rotting deer off a farm implement. In my opinion the person that shoots a deer with this cartridge has no respect for the deer they are hunting, please use an adequate cartridge to put the animal you are hunting down quickly and humanely, practice with your rifle, don’t be the several hunters that have told me they bought a box of shells 5 years and still have some of them left. Don’t be one of the reasons you see so much posted land.
Regarding your experiences with the 22-250.
You are only partly correct.
It is a physically larger cartridge, but the rifling in the barrel and the bullets are different.
The 22-250 is typically running a 1-turn-in-12-inches twist in the barrel.
This is great for stabilizing lightweight 45-55gr varmint bullets, which blow up on contact with flesh. Hence your experience on your farm.
The Valkyrie rifles use 1-6.5” or 1-7” twist barrels which allows them to stabilize much heavier bullets (like Federal Fusion) that are designed for deer-sized game.
You aren’t comparing apples to apples in your comment.
I was once looking around to see if anyone out there stocked a somewhat obsolete cartridge. I found the merchant, and was very surprised to learn that there have been over 3,000 cartridges developed! Let that number sink in for a minute- 3,000.
The reality is, for most of us, 3 to 6 different calibers would cover all the bases. The firearms industry, like any other consumer-based business, must “stir the pot” from time to time to generate interest and loosen your grip on your wallet.
You can be one of those “gotta have the latest & greatest” types, or you can stick with what you’ve got and works.
Like the fools who stand in long lines overnight to rush into the Apple store to drop $1,000 on the newest I-phone, only to do it again 8 mos. later when they come-out with another one. It’s up to you.
Quick, buy it and all the gear ! Send your paycheck directly to the manufacturer.
Or, shoot what ya got until the barrel melts, re-barrel and keep shooting. Become a marksman.
The 264 USA might replace the 7.62×51 but I don’t see it replacing the 5.56. It won’t fit in the M4 size weapon which means more weight for a soldier to lug around, the ammo will be at least twice as heavy per individual cartridge which equates to soldiers either carrying more weight again or less ammo. As much as some like to disparage the 5.56 it does the job quite well in easily toted carbines.
Well here we go again, another “new” cartridge that is the latest and greatest ! Seems every month or so we are gifted with another new wonder cartridge that will perform miracles. So rush out and buy another new rifle set up and ammo, duh ? It should be quite obvious that the ammo and rifle manufacturers are eager to sell us the latest flavor of the month to keep their production lines running, LOL. So until next month and another break thru ……………………..
Don’t get in a gun battle with a man at 1300 yards and he got a 24,26. or a 30 cal and you a 22 cal. It is crazy. Don’t care what they say.
Grendel… Grendel… ar you out there?
(might be bargain time in Grendelland)
Actally the Grendel can be had in 224 Grendel, 6mm Grendel and of course the ever popular 6.5.
The 224Val does not even get close to be a better round than the 224 Grendel
Not much new here. In the 1940’s Leslie Lindahl developed a varmint cartridge called the 22 Lindahl Chucker. It was based on a 30 Remington necked to 22 caliber. The 22 Chucker is very similar to a rimless 22wasp in performance. With today’s powders and bullets it s really a fun cartridge to use so no doubt the .224 Valkyrie will be a good cartridge, but it has already been done 60or 70 years ago.
Exactly, Neil. And let’s not arrogantly dismiss the .22-250, the .243 and 6mm Swedish Mauser handloads which have vintage proven long distance track records in hunting and combat that are still hard pressed to improve upon for all pragmatic purposes! But, I guess we must constantly feed the need for something different, but not really New, to satisfies our incessant boredom syndrome. But it’s a good thing, as in any furtherance of the arming of America in any way, shape, or form, considering the ominous shadow of inevitable Totalitarianism looming on the horizon…
None of those rounds you mention fit in the AR-15 mag well; this does. Still wish they’d done it properly [25cal], but c’est la vie; this will fix most of the blunders made w/ the 6.8SPC, that of too big a bore & too long a case/too stubby of a bullet. But it still would have been better in 6.35mm instead of 5.56…
But the 224 Grendel and 6mm Grendel do
I want one just shoot and may hunt with it if I like the performance!
There seems to be an abnormal interest in long rage cartridges these days! Nosler,, .224 Valkyrie, 6.5 etc…. Although there are some honest to goodness uses for these proprietary cartridges, competition shooters, flat land hunting etc..for most they are niche cartridges. Most of us will never use one but hey, we do love those new big boy toys! Gotta love thinking outside the hexagon!
Okay, Interesting… But, honestly, here in Ohio where shots on woodchucks and such are very typically 100 to 150 yards, can this Valkyrie (A Norse word meaning \”chooser of the slain,\” and were all females who also became lovers of dead heroes, by the way, though the word has become corrupted to mean speed) really accomplish more than my aged bolt-action .222 Remington? Or for a longer poke is that much different in reaching out 250 to 300 yards than my brother\’s 6.5 Creedmore? Thanks for thinking outside the box, Guys, but the niche market applications of all these new calibers and all keeps getting smaller and smaller.. My suggestion is if you have something that works, keep it.. If your having difficulty in getting what you want out of what uou have, practice more.. As for the money you\’d be spending on a rifle, optics, reloading components; well, take those dollars and buy yourself a hunting trip or the entry fee and travel expenses and visit a shooting match..
Not everybody is shooting woodchucks in Ohio, genius.
Tac 6 beats it by a good bit.
well i might be living under a rock,, but so is the writer,, ever heard of the 264 usa ? it will be most likely the next military cartridge,, putting the 224 ,and the new nosler cartridge on the extinction list,,,,,,
I agree. This cartridge is really pointless as there are many other rifle cartridges out there that do the same thing.
I also really do hope the military dumps the 5.56 as its main rifle round. It is just not a powerful round and there are many other rifle intermediate rifle rounds that can extend a soldiers effective killing range.
It will be interesting to look back with 12-18 months perspective to see how this new 223 hot rod compares with the 22 Nosler, which seems to have first mover advantage in a similar type case. I’ve started with the Nosler, so we will have to see which one of these two becomes the Betamax.